I'm not consumeristic!

I am so thankful for this past weekend, full of relaxation and friends! It included going out to Korean BBQ with some friends (shout out to Sean and Bethany!), sleeping in until 10am, going to a yummy lunch at Suzette's Crepery for Mark's mom's bday (shout out to the DeLews), yummy birthday dinner party with friends (shout out the Woehrs and other Wheaties), church, deep apartment cleaning and cooking, and community group at the Whipple!

One of the highlights of the weekend was spending Saturday afternoon shopping with Mark. Now this is the first time since being married that Mark and I have shopped for clothes, so it seemed like a really special event. Because Mark was involuntarily unemployed for the past 5 months (note the picture of Mark's first paycheck!) , obviously clothes shopping was not on our agenda, mainly because we were just barely making it through each month. I must admit, as I look back at that time of frugality, I'm pretty proud of us. We learned the art of discipline, of living within our means, of prioritizing our needs and wants. I was so proud of how 'subversive' we were living- we were not falling into 'Consumeristic America's' temptations! I was able to abstain from shopping, so that means that I'm totally not a slave to consumerism. Phew!

But the other day, I was looking through our 'Yummy Meals Google Doc' (it's a list of all the great meals we know how to make so far). As I read through the different meals we've made the past few months, I realized that I still consumed quite a bit, actually. I loved grocery shopping, but I thought that was totally normal. But really, it was my consumeristic outlet! I was able to justify how often I grocery shopped/thought about grocery shopping because eating was a necessity. So shopping for food can't being consumeristic, right? Believe me, I'm not at all saying it was wrong for me to like grocery shopping, but I shouldn't fool myself- it fed my subconscious consumeristic desires. What an annoying self-realization! But I guess an important one too. At least now I can admit that I"m a product of consumeristic America and face that reality head on. So what do I do? I guess I could grow my own food in an apartment in subzero Chicago winter? Well, maybe I need to be a bit more realistic...