I admire the concept of the "Buy Nothing Day". This is one day each year set aside to not purchase anything. Every year in Canada it is held on the last Friday in November. Below is a link to the UK version - it explains things much better than I ever could about the reasoning and philosophy behind the concept. http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/index.html
However, boycotting shopping for one day a year isn't that hard for me. I have at least one day a month where I don't buy anything. Therefore, I've decided to up my challenge - and try for a "Buy Nothing Day" every week.
It's going to be difficult at first - I tend to run errands when I'm already out; usually at least three times a week when all the kids are at school. This means I need to either run more errands in my allotted childless time (not sure this will be possible), or spend more time lugging at least one child around to different shops (which isn't as fun as it sounds).
I fully support the idea of less commercialism in our lives. The amount of "stuff" we accumulate is astonishing, really. I joked with a friend of mine last week that I need to plan a move overseas, in order to really decide what I want to keep and what I want to get rid of.
"Buy Nothing Day" every week will hopefully allow me to let go of the idea of "stuff" and focus more on making do with what we have.
The real challenge will be to see if DH is willing to go along with the idea.
I like this one! Especially since I've been on a bit of a buying spree of late (my bad, I know!) I think I will also adopt this idea.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dahlia, for your support! I think it's do-able in principle - it will be interesting to see about practice.
ReplyDeleteooh, good luck with this one. I am trying mightily to question every purchase. Still patting myself on the back for copying a few recipes out of a library book last week instead of adding the same book to my Amazon cart to have one for my very own!
ReplyDeleteDmaire - thanks for the best wishes. I thought I'd managed to "buy nothing" today, then I realized that I'd signed the kids up for summer camp. Grrr....maybe tomorrow....
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