Unfollow & STOP on Frugal February, Day 8
Happy Wednesday. I survived another night with food poisoning. Nothing like sleeping on the bathroom floor to make one feel alive. Thankfully I am starting to feel better although I am weak, have a headache, and am still a bit shaky. Warm beverages have been my friend. Warm beverages made by my sweet Emma.
While I've been parked on the couch all day, I've been keeping busy. Cleaning out my texts and my inbox between naps and trips to the bathroom… This is the most luxurious life I'm living over here, lol.
All this time has led me to think and it's high time we have a deep discussion. I’m getting on my soapbox to talk to you today about things that we need to do today to put a stop on who/what we are allowing into our minds, our homes, and our pocketbooks.
During this social experiment of saving money and questioning all of my purchasing (Frugal February), it’s become apparent how we are bombarded and almost attacked by advertisements and suggestions to purchase things. Anything! A cheap planter, this online course, an acrylic sweater, a Mediterranean cruise, this breed of dog, on and on.
In light of trying to save money, here are some observations that I have made:
Emails from companies are a way to get you to look into their companies.
To think about them. To have your interest piqued. The other day, despite my quest to not spend money, I found myself looking at the gap website. Why? Because I received an email that told me I had this credit and also had this offer for free shipping. Hot dog! I thought…I could get something for nothing and how great it would be. Almost 20 minutes had passed before I realized that I could buy nothing with this credit without spending more and how not a great deal it really was. I was almost hooked, but not quite.
Texts from businesses are particularly hard to ignore.
One day I am sitting here, minding my own beeswax, the next moment I get a text notification and suddenly I need to buy crocs or I am trying to convince myself how I need gibbitz. They try to be “helpful” by alerting you to deals when really they are trying to get into your brain to get you to think of their company and to point out a lack in your life that their products will fill.
Social media presences are frauds.
“Influencers” try to make you think they are cool and pretty but has anyone else pulled the curtain back to see that all they are doing all day long is pushing things you should buy? You need this. Found this on Zulilly! Your house should look like this. Most of the influencers are frauds too. I personally know a family who is strictly dairy-free but is constantly pushing products they can’t even eat in an effort to make money off of their sponsors. Um, hello but maybe you shouldn’t have taken that money to advertise cheese. They try to make it look like they are letting you into their lives but really it is all fake.
People I follow who aren’t even “influencers” (I hate that name btw) can shape my thoughts for the day just by what they see.
A friend has a water cup I really want, this girl has a purse that puts mine to shame, their car is way nicer than mine…all of these things can derail your thinking and your priorities if you don’t already have your priorities on track.
With all of these thoughts coming to light in my own life, I hope I can inspire you to think, really think about why you are buying what you are buying. And please do not mistake that I think you are stupid, girl, or mindlessly buying. I know you aren’t. You are super smart and ya’ll have budgets to maintain and minds of your own. But what I do think is that we are all so busy every, single, dang day, and we all have had so much of this slowly ingrained into us from society that it all can seem kind of muddled at times. Do we agree?
With that said, I have a few ways that you can fight against consumerism and comparison:
First when it comes to emails, unsubscribe.
My inbox is a train wreck. I have been picking one company a day, deleting all of the emails they’ve sent to me and unsubscribing from them so I don’t receive more. If I miss them I can always seek them out and resubscribe. But until they are gone I don’t know who I am going to miss. An example of this is DSW. Today I unsubscribed from DSW emails. It has been at least 5 years since I’ve stepped foot in a DSW. I then went back and did a search for DSW emails and found there were 475 to be deleted. Those were a lot of emails just sitting in my inbox unneeded and no longer even relevant.
Next, I am typing STOP to all of the stores that send me texts.
They don’t send me texts against my will, I am sure at some time I signed up for them but now is the time to say enough is enough. I don’t need to be reminded of all of the home decor at Joann’s on a daily basis.
We can unfollow those annoying influencers who are doing nothing but trying to make money off of you.
For pete’s sake these are the mean girls in high school who aren’t really your friends, they’re just trying to get something from you. We saw through them in school, how did we grow up and start falling for their games now? Unfollow them and stop allowing your purchasing to be “influenced” by them.
Finally, take a break from your friends.
You know which ones I mean, the ones you want to be like and seem like they always have a little more than you or keep themselves a little nicer than you can manage. If looking at anyone stirs soil around a seed of discontent then you need to squelch that immediately. I’m not saying they aren’t the nicest people in the world or that they are even trying to get you to harbor these thoughts. They probably aren't. Sometimes though, the devil uses anything to poke at our weaknesses to make us pay more attention to our inadequacies than to our blessings. So if looking at someone’s page or feed sparks a negative emotion, then they need a time out! Do you know how to do this? On facebook you just go to a friend’s page and click on the little square that says “friends”. Instead of clicking “unfriend” click “unfollow” so they won’t come up on your feed. For instagram you go to someone’s page and click “following” (provided you are following them), it will come up with a bunch of options and you can click “mute”. This will then allow you to choose what you do not want to see, either stories or posts. This will again make it so you do not see anything they post. You're still friends with them… You're still following the igs. For both Facebook and Instagram, the friend will not know that you can’t see their posts, it just makes it so you can’t see them for a while.
And end soap box discussion. There you go! Friends, there is life on the other end of consumerism and comparison. We do not have to let companies and strangers influence us into spending our money. We can take the control back.
Back to my day…a little bit more of my day was left after I wrote this HUGE essay on consumerism and comparison ;). We had lentil soup for dinner which was nasty. Gross. I’m imagining what grewel would taste like. The kids ate it relatively peacefully. At one point one of them mustered up the confidence to mention that maybe it was “a little overcooked”. Oh bless these sweet people of mine. To counteract the nasty soup I made cheddar bay biscuits which were delightful! I think we all got full on those and kind of just gave up on the soup.
After dinner I went out for the first time in days to take Emma to ballet for the first time in a week. It felt strange being outside. I think I’ve become a hobbit and will just cuddle inside by myself from now on. Maybe make a good stew from time to time.
Emma went to ballet for only an hour per doctor’s instructions as we ease back into movement and school. She got dizzy which isn’t good but we’re taking things slow.
And that is that!
I spent nothing today which was nice. Here are my totals…
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$533.16 remaining
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$479.68 remaining
With only 20 more days left in the month I am feeling pretty good about my totals. However I am going on a large grocery trip tomorrow so we will see how we do.
Hope you had a lovely middle of the week kind of day, friends!
Loves!
