Setting A Challenge :: Buy Nothing New Month

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One of my goals for this year is to try a 'Buy Nothing New Month'. I set this challenge for myself last year as well but failed miserably. But this year I'm going to do it. As a matter of fact I'm doing it next month. Which is only one week away. Yes.

I know that there is a national 'Buy Nothing New Month' in October but I need to strike while the iron is hot. If I leave it until October I'm likely to lose my mojo, so I'm doing it in February.

So, why am I setting my family this challenge? Well, it's because I'm over 'stuff'. 'Stuff' seems to be taking over our lives & I've had enough. The Man of the House & I can't believe how much stuff we have accumulated. I'd also like to teach my children that life isn't about 'stuff''. We don't need 'stuff' to define us.

And what does 'stuff' lead to? In my case it leads to stress. The more stuff you have the more you have to put away, keep clean, look after. You spend so much time dealing with 'stuff' that you lose time being with family & friends. Another reason is that we are working hard to pay our mortgage down. We've been putting a bit extra on it every fortnight since it began & we've finally got to a point where all of those extra payments are making a difference! And that's exciting(to us, we're easily excited these days!). It means that we can start breathing a little easier(only a teeny tiny bit easier, but any extra breathing space helps! Especially when I'm on Maternity Leave). The more of a difference we see these extra payments doing, the more we want to put on it. We don't want our lives to become all about the mortgage but it won't hurt to stop buying crap we don't need & put the money we would have spent on our mortgage. Just because we took out a 25 year mortgage, doesn't mean we have to take 25 years to pay it!

Now I've only got a few days to get myself sorted & to lay down some ground rules. First up I need to get a small Valentine's day present sorted for the Man of the House. It's my birthday in February & the girls are super excited about buying me a present so we've allowed that - they are going shopping this week. School & Kinder stuff is all sorted & the only new things we had to buy for that was a new sports uniform & school shoes for Piper.

The things we are allowed to buy are - groceries with no sneaky purchases! So food, disposable nappies if we run out(we shouldn't as we only use disposables at night or if we are out for the whole day. The rest of the time it's cloth nappies so a 56 pack of nappies lasts over a month) & wipes. If any of us require medication of course we will purchase that. And the Man of the House needs the newspaper - it's his only vice.

If we feel the need to buy a magazine or a book we'll have to head off to the library. Clothes are off limits - the kids certainly do not need any more. My wardrobe is very very limited at the moment(I have a lot of dresses that I can't wear because I can't breastfeed in them & I got rid of a heap that I feel are too short for me these days), but I'm going to hopefully stay strong! If I crack, it'll be op shop purchases only - on a desperately needs basis.

When I set my goals I said that if a sale came up on cloth nappies I'd have to buy some - good news is I bought some on special a couple of weeks back(they were half price! And now our nappy stash is now pretty much complete). So that's done!

Along the way I also managed to set my friend Mandy the challenge of joining me - & she accepted! So at least if I have a moment of weakness I can get Mandy to slap me around a bit & set me straight! And I can do the same for her! I think it will be interesting to see how we go & to be honest with you, I'm a little nervous about how we will go!

Do you want to join us? If you do & you blog about it, leave me the link to your posts in the comments, I'd love to follow you on your journey - & we can be each other's cheerleader!