You Say Cheap, I Say Green

So on Friday morning before leaving our beloved home, we had an early Christmas celebration with our family. Due to space issues, we weren't able to take all of the girls' presents with us, so we decided to exchange presents on a faux Christmas morning on the 19th. If you'll recall, I'm not that particular about dates, so this plan suited me fine.

In following the compact, we've been trying to avoid making a lot of purchases. With that in mind, Una got an IKEA easel we purchased for $9.99 and Duet got a hand-me-down rocking horse our neighbors gave to us for free when they moved. A second-hand toy, for Christmas? Indeed. But isn't that being a little too frugal? Cheap, even?

Here's what I love about the environmental movement (aside from the saving the earth bit. I totally love the saving the earth bit): no one argues with the idea of going green. Any effort one makes in that direction is accepted, no questions asked.

So when asked why I felt it was acceptable to give my child a second-hand toy for Christmas, I could have just explained about the compact, or simply said, "I'm frugal." I opted for this response instead: "We're going green this year by cutting back on unnecessary consumption. When we buy less, we are responsible for consuming fewer of the earth's resources, thereby reducing our carbon footprint." Note: it's very important that you utilize the phrase "carbon footprint." You always sound knowledgeable when using that phrase.

And suddenly, instead of a cheap mother, I'm an earth-saving heroine. Protecting the planet never felt so good.

Reflections on Vice 4

So I initially thought I'd only purchase consumable items for the remainder of 2008. And although I don't regret setting that lofty goal, in retrospect it was a bit unrealistic. After 6 weeks of following the compact, I've mostly adhered to the strict no non-consumable purchases policy. And surprisingly enough, it hasn't been that difficult. In the beginning there were twinges of disappointment, like when my favorite toy store sent us a 20% off coupon and I was unable to redeem it. In reality, the girls don't need new toys, but I normally spend those coupons because they're such a good deal. But as time goes by, it gets easier and easier to stick to my purchasing plan.
In the interest of full disclosure, however, in the last 6 weeks there have been some non-consumables purchased for the Poppins household. In addition to the Target run, I already posted about, they are:
1. Water bottle for Bert--you may remember how Bert was gone for a week last month. He was out interviewing at a few locations and took a long road trip to get to those cities. He didn't have a water bottle that fit in the cup holder in his car, so I bought him a water bottle that fit so that he could stay hydrated while on the road).
2. 2009 pocket monthly planner for Mary--surprise, surprise I have not upgraded to an electronic planner of some sort. I love the old-school pen and paper method. With January fast approaching and my social calendar filling up already (yes, I really am that desirable), I needed to purchase a planner in 2008.
3. Easel for Una's big Christmas present--this was the most superfluous purchase of the three. I originally said I'd be shopping for their Christmas presents out of the stash of toys I have in the closet. These are bargain toys I've purchased over the course of the year, but haven't yet given to the girls. I thought that this year I'd just give them those toys and save myself from spending more money. And I will be doing that for all of their presents except one: the easel. We are planning on giving Duet a hand me down rocking horse that a neighbor gave us a while ago. It's a pretty big and impressive item and it didn't cost us a cent. I thought Una might be disappointed if she got a puzzle, a book, and some wooden play food from us when we were giving Duet a puzzle, a book, and a rocking horse. When we saw that IKEA was having a super sale on their easels (originally 24.99, but on sale for 9.99), we thought we could pick one up for Una and even things out a bit.
So there you have it. We've been spending less and saving more and we really don't feel like we've been missing out on anything. Sure there are times when I see something that would look cute on one of my daughters (but honestly, what wouldn't look cute on them) and I think it would be fun to splurge a bit, but I resist the urge and within a week I don't ever remember what it was that was so cute. So in the end, I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. In those 6 weeks, I haven't once regretted not buying something.

Core Completed? Wed, yes. Thurs, yes.

The Test

The day I've been putting off for quite some time finally arrived. Today I finally made my first post-compact trip to Target. We needed some toiletries, paper products, footwear, and winter gear. Where else am I going to find all of that in one place? Try as I might, I couldn't put off my inevitable trip to Target any longer. I compiled a list and my goal was to stick to it.

