This week came with some purchases that would definitely be deemed unnecessary, but valued and used in my home. When I am shopping intentionally, sometimes I become a deep thinker. I wonder if it is morally responsible for me to purchase things just for ‘fun’, when there are so many people without clean water and food in the world. Should I feel more obligated to send every last spare penny I have to help these other people, before I buy even one frivolous item for myself or for my children or husband? I still haven’t found a good answer to that question.
Those questions are what I faced this week as I went out and did a bit of ‘fun shopping’ with my family. Nothing too extravagant came home as you’ll see below, but, my thoughts did wander to how the same amount of money I was spending on shimmer body mist and stocking up on cranberry bitelettes that were on sale, could be used to provide a lifetime of clean drinking and cooking water to a family across the world. Perhaps it helped me keep my wants to a minimum and focus more on having great conversations with my kids and hubby while doing more window shopping rather than buying.
January 25th -January 31st
Wanted: One bottle of Brazil Citrus Body Shimmer Mist
Outcome: Came home with four bottles of various shimmer mists because the store had a buy 2 get one free deal, but my original Brazil Citrus mist wasn’t included in that sale, which I found out when I got to the counter. So, out of awkwardness and rushed feelings, I just grabbed another bottle to satisfy the terms of the deal.
Wanted: One container of Laura’s Wholesome Junk Food Cranberry Bitelettes
Outcome: Her whole line of bites were on sale, so I bought 4 containers instead of just one. Hopefully we can eat them all up before they go bad!
AMAZON.COM PURCHASES
Wanted: New reading books for my 8 year old from the Ready, Freddy! Series.
Outcome: I purchased five new books for him, which he will devour within a few days and reread for months! Makes me happy!
I’m not going to delve into the ‘should or shouldn’t haves’ of this week’s purchases, since I went out knowing I would be spending some money unnecessarily with my family. I do hope someday to be able to adequately answer the question of whether we should be purchasing anything to make life ‘fun’ for ourselves, when so many people across the world are still in need. The answer seems like it should be a simple, ‘of course not’. But, it doesn’t seem so simple or easy when you are living life comfortably each day and not in personal contact with people living in such dire poverty elsewhere. I give to organizations regularly that help with clean water and food donation, but is that really enough when I go out shopping just for ‘fun’ as well?
What are your thoughts?