Are you capable of buying nothing but the necessities? It is harder than you might think.
A couple of weeks ago, Julie G, our hardworking deals blogger introduced the concept of the five stages of deals. In the article, she listed five stages of shopping, from buying full retail to only buying necessities. She talked about a friend of hers who has a five acre waterfront property almost paid off, attributing her lack of debt to never buying anything that isn’t a necessity.
Now I try to live pretty frugally, looking for deals, conserving our resources, buying used when it applies, sharing and swapping things, seeking out low cost entertainment and cooking from scratch. But I don’t know how I would do under a regiment of buying nothing that wasn’t necessary. I’m sure that we could do it under a crisis, but I don’t know how well we would fair in real every day life.
I’ll give you an example. I thought I might start with the buy nothing philosophy right away. But I found myself with many roadblocks. Here are a few:
Birthday and holiday presents for my children, my spouse and my nieces and nephews.
Our membership to a local attraction. Fortunately this is already paid for, but what if we wanted to renew? We have gotten so much out of this membership, from concerts, to kids learning programs, to fresh air and exercise. But it isn’t a necessity.
Our phone and Internet connection. Well, I might be able to justify these as necessity, since I use both for an income.
Cable television. That could easily go, but it is tied in to our phone and Internet.
And then there are the extremes, such as buying electricity. Is it a necessity? The Amish get along fine without it. I might be able to justify this one by saying that we need it for our water pump, furnace and refrigerator, but could we otherwise live in the dark?
What do you think? Is there a way that we can adapt some of the philosophy of that fifth stage without living a restricted life? I’d love to hear your opinions and advice.
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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