Needs and Wants

So, I've figured out what I'm going to do about shopping this year.

I know you were all on your toes wondering what was going to happen with that...

I discovered a disturbing trend in about April of my no-shopping-for-clothes year.  Notice the only thing I told myself I wouldn't shop for was clothes for me.
Well, I moved in January of that year, then again in April.  I know, I know.  I'm crazy.  In the midst of all that moving, I naturally needed to buy things for the new apartment in January, then again in April.

Some of the things I bought were truly needed.  Others weren't.

About the time I discovered that my living room was drowning in pillows, I also discovered that I really hadn't saved any money through this whole no-shopping-for-clothes thing.

Arguably, saving money was never the point.  Stopping impulse spending was really the point.

Had I stopped it?

No.  My impulse spending had just transferred itself to housewares/decor...even cleaning products!
"Hey, here's a new kind of glass cleaner.  I should try it."  No, Esther, you shouldn't, because you have perfectly good glass cleaner - a whole bottle of it, no less!

So, the strategy this year is that I can buy any sort of thing, clothes included, as long as it is on my list.

I'm making a "wishlist" of sorts in my phone, and, anytime I see something on that list, I'm allowed to buy it, then I must remove it from the list.  If I see something while I'm out shopping, that I would really like/think I need, I may put that thing on the list, but can't buy it at the time.

Hopefully this will make me really think about all of my purchases this year.
If you happen to be out shopping with me, and I see a perfect dress on clearance, and feel that I need it right at that moment, please remind me that I already learned, through this past radical year, to live without those things - that I really don't need that perfect dress, I just want it.

And there's a huge difference between need and want.