Welcome to Consume-alot (How to not buy stuff)

How to not buy things:

This year is all about me trying not to buy stuff. I am not completely off the consumer wheel as we are still purchasing items if they break, or if our kids NEED them (this is our project, not theirs), and also going to restaurants within reason. 

The object here is to cut down on acquiring more things, as this is taxing not only on our space, but on our resources and souls too. We are more than this stuff, and I wish to find my way back to this essence, and also to set a good example for my children. 

Don't get me wrong, this is difficult for me, as I am a clothes ho (FO, sho!), and love make up and purses seriously ease my heart, but WHY do they is the question I'm rooting out. On the 31st I had a bit of a freak-out thinking of all the things I WOULDN'T be purchasing over the next year and realized I needed a new bathing suit, so I hit up Victoria's Secret and purchased one, and a few other fun things, and then a pair of shoes. Sheesh...i know i know hypocrite. But I'm new at this too.

It just arrived today and I put the box way up in the closet so that when summer arrives it can be "new". I did the same with some of my Christmas present so that I can treat myself occasionally with the feeling of shopping without actually shopping.

Helpful hints:

Stay away from the mall- if you don't see it, you don't buy it

Don't visit store websites (same as above)

List any advertisements that come to your inbox as spam

Cancel any store cards so you aren't tempted by their "sales"

Give yourself an incentive to not spend, whether it be altruistic, or financial, and post it somewhere to remind yourself of it daily.

Steer away from magazines (these inspire you to buy, and really are giant advertisements, although I must admit I am a magazine junkie)Look up statistics on how much waste we put out as a country- or just look out on your street every trash day.

Instead:

Read books- borrowed from the library

Write, sew,paint or anything creative

Get active

"Shop" in friend's closet's- when cleaning out old stuff, trade items. My friend gives me so much of her stuff and it is like Christmas every time she does!

Hang out with kids

Reuse clothes that your children have outgrown (Ruffles and Stuff is a great blog for that)

Browse blogs that teach you how to reuse items to remake into other things

Love and less stuff,

Kerry the Momster

Inventory

Happy New Year!!


The end of another year and the beginning of a new one. I love New Years day.A time to wipe the slate clean, to set goals, a whole 365 days of opportunity!

There are the usual goals I have for the year: eat healthy, exercise more, sleep more, read, get organized, spend time with the important people in my life, calm my temper.... But there is one major resolution this year that will (hopefully) be the forefront of all my decision making and actions.

Buy less, do more!

As Stephen Wright said, "You can't have everything... where would you put it?" I have reached my wits end in acquiring,maintaining, organizing "stuff". 

Most of my resolutions fall under this statement, and I will make this my mantra. Mostly I hope to finally step off the consumer treadmill I have been on for the past few years. To disengage from media influence, to appreciate that which I have, to reclaim my time and place more value where value is due.

This is a big endeavor for me, so I have enlisted my husband to the cause. I dont expect to go as extreme as my influencing  Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping author, Judith Levine. But I do hope to fall out of love with "stuff" and find my highs in places other than department stores. 


This post also serves as a forewarning to all our friends and family that this year we may not be purchasing gifts, but will be making, baking or forsaking gifts. Please feel free to do the same and join us in our crusade to reduce, reuse and recycle. Some ideas:

• Reuse food plastic containers
• Reuse plastic bags
• Buy second-hand
• Buy food in bulk and divide it yourself (using those small containers you have kept)
• Reduce food portions (especially in restaurants where most of it ends up in a bin anyway)
• Buy fair-trade products
• Boycott non-recyclable packaging
• Ask yourself if you really need this brand new product
• Don’t throw away: give it to friends or charity shops
• Use goods until they die

 Our rules are simple really; buy only needed items-food, household products and children's needs but nothing frivolous (which unfortunately for me includes new clothing which I foresee being the hardest element in this endeavor). Buy second-hand when possible, borrow, rent or make do. Not so difficult right? I truly believe that every single person has the ability to change the world!


Some interesting reading:

Paying the price

Time to address...

Consumption

Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.

-Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

Love and moxie,

Kerry the Momster