practice Buy Nothing Day

Today is Buy Nothing Day and so far so good. I haven’t left the house today and I haven’t bought anything online either. I almost did, but then realized that I could buy it tomorrow instead. So I waited and later realized that in fact, I really didn’t need it at all. I wonder how many times I might actually come to that conclusion, if I would just wait one day . . .

I guess I should have known there would be no “organized support” for weaklings like me.

I only bought lunch today. It was a hockey team lunch between games, and it ended up being ten dollar a head, so $30.

Bought no gas, bought no gifts, but the nine pairs of socks I ordered for my self for Xmas arrived today, but I bought them some time ago. I do need the socks. And Xmas is a good time to get them.

we went out to eat and to a movie with shakes afterwards but those expenses had nothing to do with materialistic items tagged just to after T-Day sales and such gift giving for X-mas.

YEAH! One more year done.

OFF TO THINK OF WAYS I CAN MAKE FREE CUTE ITEMS FOR MY FRIENDS FOR THIS NEXT YEAR

I ran out of gas, so I filled my car $62 for 20 gallons.
I bought a hot dog $1.05
i bought two apples, a ‘head’ of celery and a small bag of carrots for $6

I made soup with the veggies. and I would have bought the gasoline yesterday or tomorrow..

I resisted the major temptation to buy exorbitant Christmas presents, even on sale.

my friends and a few family members have been out since 6AM. I have the day off of work and typically would like to get some errands run but today I am going to be sure not to run those errands but on another day and purposely do something else today with my family.

I learned to be a bit more low key with this goal. I encountered a few people who made comments about “the women get to go shopping the day after T-Day because they deserve it as they did all the work on T-Day!” I was amazed that this type of attitude is still out there. I guess I am really different than others. Women deserve a lot of things but going to put more unnecessary $ on credit cards or bring more unnecessary junk in the home is not how they should be rewarded. The whole family sitting around the mother and making crafts, or planting some perennial flowers (in so cal we can do that!), or playing a board game: THAT IS REWARD!

The point of this goal is to get one’s mind wrapped around a different mind set, one that doesn’t involve “things” as a way to feel differently about life but to allow life to be the “thing” that allows you to feel.

I hope I succeed!

Af-flu-en-za n. 1. The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses. 2. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by dogged pursuit of the American Dream. 3. An unsustainable addiction to economic growth. 4. A television program that could change your life.

Didn’t even know there was a show – since I don’t have television there are some programs I probably would watch – this one of them for at least one episode.

ANTI-CONSUMERISM – THE BEST I CAN TRY TO DO

...fifth or so years of this goal – I find it extremely easy now – I think I would like to include other days as well – any day that has big ads in the newspaper – that is the ticket!

SAVING MY MONEY TO BUY LOCAL

Right? I’m not sure…it doesn’t change every year for some reason does it?

I did this by accident yesterday, but still want to take credit for it.

My day was a non-consumption day. We spent the morning training dogs. (Though we paid for the privilege of using a local agility field, I hope that doesn’t count as ‘buying’.) A friend from agility practice came over and had Thanksgiving leftovers with us. Then I noodled around for a while, and worked on my NaNoWriMo effort some. I got a day ahead of the pace doing that. Went to bed.

Woo hoo. That was exciting, but there was little consumption going on there.

kind of wanted me to go shopping with him today, but I talked him out of it. I stayed home all day and cleaned instead. The house looks so much better and I bought NOTHING today. I’d say that’s a successful day!