The Challenge: A Month of Thrift

I spend a good portion of my work day with headphones on, since I don't have an office where I could close the door. Last week, I was removing my earbuds to get up from my desk when the left one separated into two pieces. Apparently the molded halves had been glued together at the factory, and the glue wore out or something.

I took a look at the inside and saw that the wires and other components were intact, and the problem was only with the plastic housing. These are noise-canceling headphones, and they are nice to have around the office sometimes, and even more useful during commutes. Normally I would just buy another pair, but I am trying to curb such impulsive purchases so I can make some progress on my credit card balance.

These days, when something breaks, especially a piece of electronics, it's not fixable by you or me, and it's often not worth the cost of having it fixed by a professional. But in this case it was a simple, straightforward repair, and I really like these earbuds, so I took a walk over to the nearby drugstore and bought some super glue.

Of course I managed to get glue on several fingers in the process, and all over the outer housing of the earbud, but the glue held. I've decided to use this as a starting point to see if I can curtail my buying impulses for the rest of the month. I'm going to try to resist the urge to click the "buy" button for things that I don't genuinely need. I'm way overdue for this sort of thing, and I need to start acting with a lot more restraint.

At the same time, because of this general lack of restraint, I have plenty of things that I've bought that I am dissatisfied with for one reason or another, or that I have used but just no longer want, that I could probably get a few bucks for, so I need to get going on another round of eBay sales, and maybe also put some of the clothing and shoes on Style Forum. Progress reports will follow.