Anonymous wrote:Some fire depts offer free or reduced priced smoke alarms

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a failure. See me in February.

Aw... What happened?

Frugal February is a plan!

OP Here. Day 25 and I bought nothing. Payday is tomorrow -- so nice for a change having extra money! I managed to not spend a ton so far. Hoping to continue through the end of the month the same as I've been doing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I admire you for doing this. I read on FB a post about a year of buying no jewelry, handbags, or clothes. I'm considering that for this year. It also wipes out buying gifts for others, which I really enjoy, so I am sure I'll keep on doing that part.
Loving your follow-up to all of this.
There is something sickening about the excess of Christmas to me.

Hi OP and PP, good work! I am also trying something similar to the above. Also just still reeling from Christmas excess. Really, I am modeling on the Patchett article that came out a couple weeks ago: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/15/opinion/sunday/shopping-consumerism.html?_r=0

This part really resonated with me, the loss of time and sort of self-medicated aspect of internet shopping:

At the end of 2016, our country had swung in the direction of gold leaf, an ecstatic celebration of unfeeling billionaire-dom that kept me up at night. I couldn’t settle down to read or write, and in my anxiety I found myself mindlessly scrolling through two particular shopping websites, numbing my fears with pictures of shoes, clothes, purses and jewelry.
...
Not shopping saves an astonishing amount of time. In October, I interviewed Tom Hanks about his collection of short stories in front of 1,700 people in a Washington theater. Previously, I would have believed that such an occasion demanded a new dress and lost two days of my life looking for one. In fact, Tom Hanks had never seen any of my dresses, nor had the people in the audience. I went to my closet, picked out something weather appropriate and stuck it in my suitcase. Done.

GL, all!

DH and I significantly cut back on our spending for Obama's 8 years. We did not agree with his plan to change this country towards more expecations of the government to take care of its citizens. ... free college, free health care, protecting illegal immirgants. DH and I feel free to spend now that our country is back in the right direction.
We bought a Tesla - replacing my 13 year old car, will spend $70K redoing our bathrooms and chose to vacation in the US instead of abroad.

Anonymous wrote:I am a failure. See me in February.

Anonymous wrote:OP, thanks for creating this thread. Being inspired, and looking over what we've spent this past month (in a family of 2 adults and 2 kids):

$73.28 health supplements (I'm perimenopausal, so this was definitely needed)
$413.31 bunk bed, mattress, bedding (a need that we had put off for a while)
$8 coat check at a museum (during free hours)
$52 babysitter (needed to go visit our tax accountant)
$25 long johns for my older kid (it's cold here in NYC)
$3.19 deodorant (husband ran out and didn't want to wait for me to find more in the closet)

Otherwise, we spent what we normally do on groceries and eating out/ordering in. I'd say we saved @ $1K on mindless spending. That's $1K more for our family vacation this year, which should almost cover the flights.

Anonymous wrote:
DH and I significantly cut back on our spending for Obama's 8 years. We did not agree with his plan to change this country towards more expecations of the government to take care of its citizens. ... free college, free health care, protecting illegal immirgants. DH and I feel free to spend now that our country is back in the right direction.
We bought a Tesla - replacing my 13 year old car, will spend $70K redoing our bathrooms and chose to vacation in the US instead of abroad.

Anonymous wrote:

I admire you for doing this. I read on FB a post about a year of buying no jewelry, handbags, or clothes. I'm considering that for this year. It also wipes out buying gifts for others, which I really enjoy, so I am sure I'll keep on doing that part.
Loving your follow-up to all of this.
There is something sickening about the excess of Christmas to me.

Hi OP and PP, good work! I am also trying something similar to the above. Also just still reeling from Christmas excess. Really, I am modeling on the Patchett article that came out a couple weeks ago: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/15/opinion/sunday/shopping-consumerism.html?_r=0

This part really resonated with me, the loss of time and sort of self-medicated aspect of internet shopping:

At the end of 2016, our country had swung in the direction of gold leaf, an ecstatic celebration of unfeeling billionaire-dom that kept me up at night. I couldn’t settle down to read or write, and in my anxiety I found myself mindlessly scrolling through two particular shopping websites, numbing my fears with pictures of shoes, clothes, purses and jewelry.
...
Not shopping saves an astonishing amount of time. In October, I interviewed Tom Hanks about his collection of short stories in front of 1,700 people in a Washington theater. Previously, I would have believed that such an occasion demanded a new dress and lost two days of my life looking for one. In fact, Tom Hanks had never seen any of my dresses, nor had the people in the audience. I went to my closet, picked out something weather appropriate and stuck it in my suitcase. Done.

GL, all!