Not Giving In To Consumer Temptation

Husband and I very nearly made two impulse buys recently. We just about talked ourselves into both of them  on the same evening. Fortunately, good sense prevailed and I was very proud of us, living out our Footprints principles.

Our children spent a lot of time away from home this past summer. Teenage Son owns the first four seasons of The Big Bang Theory and Husband and I, in the children’s absence, began watching them one night and ended up watching several each day. In no time we’d finished all four seasons and wanted to watch the fifth. Immediately. No delayed gratification for us.

That same night, we tried the home made frozen yogurt I’d made the previous day. It was my first attempt. I thought it would be a great way to use up some over ripe bananas and peaches, and some yogurt that was about to expire. My first attempt was none too successful. It was too hard and very icy. We decided to get an ice-cream maker. Since that was anti-Footprints, however, we decided to get the ice-cream making attachment for our mixer instead.

It was settled then. We’d go out the next day and buy the attachment and the next season of TBBT. Right? Wrong! As soon as we’d made the decisions we realised how stupid they were. Why contribute to the problem of conspicuous consumerism and go against our own values? Instead, we rented the DVDs from our local DVD rental store. Yes, we had to wait a couple of days but does that really matter? We have everything at our finger tips these days. Surely, waiting for a day or two won’t kill us. It didn’t.

As for the frozen yogurt; it was my first attempt, for goodness sakes! I’ve made many a recipe in my life that I’ve had to tweak and perfect over a few tries. Where’s the challenge and satisfaction in running out and buying an ice-cream making attachment? I’m not bagging ice-cream makers or anyone who uses one; I’m simply saying that I don’t think my reasons were valid.

Cheers.