One thing leads to another

Can you hear the song from the 80’s? The tale of how I’ve come to declare my own clothes shopping moratorium is a great example of how “one thing leads to another.”  You may recall I had a Christmas cleaning frenzy right after Thanksgiving and donated decorations and more to a few local charities in preparation for decorating the house.  I thought that might be the end of it, but I kicked off another flurry of de-cluttering the week after Christmas, culminating in packing up the holiday decorations and getting rid of more unused items.

Finding room in the basement to store our new artificial tree made us take a hard look at the shelves and start filling the car with yet another load for two charities just up the street.  My first stop was the FurKids Thrift Store whose proceeds support their pet adoption facility for cats and small dogs. They got a box of pots and pans I’d been saving for the mountain house we never ended up building, old bicycle helmets, and more.  The next stop was Goodwill with the outdoor Christmas decorations that failed to light up this year.

The week after Christmas is also the time of year when I clean out my virtual and physical files and get organized for the New Year at work.   I’ve archived or deleted the folders on my desktop and set up new ones, and I’ve shredded several batches of older paper files. 

For me, one thing leading to another means that getting organized for work always ends up extending to my personal life, so I also gathered receipts and financial records in anticipation of our accountant sending our electronic tax organizer.  And, I took advantage of the expense tracking software my bank provides to assess how we did in 2014. As a baby boomer looking to retire in a few years, getting a realistic picture of where our money goes is becoming a more and more pressing need. 

I was surprised to discover that somehow we’d spent less money in 2014 than in previous years, even though we took several nice vacations and hadn’t made any conscious attempt to adjust our spending. Now that discovery might lead some to think, “Gee, maybe we can eat out more, take more vacations or have the housekeepers come more often.” Perhaps, it’s retirement looming, but my initial thought was, “Well, how much more could we save for retirement if we made a conscious attempt to spend less…within reason, of course?” Within reason means we’re not forgoing our planned Italy vacation, and I’m not skipping any girls’ trips.

And then, one thing leading to another got me thinking about my shopping habit.  I mentioned to my husband that I was thinking about—not committing to, mind you—seeing if I could spend less on clothes.  That comment made him laugh because we both know I’m a clothes horse and that I enjoy finding and wearing the latest fashions. I knew I couldn’t go cold turkey, so I decided to start small and see if I could refrain from buying any new clothes in January and February. 

I’m allowing myself one exception:  if I use the Christmas gift cards my husband gave me for DSW and Chico’s, those purchases don’t count. Well maybe two exceptions—if I use the credit I have at the consignment shop, that doesn’t count either.  Hey, this is a big deal for me, and I’ll need all the help I can get.