Not Buying It: Can We Survive a Year Without Shopping?

[mamabear]

Not Buying It is a great book by an author local to me - Judith Levine. We shop at the same co-op, have friends in common, etc. Haven't met her yet but hope to someday soon.

Link to book: Amazon.com: Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping: Books: Judith Levine

Also some people do something similar, calling it Compacting - you sign a Compact not to buy anything but necessities for a particular period of time. There is a thread at MDC called Compacting Mamas...

Dh and I are seriously talking about making 2007 a "not buying it" year for us. I really want to do this.

I have not spent much for Christmas but have been so obsessed with what to get my kids and other people, I'm really feeling like shopping is more of an issue than I realize for me. It's a form of procrastination, a hobby, something I like to do. What's weird is because I hardly buy the kids anything during the year this Christmas has become a real focus on what I have wanted to get them all year but haven't, and because I am trying to keep things simple (3 gifts per child, but I'm not counting books, and my book buying has spiraled out of control...), I end up obsessing over what to get.

So...putting it out there...I am excited and nervous and trying not to overbuy in preparation.

[heythereheather]

"you sign a compact" What is a compact??

I don't know if we could do it, but we buy very minimally already. Something to think about, for sure.

[mamabear]

We don't buy much either, but I'm noticing the little ways we do spend - nutritional supplements, for one, clothing I think the kids "need" (slim, elastic-adjustable pants for Jake being one such recent purchase), and more. A big one for us, right now, is convenience food - a Vitamin Water here, a pack of maple beef jerky there...there are few places to eat out, but if we're caught out without food/drink we end up spending.

A compact is just an agreement, with other people (I think the original is a yahoogroup?) that you are not going to buy anything but "necessities" for a particular period of time.

"Necessities," of course, gets into some gray areas, but I think the point is to engage with "what is a need?" when you come to some purchasing decisions, not necessarily whether you end up buying a particular item or not. (ie - Do I decide that some of Jake's nutritional supplements are needs not wants? If so, that comes after a process of self-examination...)

[heythereheather]

I've just never heard the term compact. Interesting.

Ah, yes, I would consider nutritional supplements a need.

I'm going to think about this. It would be hard, but that's not a bad thing.

[~Meeshi~]

You know, like the Mayflower Compact.

I think it is a great idea, but I *really* love my once a month thrifting. It would be hard for me to go too long without a trip to the thrift.

[heythereheather]

Originally Posted by ~Meeshi~

You know, like the Mayflower Compact.

Ok. Pull history in it and I can relate. Thanks, Meeshi!

[mamabear]

Yes, I had never heard the term compacting either and wondered what it referred to. Judith Levine did her year before or right as the compacting movement began, I think.

[stephanielynn]

i can't wait to read that book. i have a list going right now and will get to that one. i would absolutely love to try to go a few months without buying anything...much less a year. i think it's such a great, fun idea in theory, but i really have a hard time at the same time. especially not eating out or spending money on entertainment at all....eeek. i hope you do it and inspire the heck out of me/all of us!

[gypsimama]

Rob and I have been talking about doing something similar. A few years ago we put ourselves on a 2 mo spending moratorium and saved over $1,000. Our income has gone up quite a bit since then and we're kicking around trying for 6 mo. I think we might be able to pay off one of my student loans in those 6 mo.

This seems like our only topic of conversation lately It's really not about deprivation, it's about intention. Deciding where the money will go and where it won't go. I know we can do it, it'll be like a game. How long can I go without spending any extra money. I know when we did the 2 months we became very creative in all sorts of ways.

[mamabear]

Kaight, this is part of why I want to do it, I imagine we'd save a ton of money. Matt wants to move toward all local food as he's reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, and I'm thinking YAY, but where are we going to find the extra food budget...and I am thinking we could achieve two goals here...eliminate nonessential spending and find the money for higher-quality food.

[sativarain]

I enjoyed reading that book too, but she did make purchases. I like the idea of controlled spending. But things like toilet paper are an absolute.

[JenTwo]

Subbing. I really, really think this is something DH and I could do about now.

