the good plan

  Many times I've admitted I love to shop, and a huge part for the reason of the overstuffed garage was my fondness of buying seasonal junk.
Now almost all of it has gone, I'm on a mission not to fall back into bad habits and start buying tat again. I let myself buy the cream ceramic pumpkin recently, but I can say hand on heart that I have no intention of buying anything else. As I bagged up everything to go out I realised just how much complete rubbish I've wasted money on over the years. It's irritating to recognise that you've been a total idiot, but good to acknowledge. That is how you learn.

But what to do when you see things that you like but know you don't need to buy? Take a photo. That's what I am doing now. So when I saw the Halloween stuff in Home Bargains at the weekend, I looked at it, scoffed at the particularly tacky stuff, and took photos of things that I quite liked and would probably have bought in my previous shopping ways. That way you get to 'keep' the item without having to have it clog up the home. Genius.

These marshmallows are a perfect example of a wasteful purchase for me. They caught my eye because of the pretty colours. There was a time when I would have immediately put them in the basket thinking they'd look good in a mug of hot chocolate for a seasonal photo and justified it for that reason. But no one in this house eats them, so they would end up being chucked out. Neither Bill nor I are fans of marshmallows, and Violet won't eat them because she's vegetarian. So no point in buying them. And that's how I'm trying to think nowadays. On Friday Bill and I were a supermarket and I spotted a Christmas magazine. It was £7.99, I picked it up and put it in the basket. As we got to the checkout I flicked through the pages. Why was I buying it? Just because I wanted it and it would be good to post on the 'gram?! I'd literally just thrown out several similar magazines so why start replacing them? I left it at the checkout and felt really pleased with myself for not giving in to temptation and saving nearly £8 in the process.
Christmas magazines will always catch my eye, but they tend to be pretty repetitive. No need for a new one each year.
Determined. I am determined to change my ways, to not waste money and not clutter up the house. I have to re-educate myself but I am getting there. I've done it before and I can do it again.