Compact Update: Can You Live Without New?

I started a modified Compact a couple weeks ago, trying to lessen my environmental impact by limiting my purchase of new products. Overall, not a biggie, although I was sad to get a 15% off birthday coupon (with a wacky birthday candle necklace) from Anthropologie and realized I'd be breaking my Compact to have a girly birthday bender. Oh, how I love Anthropologie.

My hope was that a by-product of the Compact would be saving some money, although it wasn't my primary goal.

Today. Oy, today. I had a 7:15 am flight to get to a lunch meeting in DC. I was getting into the city early enough to meet one of our publishing partners for a casual meeting before the lunch meeting, so had a couple pieces of business during my in-and-out trip. I got to the gate at 6:30 a.m. just in time for the announcement that the flight was delayed two hours due to mechanical issues, so cancelled my first meeting. Four delays later, I was not going to make even my lunch meeting and threw in the towel. I decided to work the remaining day from home.

On the drive home from the airport, I happened upon two yard sales. The first was an annual event some neighbors throw to benefit charity. The second was a family fundraiser to fund an upcoming trip to celebrate the mom being five years cancer free.

Total, I spent $20 at the two sales, and here's what I bought:

• Small stoneware brownie pan
• Pizza stone (we broke ours two days ago)
• Vera Bradley glasses case
• 2 glass piggy banks -- the kind you have to break to get the money; Sylvie has one, so these were for the boys
• Vintage fabric cut into three-inch squares that I'm going to use to make a quilt for Sylvie
• Vintage sewing notions, like rickrack with its original 10-cent price sticker
• Glow-in-the-dark Perler bead kit for the boys
• Leather Coach backpack
• A yet-to-be-revealed Father's Day gift
• Jeans for Sylvia
• Spiderman action car for Tommy's Spiderman action figures
• New package of sewing machine needles
• Three-piece food mill for making applesauce
• 2 DVDs for the boys (Mythbusters and Superman Returns)

The biggest-ticket item was the Coach backpack at $5. I'd coveted this backpack at Coach stores in years past. I think it retails for somewhere between $300 and $400. The yard-sale edition had no wear, and cost less than the Venti Skinny Cinnamon Latte I'd bought in the terminal after the second delay was announced.

Not too shabby. And not too much suffering, despite eschewing new products. I might keep up this Compact thing after the summer.