I've been reading some of this thread because I think the concept is interesting and I think I should be doing something about me buying things I don't need.
The thing is though, that although I do think I should be doing something about my spending on items don't really need, I actually can't think of my gazingus pin. I can't pin (..) it down.. I don't know if I just don't have a gazingus pin or if I just have many but don't buy a lot. It differs?
I like buying clothing but I'm doing the no clothing buying for a year thing so that's not it anymore. I DO feel that I spend more, probably because of no clothing shopping, on other things. Could be a notebook, some new pens, earrings, necklace, scented candle, tea (no books, dvd's, cd's because I don't want to HAVE them, I want to read/watch/listen them and that's fine on my ereader, from the library, netflix ..). I do use some of these and don't buy more if I already feel I have enough. I won't buy more scented candles than I use, so I don't have a stash. I do use tea a lot and like to have more flavours to choose from and do have more than I need but not too extravagant. I already limit my other buys like earrings and stuff like that because I only want to have things I use a lot.
BUT it is somewhere in between luxury and clutter. I don't need it.
In conclusion, I don't think I have one specific gazingus pin but I have a list of items that are combined my gazingus pin?? Or something like that. It shifts all the time and when I say to myself I will not buy tea it will shift to something else.
Any thoughts?
@Sanne - welcome in. It is clear you have given this some thought.
Well, we discussed this several times in this thread already and the consensus seems to be - just like you said - most of us shift to spending on something else. At least in the beginning of this exercise, although the true gazingus pin spending keeps popping back up.
The thing is once you recognize your own spending pattern (look at the last six months) you can decide whether it is mindless acquisition/spending and do I want/need to rein it in.
The repeating pattern may not be a gazingus pin, but just a pattern of overspending in general. That could be because you are not being realistic and set your budget artificially low or because you are playing mindgames with yourself.
Maybe you deny yourself something that is important to you, because you think you should not indulge for whatever reason.
I've found not honoring yourself and not living according to your core values creates havoc in your budget. Sometimes we spend mindlessly on a lot of things, because the thing we really want is out of reach or we don't want to acknowledge that "it" is what we really want.
Sanne, you are already dealing with the other challenge thread - no clothes buying for a year. That is no small feat, as long as it is truly a challenge to you and you don't come up with endless clever little excuses called "exceptions".
It sounds to me that perhaps you are fidgeting a little, possibly due to the no clothes buying challenge - you may have a nagging feeling that you could/should/want/need to do better with your discretionary spending in general.
That is a different thing.
Just some food for thought:)
