thrifty

me in a "new" dress; i like this "arty" photo

am wearing one of my "new" dresses & waiting for hubby so we can caravan his car up to get repaired. "new" for me near-always means thrift store, swap meet, hand-me-down, or yard sale. i do not buy new-from-the-store clothing & household items, unless i have to, like when i needed snow boots asap when i lived full-time on the mountain. even then, i got them online at a real bargain, so i try to never pay full price. the discount is the satisfaction -- the deeper, the better. are you like that? a spendthrift? someone badgered/ berated/ chided for being frugal? deep-down i don't care cause in the end, i don't have to rely on others financially, living by my ways... plus, i find it fun, to be resourceful, tho at one point, i did lose that belief for a few months, feeling a bit depressed, thinking, why do i deny myself? don't i deserve "nice" things? i am definitely not broke; i've been very responsible financially in my life. then me kicked back in & said, you love the hunt! it's like finding an easter egg, looking thru the piles & finding that one beautiful cool thing that stands out, that is unusual. plus, it's much more pleasing to sift through many decades of clutter, instead of picking an object off a rack of items nearly-just-like it. where's the imagination in that? where's the fun? another thing is, sometimes, the stuff i get has provenance -- there's a story to go with it, so it's more than just an object: it's a history i then get to wear or hold or gaze upon or treasure. another thing i like is, i realized by not buying new stuff, i recycle, repurposing what might go in landfills. i am not adding to the clutter of this choked-up commodified land of overstock & waste, & that does make me feel responsible & good as i simultaneously get to have my fun buying stuff... so when people ask where i got a dress, jacket, shoes, jewelry, etc, i say "my favorite store." and that always means used.
implicit in all this is i haven't raised children, so i've always had time to hunt for treasures. every experience, every habit has its positive & negative, in other words...  time to chant.