10 Things I Did Not Buy This Year

I am not wishing the economic roller coaster that many of us have experience this year on anyone…..but I do believe that there is good to be gleaned from any situation. As Albert Einsten said, ” In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity”.

Whether you have or haven’t made it to the middle yet, here are 10 things I did not buy this year because of the economy and I am glad!

1. New BIG screen TV~We have a 5 year old something-teen inch screen, no cable or satellite feed, just DVD’s and VHS tapes to watch on our schedule. We love the REDBOX in the foyer of our local Wal Mart, the library and used book sales where we have picked up lots of great historical and entertaining media for cheap.

2.New MINI Cooper Clubman~What a cool looking car with a “suicide door” and room for more stuff! Exactly what we DON”T need!

3.New Laptop~Unbelievable what $800 will buy these days! Memory, speeds….nope! Invested $100 in a terabite storage unit and increased the speed and memory of the machine I have.

4.New Camera~Just think of all the, “even better shots” I could get! Nix that! My first camera lasted me 15 years…I think this one will suffice for  more than 2! I am working on being more creative with what I’ve got!

5.Brand new Stainless Steel Appliances~It was very tempting to buy a whole “suite” at Lowes, but I walked away and sat down in front of my 2 year old laptop and found gently used ones on ebay. We saved over 1K.

6.Laundry Detergent~OK…I DID buy laundry detergent, I just didn’t buy it from my local Wal Mart. I subscribe to Amazon’s Shop and Save program and have a case of All Concentrated Laundry Detergent
auto shipped to me every 3 months. Shipping is free, the price is competitive and I figure every time I DON”T walk into my local Wal Mart I save $100!

7.The Pretty Plants In Front at Lowes~I walked all the way to the back and found the sad and distressed sale rack and found bargains galore. usually victims of over watering and small pot syndrome, I picked up wonderful plants for as little as 0.38 and didn’t lose a one.

8.Cases of Water~It felt like a BIG expenditure at the time, but we purchased 4 SIGG Water bottles at Amazon and haven’t had to buy a single bottle of water since. I even have a purse with a special built in pocket to hold me Sigg bottle.

9.Decorator Pillows~OK, I really don’t like to sew, but I do know how and at $20 and up for store bought decorator pillows, it wasn’t that hard to find the motivation to find a marked down remnant in just the right color and make pillow making into a schooling lesson for the kids. Our pillows cost $4 each and we have fabric left over for another project.

10.Books at Borders or Barnes & Nobles~I remembered to take pen and paper and I wrote down ALL the great books that I would have loved to have bought on the spot. I came home instead, and looked them up on Amazon and found great deals, new and used….such as Michael J Fox’s Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist
I subscribe to Amazon Prime so I get them in 2 days with Free Shipping. I can always wait TWO days for a book!

And what of the pictures of the wheels up top? Well, I didn’t buy them either. There was a large bin of them at a military surplus store in Idaho. We did pick up about 20 books there for a buck a piece!