New Years Resolutions: Something Lame, Something New

I'm not great at New Years Resolutions. Well, I can't think of any that have been particularly transformative, at least. I don't necessarily expect this year to be any different, as lame as that sounds. The things that I most hope to accomplish this year are so cliche it's embarrassing. Lose some weight, save some money, blah blah blah. The thought that half of all Americans (I totally made that up) are resolving to do the exact same things, and the knowledge that most of them will fail (I also made that up, but I'm pretty sure I could find a statistic to back me up) is frankly depressing.

I have one creative resolution that I haven't totally committed to yet, but maybe by telling you about it right now I'll be forced to own it. What if every purchase I made in 2012, with the exception of food, was secondhand? Clothing, household items, gifts (?), furniture, all of it. This appeals to me for a variety of reasons:

1. 'Reusing' is one of the original ways to go green. I certainly haven't made going green a big priority (I considered using cloth diapers for approximately zero seconds before deciding that that the ability to throw a poopy diaper away and never touch it again was totally worth ruining the planet. Yeah, I'm the worst.), but I'm all for incorporating a greener lifestyle one step at a time.

2. Curbing impulse shopping. I'm really not a huge impulse shopper, and even my husband would back me up on that. I'd be lying if I said that I hadn't come home from a diaper run to Target with shoes and earrings, though. Since a lot of secondhand shopping requires a fair amount of effort (finding something on Craigslist, having cash, driving to a stranger's house, bathing in Purell upon leaving the Goodwill, etc), I'll have to decide ahead of time that I really need something and that I need it enough to do put in all that effort.

3. Saving money. Used stuff costs less than new stuff. The end.

4. A fun little challenge. I'm not going to lie: I actually like shopping at thrift stores. I enjoy the hunt, the thrill of finding a rare treasure, the bargain. It kind of turns shopping into a sport. Making it a way of life for a whole year is a challenge I think could be pretty rewarding.

So, what do you think? Am I crazy? Would you be totally offended/repulsed if I gave you something used as a gift? What if it was as cute as this Pinterest find:

Source: blog.craftzine.com via Nicole on Pinterest

Secondhand find (Bob Ross style painting) + minor crafting (stick on letter decals, paint the whole thing, remove decals) = one of a kind art. Chance that I would lose steam and make Shane do the "crafting" part: high to quite high.