Since some of the items on my list are technically not consumable and I've declared that I won't buy any non-consumable items for the rest of 2008, allow me to explain. Recently as the weather has been getting colder I've noticed that we do need some winter clothing items. Some of them I can make (e.g. Una's scarf), others must be purchased. There's no getting around it. So I will be purchasing some essential winter gear in the coming weeks. Let me be clear though. I'm not getting a second pair of mittens simply because I think they're cuter than the ones I already own. I will only be buying a pair of mittens because my current pair has a giant hole in the thumb, thus rendering them ineffective in shielding me from the elements. So when it comes to clothing I'm not getting more of what we already have, I'm only getting the minimum of whatever item it is that we need. And even then I'm only buying it if I can't make it myself. With that introduction, I will explain the presence of the following items on the shopping list.
Mittens for Duet: We currently don't own any in her size. I contemplated trying to make some with the left-over pink fleece from the blanket I cut up yesterday, but I can't figure out how to do it since they need to be so tiny. I may still make an attempt at that. Even if that's successful, she'll need some water-proof mittens so she can play out in the snow.
Black tights and white tights for Una: Now that it's cold, she needs tights to cover her legs when she wears dresses and skirts. She outgrew all of the tights she's been wearing for the last 2 winters.
Black socks: Right now Bert is doing a lot of interviews and doesn't have enough black socks to go with his suit. He definitely needs black socks. I won't have him interviewing wearing brown socks with a black suit. Unacceptable. Black socks make the cut.
Shoes for Duet: She's in need of some nice shoes she can wear with dresses and skirts since her current shoes are getting too small. I've decided that I'm going to use the money my parents sent to spend on Christmas presents for the girls to buy some shoes for Duet. She loves shoes and spends a good part of the day taking them on and off. Duet will be happy to have some new shoes to play with, and I'll be happy to be getting something useful with the Christmas present money.

My list looked like this:
mittens for Duet
black tights and white tights for Una
black socks for Bert
shoes for Duet
2 travel mouth wash
1 travel shaving cream
1 travel toothpaste
napkins

Miracle of miracles, my receipt looks like this:
ski mitten
girls tights (black with silver sparkles--Una wanted them and since they'll go with her dresses, I said yes)
girls tights (white with pink and silver stripes--I got these in lieu of plain white because they were cheaper and they'll go with most of her skirts)
socks
socks
shoes
listerine
shaving cream
crest
napkins
paper towels
bread

Now I realize the paper towels and bread weren't on the original list. My neighbor broke her foot yesterday and while I was at Target I called her to see if she needed me to pick up anything for her. Those were her items. Did you notice that the lists are exactly the same? I'm ashamed to admit this, but I don't think I've ever left Target with only the items I intended to buy. I always manage to get one or two (or ten) extra items before I checkout. I was quite proud of myself. Were there tough moments? Absolutely. I almost got tripped up at the dollar spot, but I stayed the course and left empty handed. There's something about Target's smooth floor, the over-sized shopping carts, and the giant red signs overhead that make me want to buy more than I need. But I overcame all of that today and left a there a happy woman. One with considerably more money left in her wallet upon exiting the store.

My 10+ minutes de-cluttering today were spent in the basement. I shall not bore you with the details.

