19 for 2019: week 27 update

Week of 1 July

This has been another slow week for my 19 for 2019. Monday was 1 July so I decided to start this No-buy July thing. I don’t know if it’s a thing or not but if it isn’t it is now. (It is. I googled.)

When I was making my 19 for 2019 shortlist, I included a few month-long challenges I thought I’d like to do over the year. Only one of them ended up making it onto the final list of 19, which was the month with no alcohol (thing 13). There was also a month with no coffee, which I ended up doing pretty much alongside the no alcohol month, and a month of not buying anything I don’t need. This would include books, online courses, clothes, jewellery . . . anything that I don’t actually need and tend to buy on impulse or on sale or because of one of those breathless “LAST CHANCE!!!!!” emails, without considering if I really need it or am really going to read it or do it. (Spoiler: I don’t.)

So this is my challenge for July. I didn’t pick July because it rhymes with “no buy”, I just decided to do it this month.

Strategy one in this quest is to avoid shops at lunch time. Yes, that includes bookshops. The temptation there is too great.

Strategy two is to delete any emails that look like they might have tempting things or sales advertised in them. New fountain pens? Delete. Look at these beautiful new notebooks! Delete. 30 per cent off at my favourite clothes store? Delete? Buy two get one free? Delete. You mustn’t miss this opportunity for this shiny new course! Delete. LAST CHANCE!!! Delete. Funky pillow you can sleep at your desk with? Delete. All Udemy courses on sale? Delete. New . . .  Wait a minute! Funky pillow I can sleep at my desk with? Did you say sleep at my desk?!   Hold on . . . surely I need this?!

You do not.

*Makes folder of things to look at in August* *Files email*

Okay, this started out well. I managed to get through the first week pretty easily. I even went to Spiceworld to get the spices I had run out of without making a detour into my favourite clothing store next door. (Spiceworld is my downfall.) And then on Friday morning, unexpectedly in the mail arrives a loyalty voucher from my favourite bookstore as a reward for buying all those books I haven’t read over the last 12 months or so.

Oh dear!

This is a true test.

Free books!

But No-buy July!

But free isn’t actually buying, is it . . . ?

Well technically, no, but the point of No-buy July in my view is to not accumulate more stuff. It’s not about spending money. So no, I may not spend the voucher this month. Instead, I can think about all the wonderful books I might get on 1 August and choose one (or two) that I really want and that I will read.

In terms of my actual 19 for 2019 list, this week I’ve been focusing (imperfectly) on my evening routine (thing 6). I took some photos that might work for one of the photo course assignments (thing 1) so I’ll count that as progress, and I also watched one of the videos. I stuck one photo in my 2018 photojournal before I ran out of tape (thing 11). I bought more tape, after an exciting lunchtime trip to Spotlight where I wandered round with this look of devastated confusion on my face for ten minutes because I couldn’t find the tape. And finally, I now have a list of 100 things I might be happy to put in the Bucket List journal (thing 18).

That is all good.

Status for week 27

• Things completed this week: 0
• Things completed to date: 9 (3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 15)
• Things I progressed: 4 (1, 6, 11, 18)
• Things in progress I didn’t progress:  4 (2, 16, 17, 19)
• Things not started: 2 (10, 14)