My manifesto

In the interest of saving the money I do not have, reducing my ecological footprint, and in general being an awesome human being worthy of a cookie and a gold star, I will/will not do the following:

I will not personally use my own money to purchase full-price clothing at retail clothing stores anymore (notice how I said "my own money"-- if my mother feels like spending a little on me, I will let her, but it will only be good-quality stuff, I swear).
I will purchase them only at thrift stores and for a damn skippy discount at the regular stores. Hell, the discount better be damn skippy because half the $15 t-shirts I bought at Kohl's are falling apart, whereas the t-shirt I got in high school only got thrown away because my upper arms got too fat to fit in the cute elasticized sleeves.

I will not buy any new art supplies anymore but will instead use up what I have right now.
Once I eventually run out of my mounds and mounds of unused art supplies, I will investigate the use of items called "coupons." I hear they're useful. I will also get them at thrift stores, yard sales, and the like, and learn the art of re-purposing material from items that are not art supplies but can still be used as such.

I will learn skills that will be useful should the world crumble to pieces in a horrible electricity-less apocalyptic meltdown. This includes but is not limited to: learning how to light a fire without matches or a lighter, learning how to sew my own clothing from re-purposed fabric, learning how to cook on an open fire, yadda yadda yadda. Pretty much everything in the US Army Survival Manual, which is pretty damn thick, let me tell you.

I will not engage in impulse buying, waste my money on things I can do/make/prepare myself when all it takes is a little elbow grease and/or legwork, or let the devil on my shoulder trick me into getting one delectable pumpkin chocolate chip muffin for $1.69 when that $1.69 could be saved and put into something a little less ephemeral maybe, like, oh, I don't know, my car payment.

I will stay away from refined sugars (which pretty much cuts all pumpkin chocolate chip muffins out of my life forever) that are purchased with my own money. Yeah, you see? There's a qualifier there or rather a cheap way to get out of it. Who ever buys me sweets anyway? My mother and my mother-in-law. My mother is 360 miles away, and my mother-in-law usually prefers to stuff me with chicken wings and fresh garden vegetables. And I personally believe that most things in moderation are okay, including sugar. Just...more moderate that I usually am. Which is not at all.

I will examine my spending habits and see where I can cut costs. Currently I don't actually spend very much because, well, I don't have shit to spend, but in examining every purchase I make, surely I can figure out a way to cut back a little bit, even if it's just a very little bit.

I will take care of my body. It is the only one I have. It will be better for a little exercise more often than I get it, and no, 80 push-ups a day hardly count. The heart is a muscle too and it ain't gettin' shit. I will do this by, at the very least, walking to the mailbox and back every day. And before you say that doesn't seem like much, keep in mind that it's a good half-mile to our mailbox, with an altitude change of 50-100 feet. Uphill. Both ways.

I think that's all the life-changing commitments I want to, er, commit to right now. Mostly because I likely will not follow most of them for nearly as long as my happily-idealistic mind thinks I will, and my fragile emo-kid ego cannot take such grievous disappointment in myself. Actually, Fragile Emo-Kid Ego thrives on self-loathing. Never mind, then.