I gave up shopping in January – my first Month Without – and I failed. No. Really. I mean it. Not just a little bit, either. Big, fat, loud, crashing, booming FAILED. I shopped. But I’m finding solace in the notion that the only thing worse than failing, is never trying in the first place.

I got a new job – just after I made this resolution. Well, okay, it’s more of a responsiblity change at the cube farm, than it is a new job, but still – the change required a more professional wardrobe, which necessitated the purchase of a few staples. A pair of pointy-toed black pumps and a cocktail dress (That I found on super-double clearance for…wait for it….NINE DOLLARS!!!).  So I didn’t blow it, in the strictest sense of the word, but still.

I shopped.

Which taught me that I’m no good at “making due.” I’m horrible at it really. I have the means to buy a super double clearance cocktail dress, and maybe I’m a slave to the fake necessity of such a garment (on super double clearance!). I’ve thought about how this defines me and what it means about me as a person, as well as my life priorities. But the troube is that I couldn’t. I coudn’t put myself in a some horrible box because I shopped in January.  I guess that’s something in and of itself. Perhaps my thought process behind giving up shopping -that it was something that I do too much of that I don’t really need – was taken too literally. Shopping isn’t something I shouldn’t or can’t ever do, it was simply someting I did too much of, more than was necessary, but not something I need to give up altogether.

Which means that maybe I didn’t fail afterall. Yes,  shopped, but I learned that it’s okay to spend wisely and to shop when I need to. I learned that I don’t need to shop simply for the sake of it, or because I’m bored. There were – and are – plenty of other things to do instead.

Like online shopping…..

Kidding! But, speaking of the internets, it’s a new month now, and so it’s time to give up something else. February is officially Facebook Free. Yes. That’s right. I’m giving up Facebook (with the exception of updating from my photography page!). I’ve deleted it off my phone and have sworn willpower over logging into it on the computer at home. I’m done. Finished. Caput. Real life IS greater than Facebook, and it is definitely something I do to much of, but don’t NEED. So, out it goes.

For a mere 28 days.

Wish me luck.

xo