Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Sticking to My New Year's Resolution


I have completed my first month of 2012 by following my New Year’s resolution.  I heard on the radio recently that on average, people abandon their New Year’s resolutions by about the 17th day of January.  I am sticking to this one for the whole year of 2012.  I am not purchasing anything new for myself that I don’t really need.  No new shoes, no new coats, no bathing suits and no new karate uniforms.  If I need something, I am only buying it second hand at the thrift store or on Ebay.  It definitely came up a few times this month, but I just asked myself, “do you really need this” and of course the answer was “no”!    The point is that we waste so much and I am trying to challenge myself to be more conservative.  Of course I am saving myself some money at the same time, so this is another “win/win” challenge.
Of course the winter in New York is a great time to get a handle on over spending.  I am an avid snowboarder, but I have to tell you I really do want those new bindings for my board that I have had my eye on since last season.  The thing is, I have a new board and bindings all set up, and I am actually thinking of buying new bindings to put on an old board my son gave me.  All I have to do is just switch the bindings over to the old board and that would take me about 20 minutes to assemble.  When I think about how lazy that would be to waste the money on new bindings, I can’t believe that I actually have considered purchasing a new set.
My karate students all know about my challenge.  We speak often about setting goals and taking our knocks along the way.  The other day in class, we started a discussion on Wii games and how there are different games that are physical and challenging.  The students said we should get a flat screen tv in the dojo, so we could have a movie night and also a Wii game night.  Great idea, until one student pointed out that Sensei Michelle couldn’t make any unnecessary purchases in all of 2012 and that she doesn’t really NEED that flat screen tv.
Constant reminders of this challenge come up everyday.  I can honestly say that the only purchases I made were for a notebook and a day planner.  I guess those items would be hard to find used.