Crafting Genius Strikes Again

A couple of weeks ago Una mentioned that she wanted a scarf. Since we do live at a latitude that is nearly halfway between the equator and the north pole I find that a reasonable request. In fact, now that she's reached the age of maturity when a scarf is no longer a strangulation hazard, I would go so far as to say that she needs a scarf. Since it's a legitimate need, I wasn't feeling too bad about the possibility of purchasing one, especially if I could find one at a second-hand store. But the compact-follower in me wanted to see if I could first cobble together of scarf of sorts with items I already have. If I'm really honest with myself and my readers, I'll let you know that making a scarf was my second choice. My first choice was taking a scarf that I've had my eye on for a few weeks from the lost and found box. Unfortunately for me (but fortunately for the scarf's owner), the scarf was claimed late last week (you should know that I would only take something from the lost and found if it had been sitting there for months). So with option number 1 out of the picture, I set out to determine how to make a scarf with items on hand. This would have been quite easy if I followed in the footsteps of Julia Roberts, Sarah Jessica Parker, Hillary Swank, or countless other celebrities and hipsters who have popularized knitting in recent years. I, however, am neither famous enough or hip enough to knit and therefore creating a scarf from yarn is not an option for me. Plus I don't have any yarn in my house.
Luckily I remembered that I can sew. I also remembered that a few years back my friend L and I oversaw a community service project where we made scarves out of fleece fabric. I just read through that last sentence and the phrase "community service" makes it sound like we were court-ordered to participate as retribution for some misdeed. That was not the case. Contrary to what you may think of me after the lost and found revelation, I can assure you that both L and I are reputable citizens who were making scarves out of the goodness of our hearts for the cold and needy children in the area. Off I went to the basement where my bin of fabric resides. Unfortunately we were all out of fleece. But I did see some funky tie-dye print jersey knit. I'm not sure why I had it, or what I was planning on doing with it, but I rejoiced in its existence just the same. I held the tie-dye scraps up to Una to see how long this scarf would need to be and she told me in a very matter of fact tone "this is not warm enough, mom." She of course was right. Some fleece (or at the very least, flannel) needed to be found quickly. And that's when I stumbled upon this:
When Una was born her then 8 year-old cousin from Bert's side of the family was learning how to sew and made this pink blanket for her. I thought it was the sweetest gift and have been unable to part with it. I used it with both Una and Duet, but they've now outgrown it and it doesn't get much use. It is, however warm and made of fleece. I rationalized that I could now turn the blanket into a scarf so Una would have a daily memory of her cousin and the thoughtful gesture. If you think I'm calloused for turning a child's gift into something useful because I'm too cheap to buy that item at the store and you're not buying that argument that it was really done in an effort to memorialize the 8 year-old's thoughtfulness, then you should know that we haven't seen or heard from this cousin's family in at lest 3 years so I hardly think anyone will be offended.
With the fleece and colorful jersey knit (2 items that were just sitting around cluttering up my space) in hand I cut them up into the right sizes, and sewed the pieces together with hot pink thread that I found in my basement (again, I have no idea where it came from), and ended up with this:It is a bit garish and over-the-top, but imagine for a moment that you are a 4 and 1/2 year old girl. Wouldn't you be thrilled to have a rainbow colored scarf with warm pink fleece? I thought so. The best part is that I copied a brilliant idea that I noticed last winter when my friend A brought her daughter over. Her scarf had built in pockets that doubled as hand-warmers. No mittens necessary for quick trips to and from the car. I loved it and incorporated it into my masterpiece.

Masterpiece is a stronger word than I should use to describe this scarf. Truthfully, it's not my best handiwork. I almost ran out of thread at the very end and had to hand sew the last bit. I hate hand sewing and I'm not that great at it. Bert volunteered to do that part since, as you may recall, he sews people. But in the end I finished it myself and I am happy to report that Una loves it. Of equal importance is the fact that I love that following the compact has unleashed a new wave of creativity in me. I'm becoming more reliant upon myself and my skill set and less reliant upon the readily made items at the store that evidently I don't really need to be buying after all. I've got those same post-pumpkin bag feelings. And let me tell you, in the words of James Brown, "I feel good."

In addition to putting 2 pieces of clutter to good use today, I also managed to de-clutter in Una's room for 10 minutes.

P.S. I promise not to mention this too many more times, but if you haven't already voted for me yet ( it only takes less than 1 minute to do so and even my technology-challenged 70 year-old mother managed to do it, so you know it must be easy) here's the skinny (as previously mentioned in Saturday's post One Tangent After Another): Somebody (I have my suspicions) nominated me for an award for best new blog. Please, if you like my blog (or even if you don't, but feel generous and would like to make someone, i.e. me, happy) follow this link and vote for me by scrolling down...way down...and clicking on the plus sign under "becomingmarypoppins." On second thought, don't scroll. Use that sweet tech tip I wrote about in October, and use the space bar to jump down to the bottom of the page where you can find my name. I just tested it out and you only need to hit the space bar 21 times. Who doesn't have time for that?

Know When to Say When

So it's been a couple of weeks since I first decided to curb my spending dramatically. And I've had no major mishaps. I've managed to stick with my goal to purchase only consumable items. However, I'm finding the urge to buy more than I need (even of consumable items) is still persistent. I'm no longer buying bargain toys or t-shirts or temporary tattoos, but I'm still struggling with the concept of buying "enough." The other day (in a moment of weakness) I actually bought 6 boxes of dishwasher detergent. Yes dishwasher detergent is consumable. But I'm not sure why I thought I needed 6 boxes. No one needs to purchase 6 boxes at the same time. They don't even sell cases of dishwasher detergent that big at Costco. At the time it seemed like a good idea. An hour later it didn't. To rectify the situation I decided to make a return. How many boxes did I return? 3 or 4 may have been a reasonable guess, but no, I only returned one. I'm still not sure what I was thinking. I guess subconsciously I'm expecting to clean a lot of dishes.

