I went dark with my website and business expensive hobby on July 2, 2026, because continuing down the path I was on ceased being an option, but I didn’t yet have an inkling of what was preparing to be birthed. I’m writing this on August 4, 2026, and a lot has shifted in my internal world over these past 33 days.

The idea for The Spending Experiment came from my therapist after hearing me complain for the umpteenth time that while I’d much rather stock organic red chard (have you ever seen anything more beautiful?!) at the food co-op than perform variance analyses at the nonprofit, I can’t because I have a ton of debt and virtually no savings…

Work stress nearly sent me to the ER, and the crazy thing is that I didn't even realize how stressed I'd become. I love the nonprofit organization I work for, I love how they really do a great job taking care of their employees (considering that they have to navigate capitalism like every other employer), and I have a good relationship with my manager. And yet…

I've had a recurring stress dream over the past few nights, so I unpacked it this morning (Sunday) as I wrote out my Morning Pages. This short post is, perhaps, my way of encouraging you to take difficult things to unpack to a Morning Pages practice.

What does it look like to disengage from capitalism? If you were a client, I’d help you figure that out, given your unique circumstances and privileges. But since this is a blog post and since there is no one-size-fits-all approach, I’ll answer it from my own perspective, as it applies to me. Which is to say, from the perspective of a fairly privileged, highly-educated, able-bodied white woman.

I'm tired of being busy. I'm tired of sharing just how busy I am with the world. And I'm tired of prioritizing things that don't really matter instead of things that do. Most of my busyness is self-imposed; I'm my own busy boss. My busyness primarily comes in the form I'll call shuffling.

I’ve held deeply anti-capitalist views since I became an activist back in 1998. This post offers some backstory.