Homegrown Thoughts

I have this habit of working on ‘hidden’ clutter before tackling the more obvious clutter ( like the kids’ toys littering the living room and the pockets of disarray scattered around our home). I was up to my tricks again today as I finished filing the multitude of clipped and printed off recipes I’ve collected over the years. I tend to think that recipes in the paper, magazines or online look really good at the time, so I’ll tear or print them out thinking, “I’ll have to try that sometime!”. Most of these recipes have managed to congregate in a couple of areas that are hidden, but I still know they’re there…taunting me.

So, as I said, I finished up filing all of these today. I bought (before my ‘want’ buying ban, I might add) a FilePLUS organizer for my recipes. A simple accordian file would have accomplished the same thing, but I think I’ll use it more because it’s attractive. I feel more organized when my organizational tools look nice. Here is what it looks like:

Nice, huh? I have a section for the recipes I still want to try. I threw away probably 80% of what I started with. I have other sections for recipes I’ve tried and liked. As I try out the new ones, they will either be filed there or tossed if they aren’t to our liking. The very popular recipes will be transferred to my personal cookbook, which is another great organizational tool.

This isn’t the same one I have (mine is nearly 20 years old, a wedding shower gift), but it’s the same idea. I think this is spiral-bound and mine is a 3-ring binder.

Also, I will NOT be clipping any more recipes unless I am sure I will try them and they will be filed in this folder or they will be thrown away.   I have enough new recipes to keep me busy for quite awhile, so any that get added will have to be VERY impressive.  With allrecipes.com as another great resource, there’s really very little reason to be clipping anything out of magazines (where the recipes seem to emphasize certain products over really great taste anyway).

I hope to share some of our favorite recipes here at HomegrownHearts very soon!

I needed to get groceries, specifically groceries that fit into the new nutrition plan I started today.  Yeah, I’m starting this exercise/nutrition thing that goes for 10 weeks, but wasn’t sure I wanted to talk about it so I hadn’t mentioned it yet.  Anyway…I needed ‘healthy’ food so off I went.  Most of the time I do my grocery shopping at Super Target.  It’s conveniently located and, dudettes, it’s Target!  I love me some Target.  But, oh yes, we have this Mission: Self-Control thing going on, don’t we?  This trip was a trial by fire.  I could have just gone to the regular grocery store, but there were actually a couple of items I did need at Target, so I braved it.

I didn’t do too bad.  I did impulse buy one thing, sort of, but I did kind of need it, too.  And it was on sale.  Ok, ok, I know…but I’m calling this one justified. I did need some eye shadow.  I did.  And that was ALL I got that wasn’t food or on my list.  At least I’m pretty sure of that.

I think the nutritional part of this program is going to be a lot harder than the exercise part, and that will be plenty hard!  I have to will be going to exercise for 6 days a week for the next 10 weeks, at a minimum.  3 days kick-boxing and 3 days of resistance bands.  I am now the owner of a pair of boxing gloves!  I find that so funny…if you know me, you know how NOT me that is.  The nutrition part of it is set up to maximize the benefits of the exercise program - balanced carbs and proteins, 6 meals a day, etc.  It’s a lot like the abs diet if anybody is familiar with that…also a lot like South Beach.  And I don’t like calling it a diet.  It’s not a diet.  I don’t go on diets.  It’s just a…tweaking..of my usual very horrible eating habits.  It fits in with the ’self-control’ theme very well.

So this year is starting off to be pretty challenging.  De-cluttering, not buying more clutter, new exercise and nutrition program…full full schedule…oh, and I’ve been asked to give a seminar at an upcoming homeschool group meeting, too!  Me oh my oh me oh my.  To even consider it is a major step forward for me.  How my life has changed over the last year.  But I’m going to say that’s a good thing!  My comfort zone is being stretched wider and wider.  God is definitely working on me!