Lauren, along the lines of local food... dh and I purchased our garden seeds for this coming year. We've paid attention to the number of hours of sunlight the yard receives in certain areas and we've drawn out how we want each food, paying attention to various methods pertaining to what grows best with what foods, etc. My meat-loving dh is having a change of heart. He can't stand the thought of chickens crammed in tiny spaces injected with chemicals to keep them alive so he's eating A LOT less meat.

Anyhow, I can imagine that taking a look at the foods you eat may actually save money in some aspects. We've been trying to buy more locally and we're not doing too bad. Allergy foods are the biggest drawback for us.

I consider nutritional supplements a necessity.

[xt]

I thought the compacters were not buying "new" things, but used was acceptable? Obviously, one would have to put some serious thought into what "necessity" means. I assumed from what I read on the compacting blog tha it wasn't just about simplifying and intentional purchases, and just as much about not using additional resources for wants? I don't get to have any wants all year if I play this? I already know I *want* a new tattoo (and I'm not using used ink).

I've actually been thinking quietly about this all week. Not sure how it's going to work for DH or the kids. What I do is my own thing, you know?

Anyway, I thought that a good starting point for me would be having one weekend a month that if I "needed" to get a birthday present for one of my kids' friends or something, we could decide what to buy, then buy it. My point being that we'd be at least more intentional if we limited it to one day and did it with a plan (there's the intentional part) in mind. Actually, the zero-based budget (a la Dave Ramsey) that we do sort of forces intention into the forefront, anyway, but this would be a step further.

[Christi]

Seeing as how we have a ton of debt to pay off so we can buy a house next year, I think DH and I need to do this.

[mamabear]

Yes...I am not sure about compacting. I have not looked at it thoroughly.

What I'm talking about is a year of buying only "needs." Food, clothes for the kids (but minimal), underwear only if you MUST, that kind of thing. We got into it already because what about books for the kids? I do think this is a "need" - books not toys - my dd was aghast at a year without any new books and honestly, she's a growing and learning kid, and loves to read. LOL. I am not going to squash that with this experiment. Educational stuff has to be exempt.

Also supplements - to me are considered a need, yes, but I overspend on them sometimes, wanting to try new ones, and then J won't take them, so I have a cabinet full of hundreds of dollars of barely-used supplements. Or did - I have cleaned it out and mended my ways. But these are the areas I see negotiation and thoughtfulness happening. What is a need? Perhaps it's to continue our current supplements regime and seriously limit any trying new supplements for this year.

For me I wouldn't want to open the door to buying anything I want used. I would want to, if I do need to, say, purchase clothes for the kids for spring, buy it used if at all possible, but I still want to keep things to needs only for a year.

It's a long time to go without a "want" being fulfilled. Yes. And I think that's the point. I feel like a drunk with shopping, whether it's thrifting or scoring a deal online or just thinking about what I want to buy but won't. A year off from that sounds like a good way to cleanse and recover a bit from the consumeristic culture that is so dominant in our lives.

As for local food - Jenni - that is so great. I am so excited for you. We are planning a larger garden this year, about 20x40 feet, and we might raise our own chickens for meat in the spring - time and energy may preclude it this spring but we really want to do it. In addition we will buy a CSA to an organic farm that is 5 miles from our home. If you saw how remote we are up here, it's pretty incredible that the farm is so close. It is a wonderful farm and I love the owners! Our 23 chickens are starting to provide us with a very substantial source of healthy protein with their omega-3-rich eggs and we're to the point where we are eating a lot of eggs. Beyond that our local food co-op has tons of local products. And Matt and I are intimately involved with the school's effort to bring more local foods to the cafeteria. I just wrote a farm to school grant application for the school to get some money to do this. So we're doing pretty well - I'd say over half our food comes from our own or other local farms. Eggs, bread, and produce. Beans, rice, other grains, flours, and meat, do not. Switching to local meat would be a big thing for us, and with my son's health issues having him eat veggie just isn't an option right now. Dh, dd and I are switching to more vegetarian meals though, and just serving ds his chicken since he really needs the density of calories.