One Frugal Thing — Enough
by Katy on October 7, 2025 · 6 comments
When people learn that I’ve bought almost nothing new since 2007, their response is usually something along the lines of “what about this specific category?!” and the response in my head is pretty much that I have no need for whatever they’ve mentioned, as I already have enough.
I don’t buy things to cheer myself up, I rarely even buy things as gifts as I can give consumables or simply take someone out to eat. My overwhelming take is that I already have enough, if not too much! I don’t even want to receive things as gifts, as again, I have enough.
Having the contentment of enough creates immunity to advertisers, to cute things in stores, to the feeling that some random item is the one thing to complete your life. The idea that you possess a hole that can only be filled with a purchasable item.
Enough. You probably already own it.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Love this post, Katy!
Enough– Agreed!
Immunity to advertisers– Oh, yes! Hit that TV mute button!
We are currently evaluating our computer usage, as when support is stopped for Windows 10 next week, our machines will become obsolete. How soon after that is unclear; mine might soldier on for a while.
Do we otherwise need new machines? No. Do we need to do all sorts of supposedly cool and fast things with them that we’re not doing now? No. Am I frustrated at knowing we will have useless, not-updatable computers to dispose of? Yes, very.
So very true! Also when I look around my house, I see many things that came from family – grandparents and others who were downsizing when dh and I were starting out. Am I willing to take the kitchen tools used for 30 years prior? Yes, of course! They were well built, quality items and have lasted another 30! No, I’m not using dishes with lead paint, but I cook almost daily in the winter with a beautiful cast iron dutch oven that is 60+ years old. And I regularly pop popcorn in it! I set a beautiful table with heirloom linens, china, and silver candlesticks. Even my ordinary tools, hammer, pliers, screwdrivers, are legacy!
Instead of shopping I like to read, walk, talk with friends. I don’t need to decorate for every season and have stopped doing some crafts because they seemed to be a way to buy new materials to turn into kitsch. I do like and own some beautiful handcrafted things, and I admire that art, but I don’t need to hot glue and bedazzle my way to the latest in halloween decorations!
Enough is a wonderful mantra.
This simple idea is always hard for me. A background of lack and disruption led me to equate having extra anything with feeling safe. I have accepted that I’m going to have to be conscious about this maybe forever rather than hoping it will just go away. I buy very little new, but free piles and excess anything sing a siren song that sometimes only I can hear.
I do better now that I realize it’s something to deal with and not inevitable. Do I have the thought? Yes. Does having the thought mean it’s true? No.
Katy, our Bible study group met this morning and our discussion and lesson centered around exactly that topic! Would you mind if I forward your comments to the other class participants? I think they’d love to read this!
Our little group also talked about whether we are sufficiently thankful for the things we have now, and our leader asked why we are rushing out to buy new items when we all have homes already full of STUFF? And probably everything we need.
I mentioned how the “Father of Advertising” taught merchants to “create a need” in would-be customers’ minds that they must have [whatever the merchant sold] or that they would be “inadequate.” This psychology has certainly worked!
Also, the Tightwad Gazette had a write-up about how dept. stores got into the holiday act and made people think if you don’t shop ’til you drop and buy your family and friends tons of STUFF, they’ll think you don’t love them. Prior to all that, people made each other simple little gifts for Christmas and everything was low key and heart felt.
One class member said she had spent one Christmas in Italy and over there, they don’t fill shop windows with toys and gifts and items to buy. They just show little Christmas cakes in their window displays. Then on Christmas Day and the day after (St. Stephen’s Day over there), they have street vendors (small businesses, I imagine Mom and Pop cottage shops) sell little items, nothing too major or expensive, for the parents to buy their children. She said Christmas is much quieter and more beautiful this way, and one can attend concerts and church services and get into the real spirit of the season, which is NOT consumerism, materialism, commercialization, Santa Claus or other totally secular things.