(I believe this is originally from emmas designblogg)
There once was a time when the above picture would've been my dream. Nowadays, the only thing I'd keep in it would be the beautiful desk set-up with sawhorse trestles and like maybe just that bottom rack of clothes.
A month ago I decided to implement the same sort of iron-fist mentality that I had while abroad in Copenhagen: give up shopping for a year. The last time I tried it, I lasted about 4 months until the last couple weeks when it was sales season and close to Christmas and blahhh I had already saved a lot of money so I just decided it was good enough already. My rationale the last time was one, to live a more sustainable and less consumeristic lifestyle and two, to save money since I would spending quite a bit on traveling and delicious food and Copenhagen was a ridiculously expensive city to boot. I made a few exceptions to my ban last time, which were a pair of new sneakers (hasn't happened yet since I haven't been to the gym in years...), a leather schoolbag, and a new watch. The latter two I bought over the course of the next year. Other than that, I had no other exceptions or allowances. No allowances for thrifting, although I did buy a kids grey/white leopard fur coat from one of the only truly cheap thrift stores I was able to find in Copenhagen.
Which is why I was so surprised when I googled "shopping ban" and read through some of the entries of other bloggers' attempts. Some of these bans lasted for a month, while others were bans but had all sorts of allowances and exceptions built in. I am not trying to knock any of their efforts, but allotting $$$ a week for thrifting and $$$ a month for free spending is pretty close, if not more excessive than my normal shopping habits to begin with. In fact, it seemed weird to me that people would still buy stuff every week even whilst on a shopping ban. Perhaps not everyone's ultimate goal is to whittle down to a minimalist closet, but it made no sense to me why one would continue to buy things because they were on sale or because they were cheap or because they just felt like buying something.
I'm not saying that I am immune to the feeling of walking into a store and impulsively buying something I like because it's a) on sale, b) cheap and c) I just felt like buying something. But more and more I've come to learn that this sort of shopping just leads to me wearing something once and then wanting to give it away or sell it a month later. And while this can be ok sometimes, most of the time it just feels kind of pointless and lousy. Reading style blogs everyday can sometimes make me really want the latest trendy item (I almost caved to the Lita Cosmics because they were half-off), but in the end I'll realize a week or two later that I really didn't need it at all. Though the blogging community was once quite small and organic, I think this GQ article really gets at how contrived or zoo-like some things have become lately.
So maybe I'm being a bit too strict with myself, but this all just fuels my desire to stick to the ban. My exceptions? I think socks and underwear are ok (only if absolutely necessary), and I can't say that I wouldn't think twice if an Acne leather jacket popped up in my size on ebay. Other than that, if I'm going to spend money I'd rather spend it on food, which is thankfully quite cheap at the moment :)
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