Unshopper Encore

Did you know that the average Canadian family spends something like $800 on Christmas gifts?

Am I the only one who's shocked? How is it possible that the average Canadian has $800 to spend on gifts in one month of the year? No wonder everyone's neck-deep in debt.

Even when I was living in a big house in a family unit that made well over the average Canadian salary, we spent probably less than $800 for everyone's gifts all together. And that would include the big gift for the family--a piece of furniture or electronics. I can't imagine spending $800 on presents.

Apparently, the average Canadian spends $1447--one thousand four hundred and forty-seven dollars!--on Christmas!

I tell you, this makes me feel considerably better about my own holiday spending. Last week I was feeling guilty about the size of the pile of presents beneath the tree (that it was too big), yet altogether I don't think it cost me even $100. And not that cheapness is a virtue, but spending more could not have made Frances any happier than she was with that little yellow duckie.

You might have guessed that shopping is not my big thing. It's even less my big thing now that I'm a single mom who never drives. For one thing, I can't just "pop out" in the evenings--I have to stay home with Frances--and so I only have Thursday and Friday evenings and Saturday during the day, if I want to hit a few stores. Generally by then I'm just too tired and there are too many other things to take care of. For another, when you see something great in the stores, and then realize that you are going to have to carry it home, that you can't just pop it into the trunk but will need to lug it somewhere on foot, well. That often tips the scales from "bargain" to "can't be bothered." I have not been to a scrapbooking store since I moved to the apartment (I have to driiiiiiiive, it's so faaaaaaaaar), or any big box outfit except for toys-r-us to find Frances some legos. (And to remind myself, as if I needed it, of how pink has sugar-coated the modern consciousness of girlhood to a toxic degree; but that is a separate gripe.)

Except, that, you know.

There's a bookstore across the street.

And I like bookstores. I like to wander around in them. I like to pick up books, and admire the covers, and feel the texture of the pages, and sample a few paragraphs, and read the reviews, and imagine who I might be when the book is done, that incrementally different Andrea who has learned something valuable or challenging or just novel. I like to pore over the magazine racks, pick up something I haven't seen before to flip through it and see what its philosophy is, admire the glossy photographs, snort at the headlines, look at all the things I could learn how to do if only I had unlimited time to pursue it. I like shopping for books and magazines. And there is a nice big bookstore across the street.

As a result, there are about forty books and magazines that I have not yet finished in my apartment. Forty. Now I realize that for some people this is status quo; but I hate owning books I've never read, even if they're books I get twenty pages into before realizing that it's utter tripe and my time would be better spent perusing the callgirl ads at the back of the free alternative newsweeklies.

This is all a very long and roundabout way of saying that, unshopper that I am, I could stand some improvement. A challenge. A reminder of what is important. Surely what is important does not include a small library's worth of books and magazines that I will never get around to reading. (But then I see some great new book and I think that if I don't get it now I might not ever get it, it will go out of print and I will forget it exists and then I won't have the option of reading it in the future when I have time! And somehow, each time, this strikes me as a tragedy I can ill afford, and I cave to the siren song of the book.)

Right. So. I'm doing this, again:

Two months. No shopping except for necessities (food, medications). Can I do it?

I think I probably can, but, ah, I have a confession to make. I pre-shopped for my unshopping months. I did. I identified a few things I would need over the next two months that don't fall in the food-and-medications category and got them this week. Like fitness shoes, since the old ones were so old that the lining was wearing through and the soles were giving out, and I workout several days per week so it was a situation that could only deteriorate. (They were on sale, though--30% off.) And like two photo frames to frame up some of the Frances photos that had been moldering on the kitchen table. (Several other photos continue to molder.) And like two waterproof mattress pads so Frances can start sleeping diaper-free (they, too, were 40% off). And like the two sequels to a book I am reading now, because I will finish it soon and I don't want to have to wait until March to find out what happens next. (But! But! They are research for the novel. Really!) So I am not perfect.

And I already know I am going to make a few exceptions:

1. Craft supplies if they are for a particular project. For instance, if I am at the scrapbooking store doing some pages with a friend and need a piece of cardstock to finish a page, then that's ok. Adding to the stash at home is not. I'm not likely to do this more than once in the next two months so it's not a terribly big deal. Also, once I finish painting the night table, my next project is an apron because I truly need an apron. I do a lot more cooking now than I did when I was married (how does that work, exactly?) and it has not been kind to my wardrobe. I have a pattern; I don't have fabric.

2. A new giant sketch pad for Frances, who has completely filled every page in her existing one, and I know she will not go without colouring in such a book for two months.

Otherwise, though, no shopping until March.

Not even books and magazines.

Now, this might not seem all that impressive, considering the pre-shopping and exceptions already outlined. But when I look back at my goals from last year's unshopping experience, it all turned out pretty well. Most of them became habits--I don't buy consumer magazines anymore (with the very occasional exception), I rarely buy junk food or diet coke, and I hardly ever go to craft stores outside of particular projects. The only thing that didn't stick was the chocolate, and that's because the local grocery store does not appear to stock the fair-trade variety, which stinks. For a four-week non-shopping exercise, that's not bad.

At least the unshopping will give me more time to pursue my New Year's Resolutions (come back tomorrow for that fresh evidence of insanity).

Posted by Andrea at December 31, 2007 6:24 AM under Me , The Green Family

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