Less is more, so they say

I think I might be inspired by a recent blog post over at Chez Crazy Aunt Purl to do a mid-year resolution to buy only essentials for the rest of the year.

It's a great plan -- and I applaud her for doing it and for her efforts so far -- but the reason I use so many qualifiers ("I think I might") is because I'm trying to decide what I'd consider essential. Here's a tentative list of what I currently spend money on that I can't possibly live without:

>>> Chocolate (goes without saying)
>>> Food and beverages
>>> Other household staples (cleaning products, toilet paper, etc.)
>>> Personal hygiene stuff (shampoo, deodorant, etc.)
>>> More chocolate

See ... at some point I get stuck because it's not strictly a yes or no but how much of something I actually need. Take the food item, for example: I don't think we spend outrageously, but then again, we could probably cut the food budget down a bit by choosing less expensive meals. Not sure whether the beverages item includes wine, but I don't want to give up wine for the rest of the year. As for things like shampoo -- I'm certainly not giving that up (ick), but at this moment, I do in fact have four different types of shampoos on the side of the tub. Yes, I use them all (not all at the same time but alternating between them) ... don't judge me.

One purpose of the mid-year resolution (hereafter known as MYR) is to quit accumulating stuff, and I'm all over that, if I can just steer clear of Barnes & Noble. I once put a moratorium on book-buying as a discipline during Lent, and let me tell you: It was rough. But I have to be honest -- books clutter my house (and my life) in a serious way. I have dozens -- no, probably hundreds -- that I haven't read yet. Why am I buying more?

Well. I'm still at the pondering stage of this. If I do it, I want to do it right, making a serious commitment. So I'm giving myself until July 1 to decide exactly what is essential in my life and what isn't.
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