Forget The Joneses ProjectI am participating in the Forget The Jonses Project (started by the MommySavers Forum), which involves 100 steps to get back on track financially, simplify, and add more meaning to your life. (You can read an outline of Steps 1-50 here.)
Step #3 - Question The Difference Between Wants and Needs
MommySavers says, "During your spending freeze, you will need to question the difference between wants and needs. Some things will be more clear than others. Yes, chances are you need gas to get to work. No, you don’t need a new necklace to match the sweater you got for Christmas."
"… But what about the things that aren’t so obvious? Do you really need to birthday card for you brother-in-law, or can you make one? Do you really need to get your hair colored? Those gray areas (pun intended) are where your challenges lie. Try to anticipate the decisions you’ll have to make in the next three weeks. Are you going to be invited out to lunch? If your child needs money for school lunch, will you have him brown-bag it instead? What will you do?"
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So, the items I purchased today were: crystals for a pendant order (I think that qualifies as a need as someone ordered and paid for a pendant with a crystal and I didn't have any more of them), some glue for my jewelry business (another need to keep my business going), and some modeling clay for my daughter's school project (I guess the modeling clay isn't technically a need, we could have maybe found something else around the house for her to use for her project).
So, Day 1 of my spending freeze and after a little thought it looks like I already made one purchase that was a want not a need.
This is going to be really hard!
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