One Week Check-in - Feeling (over) Confident

High: I made it a full week (all seven days!) without buying an article of clothing for myself.

Low: There are 51 more weeks in the year.

Seriously, I felt so confident in my resolve that I ventured to The Mall. My mission was to buy some Clone Wars cupcake decorations from Williams-Sonoma, but to do that, I had to walk past windows like this:

Isn't that teal dress on the sale rack adorable?

And this:

My defense mechanism: I took my five-year old son with me. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't have gotten much shopping done, because a Kindergartener doesn't have much patience for looking at women's clothes.

For the near future, I plan to avoid malls and the shopping websites as much as possible. But eventually, there will be occasions when I legitimately need to go to stores that sell things that will tempt me. Maybe I will have to take a friend with me...

The Last Package

I opened my door yesterday to find a plastic wrapped parcel on my front porch. Oh yeah, I almost forgot— I ordered a pair of new black yoga pants from Athleta during their after-Christmas sale. Make that two pairs (I didn't know which size would fit me. I'll return one of them. Really.). As I tore the package open, I realized that if all goes as planned, this will be the last time I get a new treat in the mail for a looong time. Can I go one year, without hearing that satisfying thunk on the steps and running out to find the shoes/pants/sweater I've been waiting for?

At Day 4, I feel pretty good about my resolution. I even managed to make a trip to Costco and walk past the stack of wool pea coats on the way to the cereal aisle. But I am waiting for the other — super cute — shoe to fall. What's going to happen when I have a bad day, a bad week, or simply see something that would look fabulous on me (and marked down to a price I can't pass up)?

I need to buy a few gifts and am strategizing how I can do this without walking into the lion's den. My first thought is to go to small stores that sell only the specific type of merchandise I need, ie: a toy store for the kid's gift, a baby boutique for the newborn gift. Instead of walking into the mall where there are landmines all over the place, there will be only certain things. Sure, I'll pay a little more, but I'll be supporting a local business and perhaps more importantly, supporting myself.

Speaking of support, I have joined a movement called The Great American Apparel Diet. It's a group of women who have for ethical and financial reasons decided to go for a year with no new clothes. The program started on September 1, 2010 and there are are 239 days left on the ticker. Reading the other members' bios makes me feel a little like I'm walking into a 12-step program. I mean, I can stop at any time, right? I'm not like those addicts. But the refrains are quite familiar to me, and I know I am just like everyone else there. And it is quite inspiring to see women from all around the world who struggle with the same things I do and are succesfully making changes.