Financial fast: So that's what I've been doing!

I was washing dishes and listening to NPR when Michelle Singletary came on to introduce a "21-day financial fast." At first I was excited with the idea, tinged as it was with the overtones of spirituality (my dad, an ordained minister, is a big lover of the food sort of fasting) and the whole concept of living within one's means. Singletary's rules go like this: except for food and medicine (and of course, utilities and contracted housing costs and other monthly non-negotiables), no purchasing. No plastic, not even a debit card. No purchases at all, unless it's keeping you alive and out of debtor's prison, not even gifts. Much like the alcoholic who's banned from bars when she joins AA, you may not go to malls. You may not window shop. Not even Marshall's! (I made up that last part, but it seems right.)