I suspect there may be more at play here. There's certainly some reason why I consistently buy more than I need, even when the item isn't necessarily fun to buy. No one wakes up excited to go on a shopping spree for dishwasher detergent. I need to start understanding what constitutes enough. Whether it's a consumable item or not, I think the crux of the problem may be that I just don't know when to say when. So before making another purchase, I'm going to get in the habit of asking myself "do I already have enough of this or a similar item?" Perhaps 50% of the time I'll answer that question by putting the item(s) back on the shelf. I think that once I can discern how much is enough, I'll be more content with what I have. And who doesn't want contentment?

Anyone out there need to borrow some dishwasher detergent? You know where to find me. I'm the idiot hiding behind a cardboard wall comprised solely of dishwasher detergent boxes.

Hook Envy

So Mrs Furious has been raving about the 3M Command hooks as of late. As you know, I've been trying to keep this compact (reference it here and here) and part of that means only buying necessities (and trying to only buy consumable items for the rest of 2008) and getting the clutter out of my home (in an attempt to finally have a place for everything and everything in its place). Mrs F has come up with some great uses for the Command hooks and I was thinking that they could ultimately help me in my quest to be more organized. But before I went out to purchase some (I figured I could possibly justify them as a need) I wanted to explore my options at home and see if I had something similar already on hand. My searching uncovered these babies:I apologize for the sideways image. I don't know why Blogger won't let me rotate the image. I've tried multiple times. I was thrilled to know Bert had already purchased them a year or so ago. I thought I'd use them to hang up Una's and Duet's backpacks, but unfortunately the weight limit on these micro hooks is only 1/2 lb. Not acceptable. I'm certain I will find a good use for these micro hooks sometime soon. Back to the drawing board with the backpack hook. After rummaging around some more in Una's closet I found this:

It was one of those purchases we made while I was pregnant with Una. At the time it seemed useful, but we've never had a great practical application for it, until now. It's like it was meant to solve this backpack hanging problem of mine. That's not all folks. Leaning against the wall in our basement was this darling number:My artistic good friend/former neighbor K painted it and had these hooks hanging in her home. She passed it on to us when she moved 2 1/2 years ago. That's right. I'm embarrassed to say it's just been sitting in my basement for 2 1/2 years. Sorry K, we've always liked it but we were just too lazy to install it. Bert did so this weekend just in time for the cold weather. Now things look much tidier since Una can now put away her coat and Duet's without parental assistance.

Again and again this compact thing keeps working out in my favor. Anytime I want something I first look for a way to solve the problem with things I already have. First the pumpkin bags and now the hooks. I was able to find the supplies to make the pumpkin bags and this weekend I was able to find 14 unused hooks that were perfectly suited to my needs. It's quite satisfying to discover a solution that relies on my own ingenuity instead of some lazy trip to the store to purchase something that I already own somewhere in my house. I'm realistic and I know that one of these days I won't be able to find the solution in my basement. But at that point I'll head to the store knowing that the money I'm about to spend won't be wasted.

If you couldn't tell by now, I'm loving this compact challenge.

Happy Halloween!

Love, Una (who identified herself alternately as the "unicorn with wings" or the "pegasus-unicorn") pictured with her beloved painted pumpkin
and Duet (the dinosaur or dragon, depending on who you ask). Yes, that's me in the background wearing turquoise pants. And no, they weren't part of a costume. I had just come from teaching a dance class and that was my ensemble today.
Witness the pumpkin bags hard at work (huge success and might I add again the perfect size for little ones. When I'm trying to control my sugar consumption, the last thing I need to bring into my house is a gigantic bag full of candy. No, make that 2 gigantic bags full of candy). Too bad it was 60 degrees today and my kids were dressed for trick-or-treating at the north pole. They didn't seem to mind.

