Embargos & Excuses

It’s been four weeks since the shopping embargo went into effect.   Interestingly, I’ve had fewer total temptations in the last three weeks than I had in the first week,  It may have been because I wasn’t watching as much shopping television, but I also believe I began to break a vicious cycle.  That’s not to say I wasn’t tempted.  But what tempted me wasn’t jewelry or clothes; it was skin care—products I like and use that were specially priced (i.e., on sale).  But I have a backlog of skin care products, and I’ve learned that special pricing occurs all the time.

So, I’ve been successful!  Now comes the part I have to word carefully to avoid negativity.  (Many women tend to qualify their successes, i.e., “I completed my goal, but…”  It defeats the positive self-talk we try so hard to achieve and lessens the value of our successes.)  I’ve not brought anything new into the house, with the exception of a new cat litter box.  (It was necessary because one of the cats began protesting the non-clumping litter I’d accidentally bought.)  Now I need to start getting rid of the useless items.

So I’m going to extend the shopping embargo for at least two weeks. And I’m adding the goal of removing items destined for the trash, Goodwill, Freecycle, etc.  Since I need a quantifier, how about 3 times per week?  Two trash days, and one day for Goodwill items.  And how about one Freecycle item as well?  Is that too much?  I don’t want to set myself up for failure by doing too much.  But really, that’s not very much, is it?