To sum up this month so far: slightly interesting, a smidge difficult, and mostly very annoyingly inconvenient. I’ve been getting tons of great questions, so just to clarify my goals and guidelines for this project:
I chose 7 pieces of clothing from my wardrobe. Those 7 pieces are the only 7 I can choose from when I wear clothing this month {which will be most of the time, rest assured}. I doesn’t actually matter how many I have on at one time {I could wear all 7 at once, but that would be uncomfortable and silly}. These 7 pieces will last me the whole month. I can’t trade out pieces {as in “oh I’m tired of wearing this gray shirt, I will trade it in for a pink one, because that’s essentially what all of us do every day – we trade out clothing at the end of the day, and trade in new clothing each morning. Some of us do several trades in a day}. This restriction on clothing means: no jewelry, no accessories, no random shirt changes in the middle of the day ‘just because’, and pretty much no looking fabulous. It also means I have to plan ahead.
The purpose of the entire ‘7’ project {imitated from Jen Hatmaker’s initial experiment} is to help me realize that I am capable of ‘doing without’; I can and will survive if I have less. Fewer possessions, spending less, fewer clothes, less time spent with technology, less waste, more time focused on appropriate priorities, less gluttony. I have already tackled possessions and spending. This month is clothing.
I realize this month’s challenge is a tad confusing and I’m sure most of your thoughts include some ‘what the …..’ phrasing. It’s ok, I know it’s odd, but if I’ve learned anything over the past few years it’s this: if you hinge your salvation and life’s purpose on Jesus’ life, death, and un-death, then your aim should be to imitate what Jesus did here on earth. And if you are truly trying to be ‘like’ Jesus and imitate his perfect ways, that means your life and actions shouldn’t really fall in line with the lives and actions of other people on earth. I’m sure He was called ‘odd’ because he didn’t just fall in line with the cultural norms of the times in which he lived. He was different. So I’m okay with being different too. Sometimes different means saying no to the excess that we have come to know and love in our country.
So far I have worn 5 of my pieces at least once every day. I’ve been working in the community garden a lot, which is dirty and stinky work – I usually wear my tennis shoes, running shorts, and gray shirt. For any other ‘non-dirty’ activity, I wear my skinny jeans, white sleeveless shirt, and flip-flops. The other 2 clothing ‘items’ I have are my scrubs and a formal dress {that I need to wear to 2 weddings later this month}. I don’t feel the pressure to wash the gardening outfit often, since it’s just going to be icky again. The jeans and white shirt have proven harder to keep clean because a) I wear them every single day, b) if I take them off and wash them, I have to wear the sweaty gardening clothes until the nicer clothes are ready. I don’t want to wash them, but I need to wash them… it’s a predicament. I just need to get into a good routine -hold on to your nickers, I’m about to channel the Wilder family and wash some clothing by hand.
On a lighter note, today was my birthday and we spent it surrounded by friends {but you may as well just call them family}: it started with Church, then tending the garden with friends, then a cookout with an even larger circle of friends. It was a beautiful day and my heart feels so full right now. You’ll probably see some pics from those adventures later this week {though not from me; I brought my phone and my dslr camera. my phone died and my dslr had no SD card in it….. so exactly zero pictures will be from me}.
Here’s a photo of what I wore to church this morning {before changing into ‘get dirty’ clothes for gardening, before changing back into this outfit for the cookout}.
Our picnic lunch at the community garden.
And an obligatory Charlie Grace photo: playing on the playground at church
7
Month 3: Clothing
Did you know it is now May? I am just as surprised as you are. This whole ‘time passing by’ thing is getting really old. Enough already. When I said I was going to take a month off of my project in self-reduction I truly believed the next month would be slower in arriving. April just zoomed on by, and here we are: hello May! If you are just tuning in, I have embarked on a personal journey to combat excess in imitation of Jen Hatmaker’s book ‘7: an experimental mutiny against excess’. During the first 3 months I focused on reducing my possessions and spending. This month I will be tackling clothing. You may remember that in Month 1 I purged nearly half the contents of my closets and drawers, counting those as possessions right along with everything else in my house. I got rid of a ridiculous amount of clothing. and guess what? There’s still a lot of clothing floating around in there that I am certain I don’t actually wear. I am not a big spender when it comes to clothing{or anything, really}; one of the earliest lessons I learned from my mom was how to spot steal at a thrift store. That being said, the sheer number of garments in my closet is ridiculous. Frankly, my wardrobe could easily outfit 4 or 5 women comfortably. Can we say excessive?! In order to combat the american mentality of see it – buy it {which is how I got into this predicament in the first place}, I will wear only 7 pieces of clothing this month. I know, I’m sort of shocked at the prospect as well. Let’s figure out the guidelines.
