Sarah's Consumption Journal

For my consumption journal, I tried organizing my information into a couple of different categories. Firstly, I differentiated between the things I used that were necessary and the things that I used that I didn't really need. 57% of the things I consumed were necessary and 43% of the things I used were unnecessary. I think this is pretty good, especially because I was very strict with how I defined necessary and unecessary. Another interesting way I organized my material was between expensive and inexpensive. I didn't realize until I started how difficult it is to decide what expensive really means. To a very poor person, a $10 hairbrush might be ridiculously overpriced, but I defined it as inexpensive. I decided that whether something is expensive or not is a personal thing that depends on the person who is defining it. I found that 63% of the things I consumed were inexpensive, and 37% of the things I consumed were expensive. The last comparison that I did was things that I bought for myself, and things that my parents provided for me. I found that 51% of the things I used were bought for me by my parents, and 49% of the things I consumed were things that I bought for myself.