She never looks at a price tag.
One day last year my sister-in-law and I were talking about my desire to reduce clutter, and she said something that has stuck with me since. She said that she never looks at a price tag when buying something. 50% off of a t-shirt won’t make her buy the t-shirt. A hefty price tag won’t stop her from buying the t-shirt. She only purchases things that have true value to her, and never buys something simply because it’s on sale or a great deal. And in the same regard, if she finds the perfect t-shirt, she will buy it regardless of price. If you want to afford clothes just like her, you can earn some cash on sites like 겜블시티 슬롯.
It is a concept that I’ve employed over the last few months, and wow has my buying process changed. I find that I’m buying much less, but what I buy is quality. I think of my mom’s closet growing up. She didn’t have a ton of clothes, but every item seemed to fit her perfectly.
My kids received a few gifts from us for Christmas, and I’m proud that we didn’t fall too deeply into the shopping rush. What did they get? Santa brought them a giant Mickey and Minnie and a Frozen boombox/Olaf stuffed animal to go with Frozen on Ice tickets. We bought them a few small things: Christmas pajamas, a magnetic puzzle, a set of lacing cards, Play-Doh, and Duplos. For their big gifts Raffi got a space themed sleeping bag and Ali got a super cute Corolle doll that goes in the bathtub.
Now it seems like way too much. At the time I made a little board with images of the gifts so that I could remind myself that it was a LOT and they didn’t need more. It was hard sticking with my list when I saw everyone around me buying their kids oodles of junk.
With my mindset now I would have only gotten them the tickets, pajamas, sleeping bag and doll. Maybe also the Duplos and Play-Doh because they both get played with daily. I had purchased everything else before my buying thought process had truly changed.
Now that I’ve made this huge change in my life, I’m looking to de-clutter in a serious way. My kids don’t have that many toys, but they still have way too many. I kept a lot of Christmas gifts they received out of guilt, but I think I’m going to head to the store to return them. I’ll let the kids pick out books, puzzles, or craft supplies instead. I don’t think you can ever have too many of those three things. We did that last year with gifts and it worked out well.
I don’t buy junky light up plastic toys, so I don’t know why we keep them when we get them as gifts. They never keep my kids’ attention, and they always take up too much space. I feel the same way about stuffed animals. Dolls and puppets I love, stuffed animals that shed everywhere? No grazie.
My son has about 10 pairs of pants that will never fit him right that I just haven’t gotten around to sorting and donating. Why? What am I afraid of? He doesn’t wear the pants anyway and they just sit there taking up space in his bureau.
My own closet needs an overhaul, but that needs to wait for a day I’m not pregnant or nursing. When I know where my body will settle I can decide what to keep and what to donate.
Some of the change in my outlook has to do with having this 3rd baby. I need to be practical in order to make room for another human in our home. The rest of the change has to do with our happiness. Stuff doesn’t bring us happiness, and in fact it does the opposite. Cleaning up a messy house full of stuff stresses me out. If we don’t have the stuff to junk it up, we won’t have to waste precious time cleaning it up. We also take care of our things better when we don’t have so much to take care of.
I’ve made a lot of changes in the way I think about *stuff* in the last year, but this year I’m looking to explore the concept further. All the Made in China crap is unnecessary. The CVS toy aisle is unnecessary. The dollar store junk is, well, we love our dollar store junk. We usually buy stickers and glow sticks, and we use them for fun projects. So those items will stay. I can’t go too crazy….
I just added a bunch of blogs to my reader and books to my kindle to inspire me in this department. Here they are:
http://www.becomingminimalist.com/ (blog and books)
http://lauravanderkam.com/books/all-the-money-in-the-world/ (blog and books)
http://www.theminimalistmom.com/
Thoughts? Do you work to de-clutter your life? Do you buy something because it’s on sale even if it’s not perfect?
8 Responses to “She never looks at a price tag.”
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I am feeling a lot of the same things you are…I feel bad saying it(just because they were gifts) but I ended up giving a lot of the toys we’ve received over the last year to Toys for Tots. They were all brand new and never opened. My son never knew the difference. He has a few toys he plays with all the time (mostly transformers – he’s 5) and I’ve slowing started weeding out the rest. My daughter is only 7 months but I plan on really limiting what we bring into our home for her in terms of toys.
Here is another book recommendation along these lines that you might enjoy:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Life-Changing-Magic-Tidying-Decluttering/dp/1607747308
When you start the process of decluttering your closest please consider donating a few items to the homeless of Philadelphia. I have been volunteering with Angels CAN (change addiction now) outreach program. Thanks.
Of course. I never throw clothes away unless they are in horrible shape. Thank you for the reminder!
This is funny but I was recently thinking very similar thoughts! I need lots of work done in my closet (and in the whole house :). So what is the point of buying/having all these things that don’t fit me perfectly and don’t look good. I would rather get only items that are perfect for me and have only few of them.
Hi there, I know this isn’t related to this post but I’m ingested in buying kinder eggs. I had asked before but never got around to emailing you. Do you still know where I could get them?
Also, congrats on baby #3!!!
Thank you! If you go on Amazon you can find them from a seller from China. They are the European ones, brand Zaini, but they ship from Hong Kong. I hope this helps!
My goal is to minimalize our home and I am working to do so. I would love to be able to one day not look at the price tag when I buy something but my budget doesn’t allow it and the baby weight doesn’t make me want to buy just anything even if it looks great because before I invest in a wardrobe I want to be at a happier place with my weight. I will say this I don’t buy just because it’s a good deal.
I sometimes buy something I don’t love just because it’s a good deal, and that’s what I’m trying to stop doing.