One of the blogs I read regularly is Stop Buying Crap. The blog itself is pretty fun, but I think what's best about it, for me, is just seeing the words "Stop Buying Crap" in my list of links or Favorites.It's difficult for me to control my spending adequately. I have a general instruction to myself to not spend money, or to spend as little as reasonably possible, but "don't buy more stuff" is a more specific idea that also brings in my strong desire not to have a bunch of useless possessions.
One piece of crap* I wanted to buy today was this bag (pictured above) from Natalie Dee. Part of why I want it is that I just enjoy her site every day, and I'd like to buy something from her so she makes some money. And part of it is that it would be an amusing counterpoint to this bag Mosch has that has a carousel horse on it. And it's just a kind of funny bright red bag.
But our apartment is absolutely lousy with tote bags, and I don't use a tote bag that often. I certainly don't need another tote bag. I doubt many people actually do need another tote bag - you get them at conferences and they are sold everywhere. They're like t-shirts except that you can't wear them as pajamas.
This is where "Stop Buying Crap" really comes in handy. No tote bag for Tam.
(*just to be clear, I'm not at all meaning to suggest that Natalie Dee's excellent tote bag is "crap." It's only crap in the sense that, if I owned it, it would be more crap that I owned. And I'm trying to avoid owning more things of a non-essential nature.)
5 comments:
Instead of buying this crap, you should continue putting pictures of the crap you desire on your blog. This way we all get to enjoy its loveliness/coolness, it's free, storage is a non-issue, and we get to hear your commentary on the items. I got a great laugh from the idea of tote bags as t-shirts that you can't even wear as pajamas! Can't you hear the roar of public demand for more posts on "Crap Tam's Not Buying"?
My favorite tote bag (that I own) was a total freebie from a store in a town in Germany where there was a big crater from a meteorite (or whatever) - it's got this totally goofy cartoon meteor-creature and German text about the town (random tote bags with promotional text seem much niftier in a foreign language somehow). Robert takes this to the farmers market every weekend. My bottles of vitamins/pills reside in an old freebie bag I got at a conference - it's a nice, sturdy ecru bag with an old-fashioned style map on it that upon close examination is a promotion item for a brand mapping software.
Yesterday, I really was tempted by a t-shirt on the Grumpy Girl website: it was a nice shade of green with the words "It's not easy being" and a picture of the Grumpy Girl face. Instead of buying it, I sent the link to Tam, who was a bit of a grumpy girl given her upcoming test (which I am happy to hear went well, Tam!).
If I were either more or less of a nerd than I am, I would have images of these items for you all to look at. Oh well. Instead this is kind of like hearing somebody tell you about their dream in detail. Speaking of which...
Good idea about posting crap on my blog instead of buying it. Wow!
Here is a link to Sally's Grumpy Girl shirt.
I second Sally's vote. I want to hear about cool crap you're not buying. I may also steal this idea for myself.
Now I want the bag and the shirt. This is not helping me.
Don't give in!
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