What would it be like, 10 environmentally conscious friends wondered as they discussed the state of the planet, to go a year without buying anything new?
Twelve months later, the results from their experiment in anti-consumption for 2006 are in: Staying 100 percent true to the goal proved both harder and easier than those who signed on expected.
And while broken vacuum cleaners and malfunctioning cell phones posed challenges, some of the group’s original members say the self-imposed shopping sabbatical was so liberating that they’ve resolved to do it for another year.
Categories
-
More Feeds
External Links
Archives
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
17 Comments
Sorry but I rather not buy used food.
Read the article.
ah, “The San Francisco group, by contrast, exempted food, essential toiletries like toothpaste and shampoo, underwear and other purchases that fell under the categories of health and safety from their pledge.”
Wimps.
It’s a good idea but I already buy enough on eBay.
I think it’s a great idea. I’d love to do it, but it might be a tough sell to Martha and the kids.
I could totally do it… right after I buy my next computer.
i was going to suggest refinishing thrift store furniture in your post about furniture, but decided that wasn’t very “bangsy.” will you prove me wrong, hippy?
Thrift stores sell undergarments also so no need to buy new underwear unlike the pansys in the article.
Great idea. We could puts kids through college with the money, imagine that.
We should get a pool of money together for Dan if he could pull this off without cheating even for a month. But he would twist the rules for sure, so no point really.
Nathan: we’ve actually had quite a bit of refinished furniture in recent history, including items salvaged from a dumpster. I wouldn’t be opposed to that at all; but in that post you were referring to we were really only thinking of a new mattress, for which I’d probably have to stick with new.
Nate: I think that underwear exception is a pretty vital one.
Jason: Yeah, I think so too. The problem for Dan is that I’m pretty sure Apple will release a product of some sort every year, so…
I’ll let the starving children in Africa know that they won’t eat tonight because some Americans are too snotty to wear used underwear. Sad.
Well, at least the starving slave kids in China that make the underwear will be given enough food to stay alive long enough to keep making more.
“Bangsy” ? That’s interesting.
Jason’s right, I’ll just twist the rules. I’d probably buy that cool Apple product by having someone buy it and then sell it to me after they open it and turn it on.
I think we should just buy everything new that way all the African kids can have something to aspire.
been there done that
Did you see that? I think it was Dave making a drive by…
Dave: how did it work out for you?
it was not by choice as it was in the first years of teaching with K watching the kidS.
People gave us kid clothes.
Overall I would say it worked out fine.
We didn’t miss anything that we didn’t get and were focused on other things.
We still don’t buy a bunch of “stuff”.