Use it Up

my daily reminder, on the inside of my bathroom cabinet

When I was planning my move from a 4 bedroom house to a 2 bedroom apartment I knew I would have to scale down. I thought I had been careful and selected just what I needed to live my new life alone. Now that I've been in my new space for a year I realize that I still have too much, I have things that I don't use, that I am waiting for the right time to use, that I need to find so I can use, that I need to fix before I can use, or that I forgot that I had so I bought another one to use. So, live it up and Use it Up is my theme for this year.

My challenge for February is that I'm not purchasing anything that isn't gasoline or food. Friday I drove from Austin to Dallas and thanks to my challenge I realized that I make little impulsive purchases when I'm on the road. Mostly I buy snacks and drinks whenever I fill up with gas. I also like to buy postcards sometimes, and little trinkets from travels. Of course the drive from Austin isn't exactly "travelling" so that wasn't too hard to give up, and since it was Day 1 of the challenge I wasn't tempted to buy any snacks or such. Not that I had thought ahead, but I did happen to have a bag of deliciously sweet tangerines from a roadside stand in the Rio Grande Valley.

Saturday was my friend Libba's 60th birthday and I made her a necklace with 60 different beads - I had the chance to USE UP 60 different beads AND one of the many many cards I have stashed away. I have so many it would take years to give them all away, I better get to writing! And, I had my first slip up - I purchased a $3 car wash. I really didn't feel like I was cheating because my car was filthy from the road trip to Corpus/McAllen/Austin. Since I'm purchasing household cleaning products, if I need them, I kind of see my car as an extension of my household and it needed cleaning badly. 

Then today I went to the grocery store and bought enough food for breakfast, lunch and dinner all week. I have a standing breakfast meeting with my two staff members on Wednesday morning. Instead of eating out, I'll be inviting them to eat breakfast with me at my place. Not sure if that will exactly be a cost savings for me, but it will be a nice change of pace.