A Wet Start to a New Challenge

We're a family who enjoys being thrifty but still fairly often I find myself wanting to treat myself to something new. I have an Amazon wishlist I keep topped up with things I'd like and although that list is really for family to give them ideas for gifts, I occasionally find myself looking through it with a view to spending some money. The trouble is that having a list of 'wants' makes me want them more.

Buying something can give you a buzz but more often these days I feel better if I know I'm buying something second hand and making use of something someone else didn't want. We seem to live in a world where our consumer culture pressures us into replacing perfectly fine possessions with newer shinier things for almost tenuous reasons. We're made to feel inadequate if we don't have the newest or most fashionable possessions.

So, I've decided to challenge myself to not buying anything new in October. I'm going to try go the whole month only buying things used or second-hand. Not including food, that would be gross!

Sounds good, right? Well, it all nearly went horribly wrong yesterday. I had to go into town for an eye-test and it was pouring down with rain. I mean really raining too not just a shower.

The kids had left for school taking the only two umbrellas in the house. I don't drive so I was going to get very wet on the way to the bus stop. Not that it'd help me immediately, my first thought was to Google umbrellas and buy myself one so in the future I wouldn't have this problem. I found a nice skull one for £12.

Then I remembered my challenge. Bah! I decided to have a look in some charity shops while I was in town. I dashed from shop to shop looking for an umbrella but there wasn't one in the 6 shops I checked. I really REALLY wanted to just go into Primark and buy one for a fiver. I didn't though, instead I just got wetter and wetter feeling more and more jealous of people around me with umbrellas. I even daydreamed about snatching an umbrella out of the hands of a smug looking old lady I passed.

I hope this challenge gets easier. Haha :D