Sadly, I have identified something in my life that is only adding to my urge to impulse buy and take advantage of ‘bargains’ that I do not need to add to my home.  This thing is the RSS feed from Dealighted.  This site collects posts from forums at Slickdeals, Gotta Deal, Fat Wallet and others and kindly sends them all to my RSS feed reader.  The majority of the items I look at each day come from this source.  I am tempted several times a day by a plethora of Amazon daily deals, free samples, $ off offers and the like.  This is NOT good for my Mission: Self-Control!  I have gotten some really good deals that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise…but other than Christmas gifts, I’m pretty sure the majority were not NEEDS but ‘well, it’s free (or a really good buy) so I might as well…’ items.

So, I have made the very difficult decision to unsubscribe from this feed.  Besides helping to cut down on the temptation to add clutter, it will also save me some money (you have to spend $ to get $ off) and a huge amount of time.  There are literally hundreds of posts some days and I scroll through them all and click on too many.  For the time being, I am cutting this out of my daily routine.  I can always search the sites if I have a genuine need to see if there are any deals to be had on a specific item, but the ‘power-of-suggestion’ feed is now being cut off.  So long, good friend - you have served me well.  A little too well.

For being such a timid person who is a recovering worrier, I’m pretty impulsive when it comes to buying things.  I see it, I like it, I want it, I justify it and I buy it.  Especially if it’s on sale. I have a very hard time passing up a ‘good deal’.  I put that in quotes because, of course, the fact that something is on sale doesn’t necessarily make it a good deal or a good buy.  I tend to figure up the savings rather than the cost, which is dangerous.  I need to remember that if something is $50 and it’s on sale for $30, although that is a savings of $20, it will be a savings of $30 if I simply Don’t. Buy. It.  What a concept!

What got me thinking about this today is the A Year Off blog.  This blog is in transition right now, but basically Chris has decided to cut back drastically on their purchases this year.  They are deciding if things are wants or needs and only purchasing the needs.  The purpose is not so much to save money, although that will be accomplished too, but more to cut down on the amount of stuff that is coming into their home and causing clutter.

I so need to do this!

So I’m going to give it a shot.  As I was discussing this with a friend this morning (who may be joining me in this venture), we decided that the basic issue here is self-control.  We like to buy things.  It makes us feel good.  If it’s a bargain, it makes us feel even better and gives us some kind of bragging rights because we are such good shoppers.  Look at us, aren’t we good stewards for saving so much money? Ummm…probably, not so much.  Not spending money on things we don’t really need would be much better stewardship, I dare say.  This seems obvious, but I really haven’t sat down and thought of it this way.  It’s much more fun to just keep buying things, right?

My house continues to overflow with miscellaneous ’stuff’, most of which is pure clutter: items that seemed like good ideas at the time but haven’t lived up to their perceived potential, things that have been outgrown or worn out, and of course the dreaded “I might use/need this someday” treasures.  It’s seriously out of hand, and yet I keep adding to it.  People, I need to locate some self-control and fast!

In my defense, I am not the only guilty party in this.  Everyone in my family is a contributor to the problem.  I don’t know if they will go along with me on this or not, but it doesn’t matter.  I’m making the decision - for myself - that I will be conscious of what I’m buying.  I will not buy just because something is on sale, a good deal or a bargain I can’t pass up.  I can pass it up, and I will.  I hope my family will follow my example, but this is a personal goal - I need to grow in this area.  If they are also convicted, so much the better, but I’m not going to push it.
I’m not going to be militant about this, but I am going to do my best to stop buying ‘wants’ and stick to ‘needs’.  My needs might be different than other people’s needs.  I feel that I ‘need’ to redo my bedroom and bathroom.  They are in the middle of the process and I don’t think putting it off for a year is going to add to the serenity of my home, which is also a by-product of this little venture.  So projects that will actually be completed and not add clutter to the home, but enhance it, will be allowed.  But the purchases made must be consumable or serve a legitimate purpose.

So there you have it.  I’ve gone public with it and can’t back out now. :-)  I plan to post about my successes (and failures, should there be any *cough cough*) so that you can hold me accountable.  This will not be easy for me - but I think ultimately it will be good for me and for my home and family, too.