Before I started to carefully select my 7 precious articles of clothing, I took a peek into my drawers and closets to see what I had to work with:
223 pieces of clothing
37 pairs of shoes/sandals/boots
12 pairs of scrubs
I know. I was shocked too. I don’t have any scientific proof, but I’m pretty sure my clothes and shoes have been multiplying in my closet when I close the door. Your’s too? ok, glad I’m not the only one. I was secretly hoping my collection would come up shorter than Jen’s. and it did…. winning! As I was re-reading Jen’s chapter on clothing, she reported that she had 327 pieces of clothing in her closet. My greed and lust over clothing is not as severe as Jen Hatmaker’s or, say, a Kardashian’s…. I’m certain there’s a crown waiting for me in heaven for that accomplishment alone.
Here are the 7 pieces I have chosen:
1) Dark wash skinny jeans {I pretty much wear these every day anyway, no shame}
2) aqua running shorts
3) Grey V-neck short sleeve shirt
4) Flowy white sleeveless shirt
5) Navy blue black scrub set {when I got up today…day 1…. to get dressed for work I realized the blue scrub set I had previously chosen to be the work attire that would carry me through this month was in the wash, so I had to settle for my second choice}
6) A formal dress – TBD – I don’t know which one in my closet I will wear yet, but we have 2 weddings to attend towards the end of the month and I don’t want to wear sneakers and running shorts on my friends’ big days {though the sneakers would give me a distinct advantage for dancing, with the added traction and all…. in light of this discovery, I actually may rethink the formal dress}.
7) Shoes count as one item together but I will only alternate between 2 pairs: brown flip-flops and black sneakers.
Here are a few more details:
- Undergarments don’t count. just…. no.
- No jewelry {not even earrings, I will wear my wedding band… because it’s my experiment. I do what I want}
- No accessories {no scarves, no belts…. no pizzaz}
- No coat, no rain boots
Day 1:
Black scrubs, black tennis shoes. I did wear a headband, but not for pizzaz. It is a necessity to keep my frizz in check while at work. I do it for the kids.
I am really fortunate in that I only work 2 days a week, so wearing 1 pair of scrubs is totally do-able. I doubt anyone will even notice. My patients certainly won’t – I get excited when they simply notice the presence of a person in the room; I’m pretty sure they don’t care what I wear, they just want me to get out of their face!
Will you join me this month? If at the very least, will you count the number of clothing items and shoes in your closet? Just throwing off the blindfold and refusing naiveté of our excessive tendencies is a great first step.
I’m just sayin’.
Month 2: Spending update
For those of you just joining me and wondering why I’m counting months: read here.
In the interest of full disclosure, I’m going to be totally honest with my spending {I’m sure you would expect nothing less from my blog… there’s kind of no filter – it’s all truth up in here}!
Here are the only places I am supposed to spend money this month:
- Farm Fresh {groceries}
- 7-11 {gas, no coffee or snacks}
- Online Bill pay {student loans, electric/water, mortgage… the usual “I’m an adult now” bills}
- childcare
- Walgreens {pharmacy}
- Target {for random, emergency life needs only}
Here are some of the ways I have broken that rule so far:
- A few weeks ago I worked a 9 hour day, snagged Charlotte from the sitters, fed her dinner then passed her off to Chris as he walked through the door and I headed back out to speak to parents about speech therapy stuff as it relates to Kindergarteners. I left the school meeting at 8:45pm and promptly stopped at a drive-thru to shove a burger in my face. It had been a long day.
- While cleaning out the garage Chris found quite a bit of cash stashed in his golf bag. After some discussion we decided to keep enough for a breakfast date after church on Sunday and tithe the rest. totally worth it. plus it was extra money…. so I’m pretty sure it doesn’t count. wink.
- Yesterday I had a procedure {we’ll just call it a lady procedure}. Recovery required a large milkshake and fries. doctor’s orders.
- Today was long. and rainy. and our toddler was being, well, a toddler. and Chris worked late. and there wasn’t anything in the fridge that could be thrown together for a meal. At 8pm we still hadn’t eaten, so I convinced Chris to order pizza. and it was yummy.
