Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Splurges, Purges = Urges

Urges can be hard to fight, taking over any will power or discipline one may have. Whether you Splurge or Purge, the letters coming before the Urge really matter little, however Purging can be much more beneficial than Splurges. Urges are extremely strong currents of emotions that compel is into a spontaneous action in the disguise of almost an uncontrollable desire. You never know when it will rise up......will you cave or will you be able to conquer and fight it off? Since an urge comes on so suddenly and when you least expect it, this is what makes one so vulnerable where the urges can win 9 times out of 10.

Have you splurged this week? We had a splurge the other day, not one we would normally do at all that was backed by a craving 3 out of 4 of us home had. Relaxing watching some TV as a family, we all looked at each other and yelled DONUTS SOUND SO GOOD!  I have no idea where this craving came from, nor why it hit the majority of the family at the same time. Was it a donut we saw in the movie or something else? NO IDEA BUT IT WAS THERE.

This prompted us to jump in our gas guzzling bronco and make the 5 mile trip to the store to buy a box of donuts. Now we rarely get donuts so the $4 to buy them was a splurge in it's own right. Add the unnecessary trip to town to get 1 item was a REAL splurge as I hate wasting gas and hate making a trip to town for 1 silly thing let alone something we really don't even need. Any way you look at it the urge to splurge won out and money was spent needlessly but oh were they so good! On a plus note, when I noticed my adorable sweet neighbor of 78 years old was sitting on her porch a little upset, this allowed me to have a wonderful hour long visit with her on a beautifully sunny warm day and give her a donut cheering her up.

It also allowed me to have a wonderfully horrible for you but tasting so good dinner of donuts, peaches and tuna sandwiches! It also made me feel bad about eating a processed food in a month I am trying to switch over to unprocessed foods! But there is something about and iced jelly filled donut that when mama craves it, she can not control the urge to forgo it! 

Now granted this splurge was fairly small considering how those with a tendency to splurge on regular basis, can run into many financial problems and even get themselves into a heap of debt as they can not seem to fight their splurges. I have seen more often than not, families running into serious issues due to their splurging habits. No ours was quite small in comparison and will not break the bank and does not happen on too regular of a basis. They are occasional ones that even though we may know better, gives us a tiny bit of pleasure in the moment. We have learned to appreciate these tiny moments of pleasure because they are not habitual and will not drain our finances adding more stress into our financial obligations.

My other splurge was necessary and that was adding $25 to my laundry day by washing every blanket and sheet in the house in preparation for winter months where we will want extra blankets!

On the other hand PURGES feel so much better, after all Purging is a process of removing unwanted things and clutter from our lives and is an action of liberation!

On my journey to a more minimalist life I have started the Purging process this month of getting rid of the things we have no use for, is just outright clutter and junk, broken or just not wanted.

I went through my daughters room as her creative levels can tend to leave chaos in her wake and cleaned out her 3 laundry hamper bin that we use for toys and sewing materials. I removed a whole garbage bag of burning from her room and 2 garbage bags of junk scrap material that can no longer be used with some broken toys. I also got rid of another full garbage bag of torn blankets and unwearable  clothing from my room this week.

I had a brown paper grocery bag full of jeans that somebody else had given us but nobody here could wear. These were donated to a donation box next to where hubby works.

Since I went through all the trouble of washing all the bedding and blankets, I purchased a few new pillows for me and hubby and threw out our old ones as well!

All this purging this week has me feeling great and I am no where near done, I am just getting started and the more I do, the more I am motivated to DE-own what is not needed here in order to simplify our living space.

Have you PURGED this week?

Which do you like better Splurging or Purging?

Has Splurging ever got you into financial troubles?

 

1 comment:

  1. I can actually say I have not had any splurges this week, or even last week, which is good. Mind you buying a pork pie and a bag of salad and a loaf of bread for supper last Thursday may be classed as a splurge, because along with 4 yogurts that all came to over $11. Still the bread lasted a few days but the rest we ate for supper. Still cheaper than eating out for the two of us.

    Gill

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