The Stuff Diet

Catherine Porter is one of my favourite writers at the Toronto Star. Unlike columnists at "other" papers, she actually writes about things that normal, busy, working people might be interested in. Oh, and she writes with humour and intelligence. In her column today, she writes about The Stuff Diet. If you go on the Stuff Diet, you are asked not to buy anything other than food, booze (I'm not making that one up), and health-related products for three months. At first, I thought I could never manage this, but then she mentioned that you can shop at thrift stores. Woo-hoo! I'm in.

I'm the perfect candidate for this because: 1. I hate shopping for clothes 2. I loath malls - I sneeze just thinking about the perfume counter 3. I don't need anything except for funky vintage things for the house.

I can do this. Going on this extended shopping Lent will allow me to be smug about consumerism and still go out and prowl for Pyrex and load up on other treasures. My only disclaimer is that we've ordered a replica fifties kitchen table and chair set and we will still have to pay the balance on within six weeks. Technically that means I'll be buying something fairly big, but here's my justification: By now we were supposed to have our dream wooden dining room table and chair set, but the Amish Furniture Outlet went bankrupt and we lost our sizable deposit. After 17 years of marriage, we lost a substantial chunk of money and still had no dining table for us to sit at with our young son. I don't feel guilty about the fifties kitchen set because A. It is being custom made in Winnipeg and I'm therefore supporting the Canadian economy. B. It looks very cool. C. We plan on having it for our lifetime, so it's not the same as loading up on a pile of disposable junk.

I'll blog for the next three months. Can I make it? Oh thrift stores, don't let me down!

Erin

P.S. Here's the link to her article http://www.thestar.com/living/shopping/article/749469--porter-why-i-ve-sworn-off-shopping-for-three-months