>>You once again hit the nail on the head. IMO the root of many of our financial problems, which have been brewing for years, is our addiction to consumer goods. Lots of us (including me) don't need half the stuff we have gone out and bought.
>
>I do. I checked and in fact, I need amost 55% of the stuff I've bought.

I have bought a book even though I still haven't finished reading the previous one. I still have one DVD that I didn't see. I bought a dozen beers while still having three bottles in the fridge. Come to think of it, we're almost never using both bathrooms at the same time.

On the positive side, though, our most recent purchase was the clothesline rack, the inverted square umbrella type, which we actually put instead of the existing shade in the middle of our patio table. It's not just that the smell of aired clothes is incomparable with all the overdosed incenses you get when tumble-drying, it's also that at this time of the year employing the dryer is like firing a heater inside a freezer box - feasible, but insane. Besides, the dryer is besides the thermostat - just about five feet away - so the thermostat would run the AC like crazy to compensate, which would mean moderately warm near it, and chilly upstairs.

So dry it outside in the summer. The thing cost $45 and was the only one at Lowe's (actually had to ask for help to find it), and I don't think it will save us enough energy to justify the cost this year. But let it go, it's a pleasure.

And, sssh, I'm thinking of buying a terabyte disk this fall...