Hello, My Name is Lisa O.

And I'm an American consumer.


The lure to leave my house in search of goods to purchase is amazingly strong! With this current theme of Not Buying It, it's quite insightful to see how often my little brain tries to trick me into spending. Indeed, my inner dialogue is in full swing most of the time these days.

Now that my work schedule has changed, and I have more days off and time at home (hooray!), my mind thinks I should spend this extra time by shopping. I recognize this reality as a long-standing trait about myself; one to which I am only now calling it for what it really is!

In the past two days, here are some of things I've considering doing/buying:

1) a trip to the grocery/big box store for supplementary items (when I already have enough stuff here at home on which to exist for at least a week or more!)

2) a venture to my favorite local skin care shop to buy some new face cream (I AM running low on one particular kind. But I have a plethora of others with which I can certainly make do for now.)

3) a blogging adventure and some hangin' out time at a local coffee shop (Mostly for the change of scenery and free WiFi. But then I'd be spending money on gas and coffee, right?)

4) a trip to Trader Joe's to pick up a few ingredients for a certain recipe I want to make. (see #1 rebuttal). I even justified this trip in my mind by telling myself I'd combine this trip with some mall-walking while there. My mind was clever in trying to bribe me with the ever-prevalent guilt-ridden demand for exercise!)

5) a lunch outing to one of our local favorite spots (which just happens to be near the Mac store, where I could gawk at fun,new accessories for my laptop!)

Shopping, shopping, shopping!!! It's all about shopping!!! Aaaggghhh!!!

Well, with concerted effort, here's what I've done instead:

-Stayed home
-Enjoyed peaceful quality time with my hubby and cats
-Watched birds and squirrels at the feeders in my back yard
-Took a walk out in nature, in the park/woods near my house
-Ate all meals at home (using what was already on hand.)
-Worked on our taxes
-Laundry
-Naps
-Read
-Looked at my bank account to see how little disposable income I truly have right now :-0
-Updated the Peace Things web page
-Uploaded photos from my camera
-Visited with my brother-in-law
-Talked on the phone

In fact, I have an almost infinite list of chores that could keep me busy around this house! The sorting, cleaning, and fixing-up needs are immense!

But, alas, here is the realization of my *long* history of distracting myself through shopping. Yeah, this is going to be a tough year of restructuring not only my spending but my entire thought process, belief system, and behavior patterns all-together. Whew!

I have a strong sense that this radical shift calls for some 12 Step action.
Here's my take:

The 12 Steps (minus 4)
(excerpted from www.12steps.org and modified herein by this author)

Step 1 - Admitted we were powerless over our consumerism.
Step 4 - Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. (As our spending ties in directly with our values and beliefs.)
Step 5 - Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our consumer spending. (Thus, the purpose of this blog!)
Step 6 - Were entirely ready to have all these defects of character removed.
Step 7 - Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
Step 8 - Made a list of all debts we owe and ramifications of our past spending habits and became willing to make amends for them all.
Step 10 - Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Step 12 - Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Because "How you spend your money is how you vote on what exists in the world."
~Vicki Robin