The month of not buying things

Yesterday I found & read this via a Lifehacker article (here): A Year of Living Without.

Then I went home to my crazy house that has stuff packed all over the place because we are earthquake retrofitting the basement. Yet again I had the desire to just start systematically getting rid of all this stuff. As I sighed and got on with working out, I was struck with the fact that the stuff everywhere stressed me out, yet I buy things all time. Things I don't need.

Example: last night at the grocery store I bought I special little thing for cooking eggs in the microwave. It is much easier that the stove top to be sure, but I already did eggs in a bowl in the microwave. This egg cooker is just faster & marginally less fuss, plus my egg is perfectly round when I was done this morning... more crap.

So this is the month of not buying things. The rules:

1. I can buy necessities (food, personal items that actually run out, gas, construction items directly related to previously mentioned remodel, etc). I will stay out of the non-food sections of Target, Fred Meyer and Costco. Lead me not into temptation...
2. If something breaks, I will take a moment to think "Do I really need this (whatever)? Or does something else I already have fill the need just as well." If not replace, if so no buying.
3. When I get that "Oh I totally need to go to Target and get (whatever)" desire I will stop and think why do I want it right now? Do I actually need it or am I just seeking the shoppers high? I am willing to bet that 80% of the time it will really be the latter. 
4. Hard one: replacement habit... Um. Go for a walk? Read? Work on one of my many hobbies? I suspect it will have to be a variety of things. I "shop" probably twice a week, and it nearly always results in a purchase.

That is it. On the face really easy. Don't buy crap. But in actuality it is quite hard. That said I am looking forward to gaining understand into what drives me to buy. (Again I point out the egg cooker, it went in with the bits and pieces for dinner with out nary a thought.) It should be interesting to see how I do because we are going on vacation mid-month which always spurs the buying of things. I'll let you know how it goes.