The Genesis of No-Thing New

Today I thought I would explain how the No-Thing New challenge came about.

Oddly enough, watching Extreme Cheapskates was one of the sparks that lit the flame of frugality.  Yes, it was sensationalized (Hello, TLC!) but both Gerry and I felt motivated by the show.  We aren't ready to give up our toilet paper or take home other people's leftovers when we dine out, but we saw past that stuff and saw value in each of the segments. Viewing the show is also what inspired us to start the fiscal fast I mentioned in yesterday's post.  Did you watch it?  What did you think?

Next, my husband and I had a talk about saving money.  I've been wanting to kick our savings up a notch, but our discussions hadn't been very successful.  The morning after we watched the cheapskate show, I asked if he would be willing to come up with five money-saving ideas to be shared later that night.  He agreed, and when we compared notes that evening, we found that some of our ideas meshed nicely. 

Finally, after having our talk, I threw out the idea of doing something more radical.  I had a friend mention a possible ban on all clothes shopping in 2012 and thought we might do something similar.  Gerry, rightly, pointed out that a clothes-shopping ban would be a lot harder for me than him, so I upped the ante and proposed we buy nothing.  I think the minute the idea was spoken, we both saw how profound the experiment could be.  We quickly hammered out some details and put the challenge into effect!

In upcoming posts, I'll go over our lists and tell you about my first, big A-HA moment associated with the challenge.  I also plan to check in about once a week or so to run down any roadblocks we faced and share solutions we found--a progress report, so to speak.  I hope you'll come along for the ride!

P.S.  The name No-Thing New grew on me over the course of the day yesterday, but thanks for the suggestions!