Goodness I seemed to have dropped the ball rather with the diary side of this endeavour – I am not Samuel Pepys and I am certainly no Edwardian Lady…
That being said I have certainly not given up on my quest – it just turns out that once you start on something like this all sorts of things come up, lots of fascinating leads to follow, more to come on that very soon.
In the meantime I thought it would be good to check in on how this whole thing is going. A few people have asked if there is anything I miss buying. In truth I have so much stuff I often find things I forgot I had – which is a bit like shopping but without the crowds and credit card. So generally, no I don’t miss buying stuff.
In fact one of my friends introduced me to the concept of the Hedonistic Treadmill. Wiki (pedia not links) defines this as ‘is the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes’. So going out and buying that piece of stuff gives us a fleeting moment of joy before we go back to feeling just as we were before. I will try and remember that next time I head for the biscuit barrel.
Stuff Reduction 
Does that mean you’re going to buy a biscuit barrel (seeings you don’t have one…..) 🙂
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A biscuit barral is unnecessary as biscuits do not last long enough to go soft in our house
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No way – no barrels and no biscuits!
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Reading all your posts with interest. I’ve been on a ‘no net growth’ plan for the past few years. I can only buy something as a replacement or if getting rid of an equivalent.
Now I have a dilemma.
Yesterday the sun came out and Eliza needed sandals for school. At the moment she has the same size feet as me so I happily gave her a pair of my sandals.
Does that mean I can get a pair of shoes?
I think not. The sandals are still in the house.
Adjudication?
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Hi Mary,
I love your no net gain idea, once I have reduced I think that will be my next move. As for the sandals that is a tricky one, I think it depend whether you have permanently given the sandals to Eliza. In which case you do have a pair of sandals available to buy. If however you and her share sandals then you would need to consider the net number of shared sandals in which case you could chuck out a pair of her old ones and buy yourself some. Clear enough? It do demonstrate very well the dilemma we face in trying to keep this stuff under control, and of course we always have to ask do I need these, will I ware them.
Great to know you are out these reading this and hopefully looking forward to spring
cheers
Helen
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