Wednesday, February 25, 2009

The Experiment

A few months ago, Dylan and I both read an article in the Reader's Digest about the Hochman family's experiment in anti-consumerism.

Since we lived in Africa, we have recognized that we have too much stuff. We don't spend outside our means, but we own too much - like most people who have the money to do so. You will always buy more to expand to the amount of space you have.

We decided that we would follow the same experiment in our own terms (they were a family of 3 and we are double that, they lived somewhere where they could take public transport everywhere - we COULD but standing outside in 7 degree F weather [remember the Polish word for February] with 3 children under 7 was, um, not as hardcore as I am we are interested in).

Seeing as the Slightly Cracked/Thrifty Expat house is a Catholic one, and Lent begins today, we figured two birds, one stone.

My husband will be blogging our adventures over at The Thrifty Expat. I'll just keep you updated on how I will possibly live without my daily weekly sushi and how grumpy I will be without my daily crackalatte. Also, no trips to IKEA for the next 40 days.

I just might die.

8 comments:

  1. I don't know how anyone could live without IKEA for 40 days.

    I mean, really can't fathom...

    (look forward to reading about this)

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  2. i would die under said restrictions. even when i give up latte's, i just shift the money that i would spend on latte's to something else.

    who knows? maybe one day, we'll all zen out and live quite simply. until then, i'll take a double shot, tall, whole milk, with a shot of almond. lol!

    -Steve @ fluxlie

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  3. Woot, your banner design is rockin'. Oh and please ... don't talk to me about givin' up IKEA.

    Love,
    the village dweller...

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  4. You know...it's uncanny how we have the same ideas. Awhile back, I decided to only buy things that I absolutely needed: food, utilities, medical care, etc. If shoes or clothing were worn out or didn't fit, I replaced them, but that was it. I requested gift cards for birthdays and Christmas so that I could get a luxury item or two without spending my own money. (I already take mass transit to work and bring my own lunches, so no changes there.)

    I have found that so far, I have more money left over for emergencies, and also for things that are much more valuable to me than "stuff" - particularly travel. I absolutely love to travel. *knock wood* I hope to continue this way for a while and see how it goes. Keep us posted!

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  5. Good luck! It's an admirable thing. I would say I'm cutting out my Target trips in solidarity, but that's just crazy talk now.

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  6. Good for you! The walls of our 800 sq ft house are slowly closing in on us because of the "stuff"

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  7. We all could take a lesson from this and do without a lot of our "stuff".

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  8. Could your first step to cutting back be that you stop subscribing to READER'S DIGEST?

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