My back has been bothering me because I''vebeen hunghing over the laptop to use my laptop. So today I bought a wooden laptop table for 10.00. It had to be assembled of course. I should have known better. I can never ever get these things to go together right anyway. After several hours of working (fighting) with it I discovered that it is defective. Their is no way to attach the table top. It has a piec missing. So now I have to return it. Arrgh

1. With a few exceptions I will buy nothing new.


2 The period of the challenge will be for an initial three months beginning January 1, 2007. I will reevaluate the challenge in March and make a decision whether or not to continue it.

3. No Sytrofoam cups. If I can't remember to bring my coffee cup I don't get coffee.

4. Only one package of paper towels per month. This will be used for cooking (micorwave) purposes not cleaning.

5. Exceptions.
1. all necessary hygenie and basic
cleaning supplies, deodorant etc.
2. all necessary repairs and
maintenance to the house and car.
3. Basic functional underwear
4. e-books The orginial compactors
group permitted downloadable music
because there was no material
product, after some thought I have
decided that this logic also
applies to downable text.
5. Any prescription or non-
prescriptions items needed for
health reasons.
6. I am also suspending the challenge
during any travel.

Wish me luck. I have a feeling I'm going to need it.






2.

I hope everyone had at least as happy a Christmas as I did. Mine was wonderful

Bookie replied to my post on Buy Nothing New and brought up a very good point. She said she didn't see the point of the exercise and that we need to understand the poiint of our frugality.

As I see it there are two reasons to be frugal one is practical the other is more complex. The first one is simple to save money. "To Live Better with Less"

However there is another reason why I am frugal and that is a social justice matter. In the United States we consume per person more than any country in the World. Most of us here know this. However what we may not realize is that we consume at others expense. Because we eat steak others go hungry. (Yes I am a carnivore) Yet this is a very very conplex problem. Simply stopping the consumption won't work. To make matters worse there is a great deal of waste in the economy.

The question that I would like to explore is it possible for an indivdual to withdraw from a segment of the marketplace. For an individual to live on the waste that is generated by this economy. I want to try. That in essence is my question regarding the "services" question. In order to do this a person needs to be as "wasteless" as possible and many services are exploitive.

I also realize that in many ways this argument is illogical. A person such as myseolf with a middle class income who is choosing to "Buy Nothing New" continues to benefit indirectly from the American Consumer Society. After all if the society did not produce the waste this option would not be possible.

I've been reading the thread "10 friends" on the forum and have been inspired. The thread discusses a group in San Francisco that agreed to buy nothing new for a year.

I'd definitely like to try this for several months. It is a good extension of what I already do. I try very hard to always buy used.

I do not have the self-challenge structured yet. I am unsure on several fronts. For example the original group permitted members to buy services. I am not exactly certain what that means. I know that toilet paper and underwear are allowed purchases but what about buying something new at Goodwill.

I'd like very much to hear your ideas. It would also be nice to have more people doing this. Maybe we can form a group?

The humidfier attached to my furnace broke today and the furnace repair place is going to have to order a fifty to sixty dollar part. They said that it would probably be in sometime next week with installation it will be over a 100.00.

Second thing that happened is that my female cat is sick. She has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, probably the result of abuse before I got her. She was neutered and declawed and then dumped in the middle of a rural Wisconsin county in the middle of winter. She lost her ears and tail to frost bite and was starving when she was rescued by the Humane Society. Anyway she attacks herself occasionally requiring trips to the vet for steroids and tranquilizers. She has been twice this fall and needs at least one more visit. On top of the OCD the steroids have suppressed her immune system and she now has a sinus infection. I'm beginning to wonder if this is a seasonal thing. Fall/Winter bringing on deep seated anxiety. My wallet has also been depleted by about 250.00.

My wallet will survive. I'm glad I've got a small emergency fund. It is going to need to be replenished after this month.

Today was a no spend day mainly becuse I've been home in bed sick. But it is still a no spend day and I needed one after last month

November was a bad month for budgeting. I set a set amount every month for discretionary spending food, clothing, household cleaning supplies, pet food, gas etc. In November I exceeded that amount by 105.45. The worst part is that I am not usre why. I know that includes Thanksgiving and a housequest but still I should have been able to do better.

Oh well December is a brand new month with no spending in it yet. We'll see how I do.