As the holiday shopping season approaches, I’d like to call us to reflect on the stuff we want, how we spend, and how we decide whether we should buy things for ourselves.
Since we bought our house almost two years ago, I have had a constantly changing list of home improvement projects to work on and things to buy. Since the amount of stuff we want to buy is potentially endless, I’m engaging in a rather radical idea: make a list of all the stuff I’m tempted to buy, and publicly go through a series of steps to think critically about my list.
I’d like as many people as possible to join in, so please make your own list in the comments. If you want to use a pseudonym, your email address, and no website, your list will be anonymous.
Here’s mine (note that I don’t need any of this stuff):
- New stove - stainless steel, gas. Ours is not very nice. Boo hoo.
- Washing and dryer upstairs - not in garage. We can probably get plumbing tapped into bathtub pipes, which are on the other side of the wall.
- New TV and TV cabinet. We currently have Daniel’s old console TV, which is fine, as it holds the VCR/DVD player and stereo on top.
- Actual granite countertops. Ours are faux granite.
- Thinner, lighter, quieter, and hopefully faster laptop. Mine is great, but insanely loud, heavy, and hot.
- Super zoom lens for my camera. I got a cheapo starter lens.
- Bookshelves that match our dining room table.
- New kitchen cabinets. Our house is less than two years old, so this is grossly unnecessary, but more attractive cabinets would be nice.
- The lot next door. It has a burned-down house on it, and they want $290K for the property, which is ridiculous, but it would be nice to have the lot as a side yard, since we have no backyard and a tiny front yard.
- Another suit.
- New ceiling lights in living room. The two recessed lights aren’t cutting it.
- New paper shredder, like that one they advertised on The Office, that shreds even thick, unopened junk mail. Shameless product placement.
- Shinier, smarter phone, of indetermine function and variety.
- A next-gen iPod. I’m hoping a new model ships before Christmas.
That should do it for now. If enough people join in, there will be future steps.
What do you want? [Counseling voice] How does that make you feel?
My answer is this audio clip, especially after about the 16:50 mark:
http://media.whchurch.org/1998/1998-01-04_Boyd_Whose-Neighbor-Am-I_64kbps.mp3
One exception is an iPod. My Nano is the most satisfying $150 I’ve ever spent.
(Un?)fortunately, we just built a new house with all-new everything in it, so I lot of the stuff that would have gone on my list (new kitchen appliances, etc.) have been bought. Er, at least we have them in the house, if not actually “paid” for them. Still, here are some thoughts from the top of my head:
* New cell phone. THe little Samsung model I have is awful. The camera incessantly turns itself on… from within my pocket. YOu can’t shut the ringer off without turning the phone off or going 5 levels deep in a menu. Etc. This is one situation where I prefer to DOWNgrade technology to something simpler.
* A nice iMac for my wife, since she does a lot of banking and Yahoo group-managing online and has been struggling with our mac Mini w/ cheapo monitor attached. Hand the mini down to our 3-year old for playhousedisney.com and DVD watching.
* A nice Cuisinart food processor. To save time when cooking (because by the time I get home, the 3-year old is ravenous and won’t wait long enough for me to chop stuff!). Is it a case where I can do just as well with the
Geez, my writing sucks. Let me try that first sentence again:
“we just built a new house with all-new everything in it, so a lot of the stuff that would have gone on my list a year ago (new kitchen appliances, etc.) has been bought.”
Maybe I should include a grade-school education in writing on my list.
Christmas has always been time to permissably have a wish list of wants, not necessarily all needs. Most of the world has a list of needs.
This year is one of huge reflection on need for me. We need a rich personal relationship with our Father. We need functioning good health,resources to work with to produce opportunity for ourselves and others. We need grateful , unselfish hearts.
My wish list is for these things for myself and loved ones. My list of wishes that surpass need are in relationships and to receive and give what is most difficult and most precious : “things” which are radically congruent with the type of giving Jesus taught about. I will reflect on that with hopeful prayers that incredibly generous God will influence what he care to to love on us all.
Interesting. I’ve become a lot less of a consumer over the last year, but this would be my list:
*Three or four new business suits. I don’t think my career has been harmed thus far by the fact that I dress like a schulb, but it’d be nice to appear as professional as I really am.
*A saddle for Little John, the horse that I recently adopted - neither I nor my folks have any saddles big enough to fit him, since he’s about 50% bigger than any horse any of us have had before.
*Gooood running shoes. I’ve recently gotten into running to build endurance for fencing, and while they won’t make me a better runner, they might make my back hurt less the day after.
*A plane ticket to Macedonia for next summer.
*Basic photography equipment and developers’ chemicals so I can start working with my own old-school pictures. Digital cameras are fun, but there’s something lacking there.
- An iPod and a Mac Book Pro
- Small LCD television for the kitchen to watch news when cooking
- A new Dish Washer and kitchen range (gas instead of electric)
- A new front door
hmm…
-A new hat
-Aris Allen two tone (brown and white) dancing shoes
-Some flashy shirts
-a new laptop
-my debt removed