Do you buy a lot of stuff?

I try to spend my money on groceries.
A couple of years ago I went on a book buying binge from Amazon. As I had a crush on the postal worker.

I do buy pillows, bedding and jumbo towels, as needed.

I have kept my phone since November 2023.

Not at all. I am starting to be in the decluttering phase of life.

I have a part time job that entails us going into elderly people’s homes that are moving into assisted living or nursing homes or just smaller homes. Or people that have died.
We go through and declutter first. Then the owner shows us what they want to take. We move that stuff. Then we set up for an on line auction or an estate sale.
This job has taught me a lot about decluttering and not leaving a lot of junk for people to have to sort through.
So I generally don’t buy anything else I don’t need.

I used to. But I found myself throwing it out within a year or two.

There are two things I buy and keep when I am traveling:

1. coffee mugs, with the name of the location on them. I use mugs every day and they get put into the rotation. Mugs end up breaking over time (my Budapest one just broke last week) so I constantly replenish my supply.

2. Art – I don’t buy much, but when I bug it is usually fairly expensive and it is meaningful to me. So I hang it and keep it.

When we travel we try to get a fridge magnet. We have a metal backed frame in our kitchen where we put them. That’s generally all we will get.

I Iike to simplify my life and I buy little. Like @Blackwater_Park I restrict myself to buying fridge magnets when travelling.

I used to (a lot):

Over 250 cookbooks (started collecting in 1967)

68 pieces of art; hanging on the walls (some are my wife’s and mine)

4 dozens pieces of glass and ceramics (several are my wife’s and mine)

6 large pieces of yard art (Whirligigs, a sundial and large iron sculptures)

4 outdoor cookers (ceramic smoker, gas grill, gas fired pizza oven and a portable charcoal grill)

The only things I’ve bought in the last five years is; one painting from a friend of ours in Hawaii and an autographed cookbook last week.

Not any more, I am trying to get rid of stuff.

There are some situations where I’ll allow myself (or us, if I’m with my daughter) to buy things, but otherwise I’m trying to reduce on buying because I don’t have the room or the need.

If we take a trip to a special place, like a summer trip, we’ll get some things. Refrigerator magnets, or some handmade pottery from a craft fair are two examples. If my daughter wants a tee shirt or sweat shirt, yes.

Last year we went to Maine in the summer and I bought a ceramic pig and a ceramic owl from a craft fair, and a few other little pottery things that were handmade from a pottery store. Those things are memorable souvenirs for me.

If we go to a museum, I may buy a postcard or an art print (poster) and frame it. Those things are memorable souvenirs, for me, too.

I may buy a book or two a month.

I will buy craft supplies as needed because I like to do crafts (wood refrinishing for example, so clamps, sandpaper, sanders, brushes, paint and stuff like that). I’ve bought adult coloring books and colored pens and pencils and never actually did anything with them. I have all kinds of craft supplies and it’s very organized.

I’m trying not to buy clothes but if I see sneakers and they’re well priced, I buy them and store them away so when I need some, I have a supply and they were reasonably priced. If I go to Costco and they have something really well priced, I ask myself if I really need it, and I try to resist buying it.

I’ve been trying to get rid of jewelry and clothes since I have a lot. It’s a constant going-through and purging.

After I cancelled my amazon prime subscription, I intend to boycott colonial companies in general, which I expect will reduce my spending habits.

My weakness is books. Somebody tells me about a book that I really want to read and I go and buy it, even though I have tons of books that I haven’t read yet that I already own.

I’m not so much into buying the knick-knacky stuff, unless I’m looking for a Christmas or birthday gift for somebody and they’re notoriously hard to buy for. Anything I like in that regard, and even those I haven’t bought for years, are various little snowmen characters. For instance, I have one I bought years ago at the ocean that is a snowman but it’s made out of sand instead of snow. Maybe once I get moved, they will come out again next winter.

@LifeQuestioner Me too, about books.

Recently, I had a bunch of clothes to give away, and I decided that instead of giving them to the Vietnam Veterans, where I don’t actually know what happens to them, I would bag them up by size, label the bags and bring them to a local deli where I know that Central and South Americans work. I had never been to that deli before, but I passed it many times and I knew the area. I took the bags in my car, walked in, told them I had clothes to donate and I asked if they knew a place that needed clothes, and the lady said she knew people, so I brought the bags in and explained to her what it was and how it was sorted and labeled by size. The bags were see through so she knew it was the real deal. I was happy that the clothes, which were good clothes that someone could use, like hoodies, actually went to someone who could use them.