living simply.

"Really and truly live more simply, at least for now; go through things and SELL THEM OFF, make it hurt, make a real concerted effort to pay off debt and get in a better position. don't incur debt like this again. make lists of things you'd like to purchase WHEN YOU ARE OUT OF DEBT AND HAVE THE MONEY. Prioritize it. You can always get the 'stuff' later. And 'stuff' is just for fun, it's not that important anyway."

That's a goal that I just added to my Million Dreams list. For a number of reasons, living more simply is heavy on my mind right now. There are a number of things falling apart all around me and this is one way I feel that I can take control. It's something I can take control of that will, I believe, HELP me in the long run, help make at least some things better. I would like to start going through the things I have and selling them, many of them. A step outside the normal decluttering I've been working on. A step where it will sting a little to get rid of some of these things. I will not get rid of items that are truly meaningful to me, of course. I'd like to:
*make a list of things I am willing to spend a little extra money on (such as weekly Global dinners with friends, or family reunion vacation this summer)
*work over my budget and pare out anything that isn't absolutely important to me
*impose a moratorium on buying anything frivolous until we are out of non-mortgage debt
* start a list of things we would like to purchase once we have achieved the debt-free goal; keep it prioritized and not purchase any of those things until we've not only achieved our goal but also saved the money to purchase them with cash
* try to get as many of the things we want as we can for free - through freecycle or borrowing or bartering, for instance
* if something comes up that we decide is worth the money to do and we can't make it be free, evaluate it ahead of time and try to make it as cheap as possible. bring sack lunches, for instance; carpool; order cheap food; drink water, not booze; that sort of thing.
* put every extra cent we have into debt payment and just FUCKING GET RID OF IT

That's kind of what I'd like to do right now.

It's a necessary step, getting rid of debt; it's something I want to do anyway, I've talked about it here before. But this isn't about getting rid of debt so much as it is getting rid of baggage right now. I just need a fresh start. I need to look at things with fresh eyes. I need to cut some ridiculously loose ends. No matter what direction my life takes from this moment forward, I don't think doing this will hurt; I think it will only help.

So I think I might actually DO this. This time. (Yeah, I've talked about things like this before, but never done it. Maybe this is my time.)