How do you stop yourself wanting all the things?

[Gettingabitnippynow]

I’m not a materialist person at all, but have just been to pick up a few Christmas bits for Dd and I just want all the things. They’re not particularly expensive, but would be to buy them all. Christmas candles, Christmas mugs, pjs, teddies, wooly hats, jumpers etc etc. Do you all buy all these things or just ignore? I realise it’s a bit silly to buy new every year and a waste when I have last years xmas mugs and pjs.
Just wish I was wealthy sometimes!

Maybe someone should set up a Christmas swap club where you can swap decorations etc, especially if you are into themed decorations. Save them all being thrown out. May even be a good fundraier for a club or school. Pay a small sum to attend. Like the old book swap places.

I still reuse old clothing as cloths @SheinIsShite (depending on the fabric). Old towels get repurposed as dog towels, old sheets and duvet covers become dustsheets for when we’re decorating or doing messy jobs. I really get a kick out of getting as much use out of things as possible. Admittedly I don’t repair clothes though, because I have no seamstress skills at all and my hands are too rickety for needlework.

If you want and enjoy them then its up to you but it is materialistic, i dont buy stuff that i dont really need, that just sits gathering dust, we get the same lovely memrable items out each year now.

Well said, be responsible for our beautiful planet. Stop buying so much tat

Its easier to set a budget and have a few 'no spend months' every year

Well personally I wear my clothes till they are knackered, then wear them around the house only cause they as so comfortable. Then they become car cleaning rags or household cleaning cloths. So yeh I do that.
I mend clothes if I can, basic sewing skills because I don’t like clothes making. I like surface embroidery!
But anyway I cleared a whole black bag of stuff from my daughter’s room today. Will carry on tomorrow with that.

Work out how many hours you would have to work to pay for them. Quells the urge on the spot.

Not at all. I hate seeing all these things for sale and the mindless drones buying them in bulk all due for landfill. I dread receiving this sort of Christmas gifts and have stopped buying people stuff so that I don’t get stuff in return. Clogs up my house and my life.

I have collected a few things over the years but I certainly wouldn’t be going out and buying all new crap every year.

part of the fun of Christmas for my DC is getting the boxes of decorations and stuff down from the loft and seeing all the old stuff they’ve grown up with, it brings back lovely memories.

one of the things they love to get out is a set of mismatched Christmas mugs I got from a neighbour one year who was giving them away. We use them all through December and put them away after new year. I would replace one or two if they broke but I wouldn’t actively buy new ones every year.

I like having money more than I like having stuff 😁

Oh heck you sound like me I wind my husband up I buy new every year & it pissed him right off but I love Christmas x

What do you do with the old stuff?

I have a couple of nice Christmas mugs, one with a robin on and one with little animals around a Christmas tree. Both good quality, but i use them all year. I also have Christmas pyjamas, but again I wear them all year round.

This! 👌🏼 🙌🏻 👏🏻 💚

Absolutely this and nobody ever talks about it. I can buy whatever I want and suddenly I don't. Things are only alluring when they're slightly out of reach.

Couldn’t agree with you less, OP. I loathe Christmas tat, can’t bear the excess and piles of crap in the shops especially the junk food. Who decided we need a metre of Jaffa cakes fgs?!

I’d very happily spend December in a snowy log cabin away from “civilisation “ with my DH and our dogs.

I think as you get older, you’ve accumulated enough stuff not to want more.

I’m like this only with yarn. I write a list of all the things I want to buy and see what I have first and use up. I will allow myself some purchases but I like to plan what I will need things for and do it that way. Also clutter stops me from overbuying. Try writing a list until the urge passes.

No,no,no. Don't waste your money on cheap rubbish, especially if you've already got it anyway. Best to buy edible treats, then they'll disappear.

No because I want to get all the things out of my house and have lovely clear surfaces and extra space. My DH however keeps shoving more stupid crap.

I think you're more materialistic than you want to admit

I hate going to the shops at Christmas for this reason. There's also a sense of get it now or it will be gone.

I find buying one really Christmas thing and using it lots helps, like a jumper or a mug. One chocolate novelty thing I haven't tried.

And yes totally agree about clutter. One mug or jumper I can live with!

I have no trouble ignoring it / admiring stuff in a shop without feeling compelled to buy;

1. the disgusting state of landfill across the globe caused by many things - one is people overbuying cheap but overpriced tat / clothing they don’t need
2. where would I store it?
3. I resent the big shops shoving Easter, valentine, summer, Halloween, book day, autumnal, Christmas stuff in everyone’s faces to make the ‘buy now’ ‘buy more’
4. i refuse to line to pockets of Tesco bosses etc by being fooled into buying stuff I don’t need or even want
5. it doesn’t fill me with joy
6. i easily remind myself and my children of the pollution caused by making all this stuff that we don’t need, shipping it, disposing of it etc
7. i hate dusting

It's a moment .. yes you like it but you don't need it ... stay away from shops that's what I do they're ful of crap.

This, absolutely nails it. The older I have gotten, the less stuff means to me. Instead, I treasure time spent with family. Christmas is usually the only time we are all together as our grown up DC live hours away, so this is what matters.