I have a friend staying with me for a while. She is going through a rough patch and this seemed to be the best solution. It is kind of strange. I've lived alone since I've been widowed and it seems weird to have someone in the house again even for a while.

Also this morning I realized that I had left all of my reuseable portable coffee cups on my desk. All three of them. So I broke down and bought a stryfoam cup of coffee. This is against my Buy Nothing New rules. I also realized that i ppay around .75 cents just for the cup. Hopefully I will get back on the bandwagon tomorrow.

So far so good. I haven't even been seriously tempted to buy anything new. It is however only January. Can I keep this up. I am going to try.

On another note Last month I stayed in budget for food. I took some advice from people here and removed most of the non-food expensives from the budget. My food cost 307.00 last month. This includes eating out. (I am only feeding me)

I know most of you do much better than that but for me this is an accomplishment I am aiming for 10.00 per day.

It has been a week and so far so good. I've had a couple of temptations. My sister asked me to get her a book and luckily I was able to get it used otherwise I'd probably have said no.

My biggest temptation was being asked to a jewelry party by my best friend. Her sister makes jewelry. I had told my friend about the challenge and she said she understood and I did not have to buy anything. Still the whole thing was awkward. Fortunately her sister does use recycled materials, including findings, so I found a pair of 8.00 completely recycled earrings which do stay within the requirements of the challenge. But the whole thing was awkward.

However, I am still on track This may be harder than I thought.

Today is day two of the buy nothing new challenge and so far so good.

I also went back to work today after a week off. The off time was nice but going back was tiring.

On another note December's numbers were bad. I was over budget again. This time by over a hundred dollars. I am not sure why. Oh I know what I spent the money on since I track everything but I am not certain why I am consistently overbudget.

One of the things I am curious about is whether or not the buy nothing new challenge will actually save me money. Before the challenge I already bought most things used so I am uncertain of the financial impact of the challenge. We'll see.

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.

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?