I’ve been meaning to gloat since way back in April ‘07, when I did it for the first time. Buy nothing I didn’t need, that is. But I’m finally sharing my personal triumph because of an article I recently uncovered about buying only used stuff: Some simplify by saying bye to buying new. Inspired by the book Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping, this (very admirable) woman quit buying anything new. Pretty cool, but the one MAJOR downside is that it takes time, a whole lotta time to find the good used stuff. And what parent has time to browse…all over town? Not this one.
So… instead of buying used stuff, we tried to buy no stuff. Eek. Not my preferred approach to life, but one my spartan husband aspires to. My husband had also been intrigued by the Buy Nothing authors. When asked if I were game, it took, oh, two seconds to say: You gotta be kidding. Me?
Then, guiltily, I came back a few days later and offered up a month. I mean, how long is 30 days anyway? As the spender in our family, the power to reduce household consumption lay in my hands. And, despite some serious front-end anxiety (what would I miss?), it actually wasn’t so bad. I mean, I could still buy stuff we needed (the real fun stuff: food, coffee, toilet paper), I just had to look the other way when I saw a great pair of shoes - the “want” stuff.
After a not-so-painful and ultimately self-satisfying April (wow, a low credit card bill!), we agreed to make this a quarterly event (January, April, July & October), with a bit of splurging in between on my part, claro. One could argue, as my brother did, that the whole thing is just about deferred gratification, not actually reducing consumption. But I disagree, since with two kids under 5 in tow, am I really going to get back to the mall to snag those shoes before 2009? Nope. I even passed up the chance to shop at Ikea before it opened in Portland. Now that’s strength.
Have you tried anything like this in your family? With success? What about the annual AdBusters Buy Nothing Day? I’m thinking that when the kids are older it’ll have more effect. For now, just steering clear of stores with the little ones is a plus. The less time they spend shopping and watching others shop, the better.
Hear what else Lisa has to say about our country’s dreadful public policies for families & her random efforts to improve them at Activistas.
