Comments on: Warning: Gremlins @ Work

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:59:03 +0000

I’m inspired by this post. In the past few years I’ve managed to severely reign in the shopping, sometimes to the point of obsessed according to my family, but that’s a whole other issue. The problem is that I’m still living with the accumulated stuff of my pre-frugal ways. To look around our house we have a lot of nice things (not overly cluttered, just everything nice). In truth, virtually none of it has been bought in the past 3 years, and some of it is much older. I used to “collect” cookbooks – I justified my book addiction by focusing on something I could convince myself was useful. Afterall cooking at home was surely more sensible than eating out. When we built our home we included a lovely built in bookcase in the kitchen specifically for the cookbooks… at that time my collection was beautifully arranged, with breathing space around the books for other decorative items. After reading Gail’s post and other replies, I’ve just gone and taken a good hard look at what that bookcase has become. I just counted 218 cookbooks. O…M…G!!! There are no decorative items anymore, just books edge to edge, stacked up, slid in on top of the ones standing. Clearly nobody really needs 218 cookbooks. When did my beautifully arranged collection become a stockpile? How have I continued to walk past this bookcase without really seeing it until now? I suppose the answer is that it happened slowly over a long period of time. One book at a time, another inch of shelf space consumed.

I’ve just taken 32 books I haven’t used in several years off the shelves. Those were the easy ones to prune – I had no sentimental attachment to them and they won’t be missed. This weekend I’m setting aside half a day to carefully go through everything still on the shelves and get rutheless if necessary. If it isn’t used regularly, or hold great sentimental value it will go. I’ll be offering them free to family and friends first. Anything left after that will be posted for sale on the electronic newsgroup at work. Anything not sold after 2 weeks gets donated. I still have work to do but now I have a plan and a timeline. I feel better already.

A whole house purge it a little daunting, so I’m going to attack the problems as smaller focussed projects. Once the cookbook project is completed, the next project will be the stockpile of kids toys and clothing that are long outgrown. If I really think about it only a few things really hold sentimental value to me or the kids, and that’s all we really ought to keep. Cutting back to what is really important makes the items I’ve chosen to keep even more special.

By: Ajana

Ajana — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 02:37:44 +0000

I’m up to 18 days shopping only for necessities (i.e. food and ok a cheap tube of mascara which is a need if you have short fair eye lashes like mine.) It’s wonderful to come home with just a couple of bags of groceries to put away, not having to figure out where to put some other items when I don’t have the space.

When it comes down to it, most people’s needs are little – it’s our wants that are huge. My own “I’m-The-Shopper” Gremlin is being starved to death and life is much fuller for it.

By: dawn @ iowahippiechick

dawn @ iowahippiechick — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:01:19 +0000

I grew up in a home with every possible space filled with something – mostly dust collectors.
I didn’t like how it felt to live in that kind of a space and I didn’t like what it did to mom & dad’s finances.
With a family & home of my own … I’ve done pretty well avoiding all that.
Except for hubby – who can be a bit of a shopper gremlin.
Everything is a “collectible” to him.
Or it’s shiny.
Or it’s a tool that he needs.
Etc.
He likes to shop -
But … he is married to me … a girl that doesn’t like to shop!
So to make it manageable to both of our personalities, we have incorporated a no-questions-asked-spend-how-you-want/bi-monthly allowance.
I don’t judge what he does with it & he still has some freedom to shop.
This has worked pretty darn good so far …
But, since we bought the 2007 Harley Davidson motorcycle, it’s been a bit more difficult to reign him in.
There’s so many SHINY THINGS he wants to upgrade on it!!!
So that’s where he’s working on some delayed gratification … in other words saving up his spending allowance.
Geez … Boys & their Toys … does it ever end????

By: Kristine

Kristine — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 03:07:24 +0000

I didn’t know that I had the Gremlin in my house until we were cleaning up to “show” our home. My girlfriend came over and “cleaned us up”. Aparently, she had wanted to do it for some time… Yikes!!!! Our local charity did well that afternoon!! In our case, it took someone else to shock us into the reality of all of the “stuff” that we had. In fact, we have put a moratorium on gifts from siblings (free ecards and a call are perfect!!) and have asked that donations be made on our behalf to charities instead of giving us “stuff”.
Oh and I agree with Marie – cleaning is soooo much easier without having to move the “stuff” around!!!!!

By: Frugal Trenches

Frugal Trenches — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 19:21:37 +0000

This describes soooo many people! I’m anti shopping gremlin @ the moment and certainly planning to stay that way!

By: Marie

Marie — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:17:14 +0000

Avoid stores!
When shopping for a gift, not allowed to buy stuff for self. (That one is tough.)
Remind of max 25% of net income for life: holiday money, dog money, or stuff, make a choice.
If my place does not belong on the cover of a magazine, it is a lot less stressful to do maintenance and more comfortable!

By: Tracy J

Tracy J — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:47:59 +0000

You described my sister exactly! She feels she must keep everyone in her family and every surface in her home beautiful…. a lovely sentiment, but it has translated to if she sees ANYTHING beautiful (on sale) she feels she HAS to get it for her family/home even if she has 5 other pretty throw blankets or 15 pairs of cute pink sandals for her daughter, etc, etc.
Nasty cycle and now her home is CRAMMED with simply lovely things that she is in debt for and their closets are BURSTING with coordinating outfits for every season — tonnes with the tags still on!
It has gotten way past the point of reasonable and their line of credit is now so big they needed to get it secured with their house.
It’s not just sis either. The hubby feels he needs to have the biggest TV that will fit in the room, a terrific looking exotic motorcycle (with custom aftermarket parts) the best fishing equipment and a fine, shiny truck. He wants his son (who is 6) and daughter (who is 3) to have the best too. He feels they work hard and deserve the best, always. Again, it’s a lovely sentiment.
(The upsetting thing is even though they have the same goal -have the best and look good- they fight about who spends more and who is buying unneccesary stuff all the time. They hide purchases from each other… and they periodically stress heavily about the debt – the stress passes and then they buy more)
They work very hard, I know their income is very reasonable and I believe they must be thinking in gross BOTH their incomes when they shop.
AND they look so good, it is hard not to be jealous of the lovely home and life!