So, just to summarize… not spending money is SO HARD! {said in my best whiny voice}. I thought the hardest part would be staying away from Target and or TJMaxx, my usual spots for retail therapy. Keeping busy with other activities and projects {like the community garden I discussed in my last post} has really helped me keep away from my retail loves. I’ve been {well, my hubby has been} making our coffee at home so we are not tempted to stop and grab some on the way to work. We’ve been inviting friends over to eat instead of going out with them {it’s still pricey to cook for a bunch of people, but we try to do ‘potluck’ style and it’s definitely cheaper than always eating out}. As it turns out, the random excess money I have been spending has been on fast food! When I’m in a time-crunch or following an exhausting day I just can’t keep by brain on for one more second to try and cook something, or have nothing in the fridge that I can grab on the go.
We’ve got another week and I am going to sit down tomorrow to meal plan so we aren’t caught off guard with nothing in the fridge or a schedule that doesn’t allow us to come home for food. Hubby just reported, “We are nearing payday and we still have money in our account… it’s working” {very scientific reporting}.
Where does your money go? Are you spending excessively?
Month 2: Spending
Welcome to month 2: spending.
Before I introduce the parameters for this month, I’ll back up a bit for those of you who are just joining in on the ‘fun’ {ha}.
I have been experiencing a little self imposed self-reduction after reading {and being totally changed from the inside out by} Jen Hatmaker’s book 7 – you can read about all that here. I am mimicking her experiment, just taking the components and tweaking them to fit my life {since I’m not her, not in Austin, and don’t have her awesome life… I’m dealing with my own kind of awesomeness over here, so had to shape the project to fit me}. For my first month I chose to tackle my excessive possessions. Ouch. I’m still hurting from it a bit. You can read about the beginning of it here. I journaled throughout the experience and cataloged almost everything I purged during the 2 months I focused on getting rid of the things that clog up my life {there were too many things to keep the experiment contained into just January, so February became Month 1b. I’ve added up all the days in January + my extra purging month of February = 59 days. Letting go of 7 things each day x 59 days = 413 possessions. Guess how many things I was able to get rid of? 583! Even if I hadn’t counted all the clothing and jewelry I purged my total would still have been over 413. I am shocked. And slightly disgusted that even after removing all of those things there are still things in my house. I thought 583 would look like more. I am feeling so much better, though. Literally less burdened. Less overwhelmed. Less distracted. If you are feeling weighed down by your things, do some Spring cleaning…. but read Jen’s book 7 first to get your heart in the right place. If your heart isn’t in the right place, you won’t make sacrifices. You won’t end up actually letting go of the possessions that are burdening you. You’ll just go through your stuff and get rid of extras {the stuff you never use, the stuff that is broken}. Freedom won’t come until you’re getting rid of things that you actually love too much. It is possible to love stuff too much. and it makes you sick. It’s time to let it go.
now sing this, you know it’s in your head anyway:
Now on to Month 2: Spending.
I did a little research on our spending habits. On average, we spend money at 25 different places each month {different places, not repeat spending at the same place}. I’d say that’s a little excessive. For this month we have chosen to spend our money at only 6 places:
- Farm Fresh {groceries}
- 7-11 {gas, no coffee or snacks}
- Online Bill pay {student loans, electric/water, mortgage… the usual “I’m an adult now” bills}
- childcare
- Walgreens {pharmacy}
- Target {for random, emergency life needs only}
It sounds pretty easy. Well, since I have already been living these limitations for almost 2 weeks I’ve got firsthand knowledge – it’s not! It is so incredibly easy to just walk into a store and spend money. so easy. I had no idea I was so absent-minded with my money. Now, like my buddy Jen Hatmaker, I could sustain all my life’s needs in Target alone. During the next month, though, I am only allowed to walk into target to purchase an emergency item or for unforseen need: a gift, toothpaste, or {like today} to buy a pack of sposies since we ran out {I have a really hard time keeping track of the emergency disposable diaper stash we keep for random use, like in the church nursery, since we use cloth the rest of the time}.
Having such a limited arena for spending means we will be really cutting back. No playdates with the mom’s group that cost anything, passing on lunch for the coworker’s birthday, getting up early enough to make coffee at home instead of stopping at DD on the way to work, not buying the tools from Home Depot to re-caulk the tub until the month is done {the mold can wait another month, or six}.
ok and there’s a small confession rattling around in my brain that I just have to get out. I had a long day on Thursday {like 13 hours of work long}. On the way home from giving a lecture that evening I realized my stomach was practically eating itself since my last meal had been lunch. I caved. I visited a drive-thru and crammed fries and a burger down with minimal guilty feelings. It wasn’t an accidental purchase. It was a flat out refusal to follow the rules. Whew, glad that’s over with.
Where do you find you spend most of your money? Will you participate in cutting down excessive expenses for this month with us?