Things I have thought about buying

I wrote recently about how, despite conventional wisdom, I value some of my possessions just as much as experiences. After all, aren't your possessions part of your daily experiences? The key is that the stuff that really makes me happy is stuff that I thought about, wanted, and planned for over a long time, rather than stuff that I impulse bought.

So I'm trying not to impulse buy anything. This was easy for me pre-Internet, but now I'm always looking at pictures and stories about other people's stuff, and I think, "ooh, I need that too!" As an experiment, I'm going to try posting the stuff I'm tempted to buy here, instead of actually buying it. I'm looking at it as collecting these items for later, so if I ever really need any of them, I know where to find them again. Of course, this could backfire and every time I look at my blog I could be reminded of all this cool stuff that I'd like to buy.

Here are the things I thought about buying this week:

1. Fingerless gloves to keep my hands warm in the office.
2. Zumba Fitness Wii game (and other Wii fitness games... even though let's face it, I already have three that I have not used in months. But if I had this one, I'd actually use it because I'm bored of the other ones and this one will motivate me! Maybe.)
   
3. A scarf.
4. The following books: Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne and Lisa M. Ross, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart, Everyone's Reading Bastard by Nick Hornby.
   
5. Curtains for the living room. These are way too expensive for me to ever justify buying, but I love the patterns and the robin's egg color.
   

And here are the things I actually did buy: Lunch (1 day). Diapers. Groceries. Ice cream treat for K. So far this week, I've been good, despite the Trader Joe's shopping spree on Columbus Day.

P.S. A few updates:

• I'm trying NOT to buy things. Why are you all leaving me comments encouraging me to buy things?
• I left out two things I bought last week: breakfast for me and K at a neighborhood diner on his day off (worth it!), and This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz. I used to be a big library person, but lately every time I want to read anything, it takes a month to get it on request, ad then I have to actually get to the library during the three-day window after they notify me. Kindle = more money but instant gratification.
• This post actually did backfire. I bought the second two of those books (the Hornby one was a $2 short story), and I found that EXACT same curtain fabric on sale at fabric.com and bought 18 yards for $80, enough for curtains for my entire living room, AND while I was on a decorating kick I bought some beautiful sheets of fine paper from Paper Source to use as decorations for that blank wall in our room with blotches where the electricians left holes. So, I don't think I will make this a weekly retrospective of things I thought about buying. But I don't regret any of these purchases either. I'm just trying to rein it in.