One month after my quest to cut spending

Yes, folks, my challenge to drastically cut spending has turned me into a conservative (fiscal conservative, that is) consumer. I did pretty well. A reminder of my challenge:

The rules (set forth by me)
1. No buying of any clothing of any kind
2. No frivolous buying of food stuffs.
3. No dining out unless absolutely necessary- if say, the power goes out or I find myself dangerously low on blood sugar.
4. No buying of books or magazines.
5. No paying for entertainment

4 out of 5 isn't bad. 3 proved more difficult than I had thought.
Some highlights:

I realized that window shopping is less stressful than actual shopping. It's kind of like the more money you have, the more broke you are. I also see how numb I can get to all the mindless spending when I'm an active participant. Suddenly, buying 3 magazines a week seems frivolous (now I just read them in the magazine aisle). Most importantly, I felt like a bit of an addict and that scared me. I had to wonder, what need is it satisfying for me? Some sort of sense of security and belonging. Also, some sort of child-who-grew-up-in-poverty backlash. But, against who? Myself? It's just silly and I'm glad I got some clarity. In fact, I feel centered now when I shop in a way I didn't before. I feel a sense of control and calm whereas before I greeted the mall and even the grocery store with a mixture of excitement and despair.

And through this whole process of giving something up (the proximity to Lent is just a coincidence, really) I realized that this one month goal setting is a good idea. So, look out for my next monthly action--- it's not necessarily going to be something I have to give up.