Stuff

In reading "The Story of Stuff" I have become significantly more aware of just how much I consume. Considering this, I realize that in my own need to consume, I am also causing myself a great deal of stress, worry and concern. Why may this be?

Well, in my pursuit to consume more and more stuff, I am also continuously spending more and more money. This has occured to a point in which the majority of my income goes towards my housing costs and then debt. Debt! Such a crisis in this country I know, and here I am one of those people who is drowning in it.

Now not all of my debt is so-called bad debt. I have gone to school for a good number of years, including as a graduate student. So I do have some school debt. However, I continue to rack up this debt even as I am at the very end of my schooling and am currently employed full-time.

I've realized recently that if I do not make some drastic changes to my life, this stress of money and consumption is going to become out-of-control. As Annie Leonard concedes, it is in fact an obsession with stuff!

Have you ever watched the show "Till Debt Do Us Part"? Well, let me tell you, I am a single woman, but this show still pertains to me. And I sit there and gawk at how people could get themselves into such a terrible position, and yet, here I am in the same position and doing nothing about it.

Yesterday is a good example. I went out for breakfast with a friend, then took another friend out shopping for baby stuff (she is pregnant and due in 2 weeks), we went for lunch after and then went shopping some more. I got some needed (or nice to do things) like a condolence, birthday and new baby card and a birthday present for my roommate. Then I also got not needed items like new yarn. Later that night my other roommate and I went and got breadsticks at the pizza place for dinner. A day of not eating at home once.... not good considering how broke I am.

Thus, this is my push for simplicity considered in which I will seek to change my lifestyle to become more simple. In my reading and thinking of the past little while, I am realizing that the combination of seeking simplicity, which trying to reduce debt could go hand in hand and hopefully, lead me to the place I want to be in my life.

Will it work? I suppose we will have to wait and see.