No money was spent today in the production of this Halloween merriment. The pumpkin and candy to distribute to trick-or-treaters were purchased earlier this week for a total of less than $10 (I'm going to go ahead and call those needs, you may argue with that decision, but that's my stance). Una's unicorn with wings/pegasus-unicorn costume was a hand-me-down from a dear friend (thanks again K, Una adored it and we got tons of compliments) and Duet wore the same dinosaur/dragon costume that Una sported when she was that age. For the record, Duet also got compliments, including "that's the cutest dinosaur I've ever seen." I decided not to be offended by the use of the word "that" in lieu of the pronoun "she" since it's admittedly not the most girly costume out there and with the hood up it's impossible to see her little ponytail.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, it's now 8:30pm and I haven't eaten a single piece of their candy yet. Since I had a piece of apple pie for lunch (yes, lunch) I'm holding off on eating the candy. At least until tomorrow.

A Lazy Parent's Guide to Halloween Decorating

Most people are more clever than I am. Especially when it comes to holiday decorating. I don't have a knack for it, and I've made my peace with that fact. Currently all of the Halloween decorations adorning our walls are pumpkin-related. They were also all made by Una. At preschool. I love abdicating most of my kid crafting responsibilities to preschool. I just don't have the energy for initiating craft time most days.
Today, however, the clock was ticking and something had to be done about the absence of a pumpkin on our porch. I decided a couple of years ago that I didn't want to go the pumpkin carving route with our kids. I don't particularly enjoy the process (time consuming, messy, smelly) and I didn't see how it could be much fun for my kids when they are relegated to observing the entire process due to their lack of knife handling skills. So for the past couple of years we've done a lazy version of pumpkin decorating and have let Una paint her pumpkin instead. It's the easiest activity and I highly recommend it to all. Put down some newspaper and get out some paint and brushes. The bib is optional (we don't have any smocks so I thought this would be a good substitute. I was wrong. The bottom half of her shirt is now splattered with purple paint), but the 80's-style sweatband with the NBA logo is a must. Obviously. When I asked her why she was wearing it, she remarked "I just like the picture. What's it a picture of, mom? Someone holding something. I guess a ball or a bubble." That would be a man dribbling a basketball, but holding a bubble is a good guess.
This year she was so into the pumpkin painting. I can't emphasize enough how much she loved it. Here are some direct quotes gathered during the 75 minutes she spent painting her pumpkin (I kid you not, she was occupied for over an hour with this activity).

What an artist! (I must have heard this line at least a dozen times)
I just love artists.
I'm a beautiful artist.
I'm such an artist. Uh-huh. I am.
I just love this pumpkin so much.
Won't it be beautiful?
It will be beautiful with colors all around it.
I want everyone in the world to see it.

She then started a discussion about Santa Claus that continued for several minutes. I don't know about you, but pumpkin painting on the eve of Halloween always gets me thinking about Santa.

I spoke to a good friend of mine on the phone last night and told her about my blog. In doing so, I specifically said it wasn't entirely about my kids. However, I've been writing an awful lot about them lately. I think it's because Halloween is coming up and that's such a kid-centric holiday. For those of you who are more interested in reading about me (honestly, who could blame you?), I will be returning to more Mary Poppins-centric posts after Halloween.

Spending Status: yesterday I went to the grocery store and only spent money on groceries. I then went to the gas station and filled up my car with gas. I should disclose that I bought a sandwich for dinner (I was out by myself for the afternoon--thank you Bert--and I had to grab something to eat before going to teach a night class), but I used a gift card that I have had for a while so I kept my spending to a minimum. So far in my attempt to keep the compact I've been avoiding shopping trips. That strategy has been working well, but I fear the day I have to make a run to Target for some essentials. I'm hoping that day doesn't arrive soon.

