Compact is going to be broken for this!

R.I.P Little buddy :-(


The family went to Springfield to see Obama and Biden. I had my Nano, (I never leave home without it). The day was VERY hot and we had been standing in the crowd for over 2 hours when Ashley fainted (she was fine after getting some water and shade). I knelled down to pick her up in my arms to rush her to the medical tent, and my iPod must have slipped out of my pocket. I think I will be replacing it ASAP! Sorry compact but this is going under the reasonable person rule. Most would say that it does not fall under that and it is not needed. Well for me it is!!!! Like I said this thing is with me ALWAYS!! Great to see Obama, sucked that Ashley passed out and I lost my tunes.

20/20

Even in this short time that I have been attempting to curtail my personal spending, I have learned a lot. The first thing I have learned is that I have a LONG way to go. Reading over my blog is a adventure in spending. I do have to say that I have not bought any "thing" for myself, and for those that know me, that is a MAJOR accomplishment. (I did buy an electronic copy of Obama's "Audacity of Hope" and have been diligently listening to it on my iPod.) But I still am going through money like water. Eating expensive take-out, (locally owned and operated), Tossing my possessions into a landfill, or spending money on concerts. I am going to continue to see shows, but I need to go to concerts less frequently. I need to be aware of all the unnecessary "quick" trips to the store for something the kids feel they need at that moment, or the forgetting my batteries and stopping to pick up some from the store. I guess a large portion of the success comes from training yourself to be mindful.. That takes time. I am on that path, and have to say, that I'm surprised that I have any desire left to do this. The opposite is true. I have become more committed to doing this, not less over time. This is not being done so that I can feel bad about myself, and in all honesty I feel pretty proud over-all at how well I have done. Onward and forward!

Compact Update

Gen and I went with Steve, Gina, and Ellen to see Lifehouse last night. Pleasantly surprised at how good they were! Bought some empenatas and headed in to catch the end of the opening act... Yawn! Got home about 1:00 and got to bet about 2:00. Going to be a tiered day at work. Did not get a shirt or a poster. Just the show dinner and a beer. Puran for lunch yesterday. Paper containers in the trash. Looking forward to getting some more downsizing at the house this weekend. I would like to get the garage completely stripped of stuff. We shall see. Books and clothes are going out the door as are any unused toys.

8/14/08 Compact Report

Had to drop some cash yesterday. Got a salad in a paper boat for just under $5 and then had to go to Lowe's for com yard bags $16.00 for cleaning out the garage. Ashley had asked for a new desk lamp, and we found a really cool one for $15.00. So I spent a total of about $35 bucks. Oh I do have to add in something I got for myself. For $12.00 I got Obama's Audacity of Hope audio book. It is the first non utilitarian purchase since going on the compact. I did not by anything to clutter up my house as it is a digital copy and will not end up in a landfill. I should not have bought it, but with the convention coming up soon, I had been wanting to read it and did not want to get a hard copy. I set this 24 hour deal, and broke it FAST. Just need to be more mindful of my thoughts and develop that needed filter that will keep me from using spending as a drug. Also need to work on being more mindful of packaging and reducing my impact by making the amount of, and type of packaging into my decision to purchase.

08/12/08 Compact Report

Spent some bread on myself today. I got some aspirin, nicotine lozenges, breath spray, eye drops, and some ear plugs for Gen. The total was like $87.00 Holy crap! Not going to let that happen again. I got the large batch of lozenges to wean myself off of them. I got a crappy flavor so they are not associated with pleasure so much now. Need to re-think my personal product footprint and not let that become an area of weakness. I am growing a beard to save on the huge expense of razors. Still have to sort the trash in my truck so no garbage to report except a slim cardboard boat for my salad. That was $4.50...no drink. I did get a coffee in the morning in my own mug for $1.00. Could see slipping back into some bad habits, need to follow the plan. I is not that hard, but easy to stay when you are in a store that is designed to get you to purchase on impulse. From now on I am going to purchase, if I can, 24 hours behind the perceived need. That gives me time to evaluate the need and to consider alternatives to buying more stuff.

The Weekend Ending 8/10/2008: Compact Update

Feel good about the amount of cleaning I was able to get done this weekend. There are still lots more to get rid of, but made some good progress. The trick now is to get passed the house is more or less clean, the garage is not horrible and the storage room is able to be entered. That kind or resting on laurels will put me back in the same place fast. Now is the time for diligence, keep peeling back the layers to live in a house that I want to be in. This is going to take a while. This clutter has kept us from making improvements to the home that are badly needed. The carpet is crap and needs to be removed. Need to do some serious thinking about what kind of flooring we want. Not going to be carpet as it is crap all around for the environment. I am thinking of a possible paper bag floor in the basement, and laminate on all the others, unless the bag floor is cool then may use it in other rooms. I thought of doing the basement in old album covers as well, or posters and CD and album covers. Could be a cool mosaic, or a HUGE mess…

My spending this weekend was minimal. I had a small cup of coffee from the evil clown store yesterday while on the road. As I stated before this weekend was a big cleaning out of crap in the house. Some things in the basement had been wet and were ruined. Our first choice was to donate then recycle then last resort dump. More than I would have liked ended up at the dump, but a lot of the mess was papers and technical manuals that went in the big bin to be recycled. My foot print was big this weekend, but my consumption was minimal. Ate at home all weekend. It is going to be much easier to manage the output when you start managing the input.