Friday, April 4, 2008

My credit card is going to thank me

Buy Nothing Challenge - April 2008

I signed up for a BuyNothingChallenge!!

Gulp

Info from the CrunchyChicken blog...........

For the month of April buy nothing. Now, I'm not talking about food, medications or other essentials, but everything else.

This is like Buy Nothing Day. Except that it lasts all month long. Sort of a mini-Compact. A compact Compact. A sub Compact.

Anyway, this means none of the following:

  • No new clothes
  • No new gadgets
  • No new furniture or housewares
  • No salon services
  • No makeup
  • No tools
  • No whatever the hell else people buy

If you must absolutely acquire something non-edible or not essential to growing your own food or for your survival, then you must borrow, barter, or buy it used. If you end up buying something new that is non-essential, I'll be hosting a weekly Sunday Confessional for you to justify your purchase. So, just think about having to confess to the world what you couldn't hold off on buying.


So far I am doing pretty well and haven't purchased anything that isn't considered 'essential'. (The only money I have spent so far is on groceries). We have sold our car (Yay!!) so we will be without transport for the next week so not buying anything next week is also going to be easy peasy as I will be housebound. Once we get to the City however, it will be very tempting to make up for lost time and go a'shoppin in REAL shops.

I am a bit of a cynic and tend to view challenges like this as a bit of a gimmick because its hard to know if they really make any difference. However for me the point of doing this in this sentence

"
I want you to really focus on whether or not what you are buying is a necessity or something frivolous."

It seems so simple a concept and yet I think of all the things that I spend money on that really are a bit frivolous. It will be interesting to see, at the end of the month, what I have considered to be essential to my life.


No whatever the hell else people buy. Well that would be yarn (doh).
So my much anticipated visit to a "real" LYS in the City may have to wait. Sigh.

Wish me Luck!!

5 comments:

mcm said...

Fantastic! Will love to hear how you go! I should join you. I have done it for 3 months. I need to do it again.

Unknown said...

I think this is an interesting challenge. It should be a good test of whether or not things you buy are "needs" or "wants". Where does yarn fall into all of this?!
Best of luck!

sweetp said...

I should be OK to not buy yarn because all the projects I am planning this month I already have yarn in my stash (phew). Lucky!

Anonymous said...

I'm starting to think this 'startitis' thing really is catching. It's happening on all the blogs I read. The funny thing is, it seems the more pressure I'm under to finish an item, the greater the chance of me casting on something else!

Anonymous said...

Ahhh but isn't yarn essenstial for your survival hehe. You need lots of winter woolies where your going :P