Plastic Pumpkin Problem

Last week Duet broke Una's plastic pumpkin bucket. You know the kind: the receptacle favored by children everywhere for collecting and storing their Halloween treats. I think we purchased ours for 99 cents a few years ago and I wasn't heartbroken when the handle broke. I threw it away, intending to buy 2 this year (one for Una, one for Duet). That of course was my pre-compact thought process.
This morning Una inquired about the broken pumpkin bucket. I told her I threw it out since it was broken and I stopped myself just before uttering "we'll go buy you a new one." Now I'm no expert on the difference between needs and wants, but at that moment I was certain that a plastic pumpkin bucket did not constitute a necessity. Remembering my compact I instead said "we'll make a special bag that you can take trick-or-treating." What exactly would making this "special bag" entail? I didn't really have any ideas. Una offered that it should be sturdy and hence, made out of wood. On second thought I had at least one idea: something made of cloth, not wood.
Together we went to the basement where I foraged through scraps of fabric to see if anything fit the bill.
Found: orange, green, and black fabric;
Found: orange thread;
Found: white ribbon from our stockpile of gift wrapping supplies;
Borrowed: green thread from my neighbor (thank you Jill).
Together Una and I picked out the fabric and cut the pieces. I then designed the layout and sewed them together using only my sheer ingenuity, my friends. Tilt your head to the left and witness the plastic pumpkin replacement:
Blogger annoyingly wouldn't let me rotate the image. But you get the idea.
I've never claimed to be Martha Stewart, but I'm pretty pleased with the final product (the photo doesn't capture all of the details. Imagine how great they look when they're facing the right way). Maybe I'm a little bit crafty after all. Who knew I had that latent talent? Although this took a lot longer than it would have to simply go and buy the plastic pumpkins at the store, I'm thrilled for several reasons:
1. I didn't spend any money and so I kept to the compact;
2. I made good use of fabric that had been sitting around for years;
3. I had fun coming up with a creative solution to the plastic pumpkin problem;
4. These cloth bags will take up way less storage space than those plastic pumpkins;
5. I feel like a Halloween crafting genius;
6. Una and I had a great experience making these that we would have missed out on if we'd just bought buckets at the store.

I'll just say it: I'm proud of myself today.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Gotta love David Bowie. And Flight of the Conchords for their fabulous Bowie-inspired episode that includes the song "Bowie" (Bowie's in space).
Enough of that tangential talk.
As you can see, we at bMP have been very busy incorporating some new changes. Bert designed my new header and I love it. Even more than the aforementioned Flight of the Conchords episode and song combined. That's a fierce kind of love, baby. If you look to your right you'll see that I've added some helpful information to my sidebar. It's almost everything you ever wanted to know about Mary Poppins. Almost.
For those of you wondering if I've continued in my quest to overcome the vices I've blogged about in the past, check out "How Well is Mary Poppins Progressing?" for daily updates on my workouts and the sugar situation (sadly, I couldn't figure out a way to realistically update you about the status of the dishes/dishwasher. Suffice it to say, it's so much better than it was a month ago).

And now, my spending status for yesterday: we didn't visit any stores yesterday, so this was a non-issue. Driving home from our vacation we did stop at Taco Bell to grab lunch. But that came to under 7 bucks for the whole family (paid for with cash). And we consumed it. It was more of a need than a want. Who doesn't need to run south of the border for a chalupa when they're on a road trip? OK, so I didn't really order the chalupa. I got a boring bean burrito--hold the onions. But I enjoy typing and saying the word "chalupa." Silly, isn't it (the word is silly, not the fact that I enjoy typing and saying it)?

The Compact Part II

I'm back. Did you miss me? We had a stellar vacation. The kind that's actually relaxing. Well, as relaxing as possible with a 4 year-old and a 19 month-old in tow.
Things were off to a great start. Duet got car sick and threw up on herself and the car seat 10 minutes from our destination. After cleaning her off at the gas station (as if one can really clean anything at the gas station, but with limited options, this seemed like the lesser of the two evils), we arrived at the house ready to bathe the girls (particularly poor Duet). We soon discovered that I'd I foolishly left all of the toiletries which had been so thoroughly packed by yours truly at home. Of course. It only makes sense that the one time I forgot the toiletries would be the one time we were in desperate need of them upon our arrival.
This unfortunate circumstance led me to my my first compact test. I went to the store to pick up the basics (toothbrushes and toothpaste, deodorant, etc.--only consumable items, mind you) and placed some barrettes for Duet in the cart (because they were smaller than the ones at home which don't fit her that well) and a comb for Una (since we usually comb through her long hair when we condition it during bath time). I walked toward the checkout and realized that I didn't actually need the barrettes or the comb. Yes, they would have been nice to have, but I reasoned that we could find a way to get along fine without them. They didn't qualify as necessities in the same way that say toothbrushes and toothpaste do. So, I flipped a u-turn with my cart and placed them back on the shelf. It felt surprisingly good to stick with my plan. And you know what? Duet's hair was just fine in a pony-tail holder and after combing through Una's hair with my fingers, her hair was properly conditioned that night during her bath. Problems solved.

