Well, I am 38 days into my year, and have not felt really tempted once. The most temptation I felt was while shopping with my 8 year old daughter for groceries at a superstore. She saw a robe that she wanted. Nobody in the family even wears robes. I reminded her of my goal. She began to nag and beg. Normally, I might have given in and said "sure." I stayed strong in this circumstance. She is really upset at me for embarking on a year without buying anything.

Her views on money and acquiring stuff is one of the reasons for my experiment. Even though our house is bulging with stuff, she always wants more. I feel I need to take care of this greed before it gets embedded in her psyche as acceptable.

Another reason for not buying it, is that I come from a long line of people with a strong hoarding instinct. I mentioned that I would buy razors if we needed them this year. I have not bought a razor in at least 5 years. My husband uses one every day and I a little less frequently. Just so you are not thinking I had to have a storage unit for the razors, we do use each "disposable" razor for a long time. Years ago, there was a coupon in the paper that was essentially paying me to buy a certain brand of razor. So I got all the free razors I could. We have only recently had to buy more razors. Although it has been nice not to buy razors for 5 years, I would like my children to see less of this behavior. I hope the hoarding habits stop with me.

I also feel overwhelmed by all of the stuff in our home. I felt, not acquiring anything new would give me time to purge. The kids are always complaining about having to pick up so many toys. I am going to try to convince them to part with things to simplify life! That is going to be one tough battle. I hope to feel more comfortable in my own home and have fewer clean-up battles when it's all said and done.