Oprah's "What Can You Live Without Experiment"

On today's Oprah, several different families took on Oprah's challenge of giving up bad habits of frivolous spending & wastefulness. Oprah asked each family to adhere to following rules just for one week:

1. No Internet or TV

2. No spending except for $25 for food

3. Limit or better yet eliminate driving. Walk or use public transportation.

4. No eating out!!! (Does this sound familiar??? This was our "Trimming the Fat" challenge for February.

5. Think about what you have that others don't & how you could change their situation in an instant. (i.e. one mom discovered that their were 10 disadvantaged families sharing ONE vacuum when she has FOUR!!!)

6. Box up everything in your closet that you haven't worn in 2 months. This includes shoes, accessories, etc. (My suggestion is after the week is up figure out what you haven't used in 6 months and get rid of it! EDIT, EDIT, EDIT!!!)

The story that stood out to me most was of Candice.



FROM OPRAH.COM "Candice is a widowed mom who lives in California with her sons, Derek and Darrien, in a seven-bedroom home. Their closets are full of clothes they don't wear, and Candice has $500 Jimmy Choo shoes she has never worn. She even refinanced their home so she could pay off her car…so she could purchase a new truck.

While Candice and her sons eat out almost every night, she still spends $400 a week on groceries. Much of that food ends up wasted, thrown away after it expires on the shelf or in the refrigerator."

During the experiment Candice becomes emotional when she is asked to pack up clothes & shoes she hasn't worn in months. Turns out it accounts for HALF of her closet. Candice has a light bulb moment that these inanimate things were connected to the loss of her husband. She still has unresolved emotions & feelings that instead of dealing with she just keeps buying new designer things. But buying all of these pretty, expensive things do nothing to help improve how Candice feels about herself.

In addition to trying Oprah's challenge outlined above for just one week if you're in debt and working on curing your urban addiction, one way to see what it's like to live with less is to take Suze Orman's three-step money pledge:

* Don't spend any money for a day.
* Don't use your credit card for a week.
* Don't eat out in restaurants for a month.

You'll notice that the elements of Oprah's challenge & Suze Orman's three-step money pledge coincide with our 12-Step Urban Addiction Recovery Program so your best bet if you haven't done so already is to join us on the 12-step journey. If you need baby steps then start with the pledge and/or Oprah challenge. For more info please visit Oprah's website.

Email me @ shelbyrenee@blackheiress.com & let us know how your experiment goes.