And now I'm ready to outline my plan of attack for the compact.
1. In reassessing my needs and wants I will ask serious questions before making purchases and when deciding what to keep/toss: Do I need it? Do I have another item that fulfills the same function? Do I have room for it?
2. In getting rid of things we do not need I will spend at least 10 minutes each day systematically going through the items in my house asking the aforementioned questions and removing the unnecessary items (i.e. clutter) from my home.
3. In limiting my purchases to consumable items only (read: no more clearance items from Target just because they're a good deal), I will simply not buy anything that we won't be using up. I've also recently started using cash for all purchases and have put my credit cards aside for the time being. I've read that people spend less money by using cash instead of credit cards.

Simple.

Now to make it even simpler: I've decided that this week I'm tackling #3. By focusing on only one thing at a time I think I'll have a better chance of succeeding. This week each time I go to the store (or get the urge to shop online) I'll remember that I'm only purchasing consumable items. If it's not consumable, I'm putting it back. End of story.

Tonight it was nice to come home. I was even greeted by a long lost friend when I walked in the door: our bag of toiletries.

The Compact Part I

Over the last year or so I've been reading a lot about simplifying. I truly crave a more simplified life. What exactly do I mean by that? I want to get by with fewer things. I want my home to have a place for everything and have everything in its place. I want to spend more moments enjoying my family and less time searching for the paper that should have been signed and turned into preschool last week. I totally subscribe to the notion that I should "live simply, so that others may simply live." I've been meaning to do it, too. It's just eluded me on many levels. But no longer. After tackling 3 challenges in almost 6 weeks of blogging, I think I can safely say that I'm capable of making positive changes in my life (still working out 4x a week, still staying on top of the dishes/dishwasher situation for the most part, and sticking to the 1 treat rule on weekdays). Being accountable to you readers most definitely helps me stay on track. Again, thank you for keeping me honest.

Tuesday night Bert and I were talking about how we were sick of financial stress as well as stress that comes from living in a cluttered space. Yes we do live in a small space and that makes it a bit tricky to keep things under control. But other people manage it. And so will I. You may recall that a few weeks ago I worked on keeping my dishes and the top of the dishwasher in check. It was tough, and it's still a bit of a struggle, but it's so much better than it used to be. As I type this my sink is empty, my dishwasher is running, and the top is clutter-free. Things are much better on that front than they were a month ago. In that small way, I improved and I will continue to improve in other areas as well. Here's the problem with the clutter on the dishwasher scenario. Although it's a step in the right direction, it's not getting at the root of the problem.

Yesterday while checking out Mrs. Furious's blog, she linked to this and this and everything started coming together for me. I realized that I have way too much stuff in my home already and then compounding the problem is the fact that I'm bringing in too many items. Of course I've read about this (in the last year or so I've read all of the following books on this subject: Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping; Give It Up!: My Year of Learning to Live Better With Less; Affluenza; The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need), but I haven't done anything concrete about it. Mrs. F. and I spoke for a long time yesterday afternoon about ways in which we can commit to living more simply and consuming less. Last night I filled Bert in on what Mrs. F and I had been discussing and how it pertained to the conversation Bert and I were having about clutter and finance-related stress. Today I'm tackling the clutter problem at its root. Although I'm not following verbatim this compact, I will seriously be:
1. reassessing my needs and wants;
2. getting rid of things we do not need (in the process I hope to declutter the house);
3. limiting my purchases for the rest of 2008 (and possibly beyond) solely to consumable items (consumable items include diapers, toilet paper, food, etc. Consumable items do not include "good deals" or impulse buys at Target for me; new toys for the children; or new CDs for Bert).

You may ask, "But Mary Poppins, what are you going to do about the holidays?" I've already purchased most of our Christmas presents for our families (I will need to get 2 more and I will do that because I'm not going to give one sibling something spectacular while the other sibling gets a used book that I'm trying to clear out of my home. I am, however, going to stick with the budget that I've set for those presents.). Everyone else is getting non-consumable or homemade items from us. I know that at this moment you're all wishing that you were on my Christmas gift list.

The Poppins crew is going out of town for the weekend so I'll be posting again on Sunday evening upon our return. At that time I'll post The Compact Part II where I'll outline the specific ways in which I plan to accomplish the aforementioned goals. And I will tackle them one at a time, Mary Poppins-style. You can hardly wait.

sugar situation: yesterday I ate some one smores bar. Think Rice Krispy treats made out of Golden Grahams and then add some chocolate chips. Sickeningly sweet=delicious in my book.