A little more about my spending challenge.....

I've been thinking a lot lately about my lack of creativity, and my mound of supplies. I've also been thinking a lot about all the supplies that I am still wanting to buy. So, as I've said before, I've challenged myself to a spending freeze until I do 10 projects. Well, I already know that tomorrow, I am going to fall of the wagon. I'm headed for the the garage tomorrow to scrap my little heart out with some old friends and some new ones. I know once I get there, that there will be something that I just have to have. With this being said, I was catching up on my blog reading and went to read Jen's blog. She brought up my spending challenge, and found something on Kristina's blog who is the owner of 2 peas which was very insightful. Here is the blog from 2peas if your interested in reading the whole thing and her response to a comment someone made. I have thought about this so often, it seems like every week, there is some new latest and greatest product release. Something new that I am just salivating to get my hands on. I cannot for the life of me think of another industry that turns over it's new product so fast. It seems like every other industry has a "season change". For example, clothing, you know your going to get Spring, Summer, Winter and Fall. There doesn't though seem to be this same buzz about the newest stuff every season though. It seems more like every season we buy a few of the pieces being offered and move on. We're not banging on Macy's door, just yelling "I MUST HAVE ALL THE NEW CLOTHES YOU HAVE!" Eyeglasses, seem to have a season too, new styles tend to come out at the beginning of the year....just when your vision insurance has kicked in again and your ready for that new pair of glasses. It seems like this hobby of ours has continuous new seasons, every day, we are scoping our Target, Wal-Mart, Michaels, and especially our Local Scrapbook Stores, just wanting to be the first one to get all the new stuff. We can't just buy a few of the new things either, we all seem to be on the must have it all list! No wonder the LSS's can't survive. What kind of a cash flow must you have to always be ordering new stuff. With this type of industry, you certainly can't stock much inventory that will sit around for awhile. No wonder, there is never enough of all the new stuff. Not everyone is getting it, because the LSS can't take a chance on having too much leftover after the hype has passed. This is why people are making a killing on ebay! Since you can't find the item you want anymore at the LSS, you head over to ebay and get in a bidding war for the latest and greatest with your fellow scrapbooker. It just seems so crazy! There has got to be a way to slow this cycle down. I think the industry as a whole is going to have to figure something out.

So, back to my challenge. After reading Jen's blog, I certainly feel more inspired to use my stash. I'm sticking to my challenge, (even if I'm falling off the wagon tomorrow for a bit) but I'm adding a new twist. Not only am I going to have a spending freeze challenge (after my break tomorrow), but I'm giving myself 2 weeks to get 10 projects done. Goodness knows I have quite a few projects waiting for me to finish up, and plenty of sketches of layouts I've done to get made.

I am proud of myself though, I have not bought a scrapbook related item in 2 weeks! Thankfully, I did have a few items on order that were placed before the challenge, so I still had stuff coming in the mail! All of those have been received, so after tomorrow, it's cold turkey!
YIKES!!!!