Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

As we head into the holiday season and enjoy today’s holiday of gluttony, I just wanted to take a moment and reflect on the abundance in my life.

During my regular knitting gathering this week, we were talking about S.A.B.L.E., Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy. For those of you who don’t knit, ’stash’ is your yarn stash from which you can pull to make projects. It’s your warehouse of yarn. For many women, building stash is a comfort. It’s saving yarn for use in the future, like a quick knit baby sweater when you don’t have time that week to run to the store to buy a baby shower gift or pick up a specific baby yarn. For other women, it’s just plain old hoarding out the wazoo.

In 2007, I’ve purchased very little in the way of new craft items. I think I’ve spent less than $150, whereas I might spend $400 in a typical year. Last year I realized that I needed to stop buying yarns and fiber because I spend a lot of time blogging and no longer craft like I did before starting MFC. My stash is overtaking my small apartment.

One of the knitters, Lanea, is on a book buying moratorium this year because she realized that she and her husband have way too many unread books in the house. I know that I could read every book I have in the house and not buy a new one for at least 2 or 3 years, if not more. And that doesn’t include what’s still at my mom and dad’s house. That’s probably another 2 years’ worth of books.

A friend called me one night recently and I started to futz around and clean up my closet. Ostensibly, I was looking for my sweaters since we had our first hard frost of the season on Monday night. But really I was culling my clothing. A storage box of sweaters turns into a box of t-shirts and shorts for the winter and that means a quick inspection of my drawers and closet racks for things that can be donated to Goodwill. I realize that I have lots of spiffy clothes for work, but I was choosing not to wear the silk shirts and sweaters because I didn’t want to spend the money to dry clean them. And yet, I am loathe to get rid of them. Finding them was finding a new wardrobe for work. What is the cost of cleaning them when it saves me money on buying new clothes?

My friend on the phone asked me how many pairs of shoes I had. I thought this was a trap because he’s a guy and I’ve been accused of being Imelda Marcos. But I felt better when I guessed 30-40 and he said he had the same. (I am now going to have to inventory them for my own satisfaction.) As I told him my guess, I was staring at a pair of boots, thinking of the Baby Phat pair that Single Ma wants. My boots are old and out of style, but they’re still in reasonable condition. They will last me another year. Frumperella isn’t going to mind since these boots won’t turn into shoeboxes at midnight.

If you look around your life will you find what you need within the possessions you have? Think about that because at its core is an assumption that you can discern your needs and wants and separate them like sheep from goats. Do you have unacknowledged abundance in your life? Will finding it help you re-prioritize your spending in the next month?

During the winter season there’s all kinds of propaganda about peace on earth and goodwill towards man. There’s pap about transcending material things and putting other people first. It’s all b.s. since everyone goes into a gift buying frenzy. Everything seems like such a damned good deal so it’s ok to spend on yourself a little while you spend on everyone else. But that’s a false correlation. It’s not ok to spend on yourself if it’s going to break your shopping budget.

If you think before you shop about what you really have in your life, you will see that you probably have plenty. I write about material things, but I know the same principle of hidden abundance counts for immaterial things as well. I have my life, my family, my supportive friends. For the first time in many years, I can say have good oral health. My cup runneth over and I didn’t even know it till I stopped to think about it.

My girlfriend in NYC is someone I’ve always admired for her ability to save. Granted, when we were young in San Francisco, she didn’t have any student debt like I did. Even so, she was very careful with her money and how she spent it.

A few years ago, I bought Kokologyand I asked her one of the questions. It basically set up a scenario and your response is supposed to reveal something about you. You forget your wallet and you need to buy lunch, how much money can you scrape up? I said I could probably find $5 on me in my purse or at my desk at work, from the change in my car, etc. My friend said she’d have nothing. She’d have to borrow money from somebody. The interpretation of our answers is that I am not so careful with money. I have dribs and drabs of it tucked away in pockets since I don’t account for it well. My friend on the other hand, is very careful with her money and therefore if her wallet wasn’t on her person, she’d have nothing. It also implied that she is most likely in a better position financially. No doubt this interpretation is true.

The other day, after writing the hoarding post, I asked her how much she stocked up on staple products and found her answer quite revealing. She told me as she packed her belongings to make the move back East, she had something like 20 bottles of shampoo. Where she kept it in her studio was beyond me. I never saw them!

For a while my friend worked for a consumer products company and she would get products at a discounted rate. Though she got a phenomenal discount on household products, she no longer stocked up and kept only 1 or 2 bottles around. (Naturally, when she left that firm she stocked up again, but this is allowable since that discount was going away.) In the process of moving cross-country, she realized that she was keeping too much and it was costing her to move it with her. So you CAN take it with you, but is it cost-effective?

I like stocking up too, but I realize that I had hoarded lotions and soaps from my college job at the mall. I still have Bath & Body Works products, 10 years later. I try not to stock up anymore, but it’s hard habit to break. I have made the commitment to use some of this stuff up before I buy a replacement. Shampoo & conditioner are the only things I keep on the shelf and I try to stick to supermarket brands as much as possible. (Unless as I’ve found out, it damages my hair. Stay away from Pantene Smooth & Sleek. It dries your hair out if you use it daily.)

So while you can get a good deal, just keep in mind that stocking up isn’t always saving money if the product goes stale on the shelf or costs you money to move these extras around.