About this time of year tons of people are making New Year’s resolutions to stop smoking, lose weight or quit some bad habit that they don’t want to bring with them from 2008 to 2009. I try to avoid resolutions most years because I try to avoid disappointing myself.

But in 2009 I’m going to do a twist on the traditional resolution by resolving to buy less stuff. I’m not talking about cutting back on my shopping habits in general, because I pretty much took care of that in 2008. How else could our family go from living $500 in the red every month to living $500 to $800 in the black each month.

This time around I’m going to avoid buying stuff that I already own. I’m thinking specifically about toiletries, because with three girls living under one roof, we go through a lot of products in the bathroom. I feel like I’ve always got hair conditioner on my shopping list.

Recently, I took a look under our bathroom sink and discovered a large canvas bag just filled with those sample-sized bottles of lotion, shampoo and conditioner, and mini bars of soap–the kind that you get in a hotel. I’d forgotten that every time we travel as a family or my husband and I travel on business, we trend towards taking those free toiletries in the hotel bathroom home with us. When I decided to dump out that large canvas bag, I was shocked to discover just how much of this stuff I had.

In addition, when searching deeper under our double-sink vanity, I came across other full-sized bottles of shampoo and conditioner that I’d purchased in the past on sale. But because I’d stored them so far back under the counter, I forgot about them, too.

That’s why I decided to spend an afternoon this past weekend organizing our toiletries. I wanted to make sure that we used every last drop of shampoo, conditioner and lotion before I even thought about going out and buying replacements. It’s going to be the same with the mini bars of soap. I organized each product in a plastic container (see left) so that I could easily store it all beneath the sink.

I’m wondering how long we’re going to be able to go without making these new purchases and how much money this is going to save us.

I’ve always been really good about checking my stock before grocery shopping for food; I haven’t always done the same with the non perishables.

Any chance you fall into the same trap? If so, let me know what you’ve decided to stake out under your sink or in your pantry–and how much you found so that you don’t need to buy anything new in 2009.