Eat, drink, replenish as needed

The best reaction to a small project I've undertaken has come from my friend, Christy.

"Why would you want to do that?" she asked upon hearing of my quest not to spend any money on things that aren't edible or depletable for a year.

Well, the answer is simple: I really don't need any of the things I buy anyway. I might wander through Target and drop countless unnecessary things into my buggy - a pair of shoes because they were on clearance or a new pair of earrings because they were cute - so that, by the time I've made it to the checkout, I had added lots to the grand total of my bill.

As a clothing store owner, Christy has a reason to want me to spend my dollars with her, and I will, I promise, when this year is over.

Jeff, my husband, and my co-workers are pretty sure I won't make it.

Maybe I won't. I do love fall fashions and the cute accessories that come with them. And I've been raised a consumer like most Americans. But what I'm hoping happens, instead, is that I clean my closets and find some cute stuff I had forgotten I had. More importantly, I want to learn the difference between something I need and something I want.

I read an article about a family of four who tried this experiment and succeeded, implementing a series of rules to help guide them.

As I'm not forcing this on my daughters, Maeve, 7, and Ally, 3, I've pared the project down to its essentials: Don't buy anything I can't eat or deplete. That means I can buy new mascara, just not a new cosmetics bag. I dust off my library card instead of buying the latest book. I sew a button on rather than dash out to buy yet another white blouse.

Even though this kicked off Aug. 1, I've not been without extreme temptation, and, for the most part, I've left the item behind. I'll admit to the cute denim pencil skirt because it will become a wardrobe staple and the journal I picked up for two bucks. (Filling the pages counts as depleting it, right?)

I had hoped to get a couple of my friends in on the act, too, for moral support, but Tricia and Allye were having none of it.

"I could never do that, Michelle," Tricia said. "I need to buy things for myself because it's the one thing I have that's just for me."

We're all moms, and most of our lives are dedicated to our children, so I see Tricia's point. Both she and Allye love to shop and will come home with bag after bag of new things weekly.

I'm keeping my resolve, though, and, yes, there will be glitches. I've got a birthday coming up, so how can I tell my husband not to buy me something?

Michelle Rupe Eubanks's column appears on Sundays on a rotating basis. For more from her, log on to TimesDaily.com.