Toward the end of last year, I decided that in 2009, I would only spend my money on what I needed to spend it on. Only the essentials, no extras. No going out for a meal after work, no buying junk food at the store, no buying new books or video games or yarn.

My reasons for this were many and varied. Primarily, I wanted to save money. I've always been bad at that. When I have money in my pocket and the bills have been paid and food's in the fridge, I want to spend whatever I have left. I'd go buy myself a book or a video game or a movie, or some craft supplies, or just be a pig and go buy a bunch of chocolate and candy and eat it that night. And then as time would go by, I'd realise that I spent too much on junk and didn't leave myself with enough for emergencies or other unplanned incidentals. I'd be broke, and have to borrow money to get a cab home from work in a blizzard, or something like that. That kind of lifestyle had to stop.

The second reason is that I'm a packrat. I collect and hoarde, and all the while I tell myself that I'm doing it for a good reason. What if I suddenly went broke and couldn't buy more yarn to knit with? Do I really have enough yarn to get me through? Oh, a few more balls won't hurt. What about books? What if I have to spend a month with nothing to do but read? Wouldn't I go through all my books? Maybe I should pick up another trilogy from the bookstore.

Now because of that mentality, I have more yarn than I can knit in two years, more books than I can probably read in three, enough material to make about 3 quilts and countless pillows, enough unbeaten and unplayed video games to last me for about 5 years. These estimates, of course, assume that I'm able to quit my job and devote my full attention to all my hobbies at the same time.

I definitely needed to make a change to my life. After all, I can't play video games and read and knit all at the same time. (Not yet, anyway.)

So what was the solution I came up with? No spending. My money went to the things I needed, and the rest gets stockpiled for a rainy day.

It may sound like a very severe way to deal with the problem, but I suspect it will make me a better person and improve my life in many ways. First of all, if I'm not bringing any new hobby-related things into the apartment, not only will this get me dealing with the things I already have, but it will prevent the accumulation of yet more clutter. I don't really need another cloth remnant that would make a perfect pair of pants if I already have 5 of the same in my stash, after all. If I want to make a new pair of pants that badly, I'll use the material I already have instead of buying more. My stash will slowly diminish instead of increasing.

I won't really be depriving myself of anything, after all. I have plenty. I have much more than I need, so much that when I go through my various stashes, I come across items that I don't even remember buying, nor what I was going to use them for. Was this yarn intended for a scarf or a hat or did I buy it just because it's pretty? This self-imposed challenge will cut down on such habits.

Another positive thing I hope this will do for me is to help me lose weight. I am, to put it politely, overweight. A less polite term would be that I'm just plain fat. This is negatively affecting my health, and I want that to change. If I avoid spending anything more than I have to, then I won't have the money on hand to just walk to the corner store and bring home a bag of chips or an ice cream sandwich, or any number of delicious snacks that I really need to cut down on. What I get when I go grocery shopping is what I'll eat.

And knowing that's one of the reasons I'm avoiding spending my money on junk is also having the effect of reminding me that I need to eat more healthy foods.

I have made exceptions to this rule, however. I'm not going to spend the entire year living like a monk, no worries of that. The money I save can be spent on a vacation, which will undoubtedly involve me visiting my grandmother. I'm allowed to spend money on classes for education or self-improvement. If someone requests that I make something for them, I allow myself to buy the right yarn or material or leather that will be suitable for the project, if I don't already have something that will work.

It's hard to mentally rearrange myself to make this challenge work, but really, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Anything worth having is worth working for, and I'm prepared to work to get my life in order. I can save money, I can be more healthy, I can reduce clutter and be more appreciative of what I have, and I can do it all without ever once denying myself the pleasures that I enjoy. It will help me focus on the things that really matter, the things I have, and not the things that I want but don't really need.

This isn't the sort of challenge I recommend for everyone. But I think it would be beneficial to those who suffer from the same mental and physical clutter that I do, and who want to change that part of themselves and improve other areas.

And if you decide to take the same challenge, we can help each other through it when the temptation to spend gets too strong!