Buy nothing new for a year challenge

[Flo]

There was a group called the Compact that did this for a year in USA a few years back. They set down the following guidance:
First principle - don't buy new products of any kind (from stores, web sites, etc.)
Second principle - borrow or buy used.
A few exceptions - using the "fair and reasonable person" standard -- i.e., you'll know in your heart when you're rationalizing a violation:
• food, drink, and necessary medicine (no elective treatments like V.i.a.g.r.a. or Botox)
• necessary cleaning products, but not equipment (don't go out and buy the Dyson Animal, for example).
• socks and underwear (utilitarian - non-couture or ornamental)
• pyjamas for the children
Utilitarian services (plumbers, electricians, auto mechanics, veterinarians, dog/house-sitters, fire/paramedics, dry cleaners, house cleaners, etc.) –
• Support local and encourage used parts (rebuilt transmission, salvaged headlight unit, etc.)
Recreational services (massage, etc.) & local artisanal items –
• Good sources for gifts, but should not be over-indulged in for personal gratification
Charitable contributions - an even better source for gifts
Plants and cut flowers –
• Whenever possible, cultivate from free cuttings or seeds. OK in extreme moderation when purchased from local businesses and again, within reason
Art supplies –
• First line of attack: SCRAP. When absolutely necessary (for the professionals and talented amateurs in the group), from local businesses
Magazines, newspapers, Netflix - renewals only, no new subscriptions. Even better to consume online
• Video rentals and downloadable music files (non-material) - freely shared and legal, please

That's snipped from The Compact Website

That seems emminently doable to me. Sure you may well have to track down second hand school uniform and most of us would go for new footwear. I've failed miserably for a couple of years at doing this mind. For no good reason but lack of will power in most cases. Looking at the contents of my house and the state of my finances, I think that the third year might be the successful year.

[mrsflibble]

Mrsflibble, why don't you suggest your school starts up a small used uniform shop. The seller and the school both get a percentage of each sale, the buyer gets a nearly new item (eg blazer, skirt, sports gear etc) cheap, everyone is a winner! My son's grammar school used to do this and as I was a single mum it was a lifeline for me.
I am going to join this 'buy nothing new challenge', except when we absolutely cannot buy secondhand or reuse/recycle or have to buy new for economy/environmental reasons for the barge. But hopefully saving money elsewhere means we will have the money when we have to buy new (if you see what I mean!!!!)

Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy New Year!

i did suggest it and was curtly told they have a second hand uniform stand at the summer fete. yeah. helpful lol.

[fran]

Shame, perhaps your child is the only one that grows between September and the summer fete!!!!!!

[mrsflibble]

hahahaha look like it!

[yvette]

This is a good idea - husband still looking for work so we need to be very careful anyway. That said, we have both been really pleased with the economies we have made, and have been able to get by on less than we thought - which makes me realise that, although we've never lived extravagantly, we must have been wasting a fair bit before.
Really sympathise with mrs flibble - its tricky with children. My son has grown three inches in as many months and is growing out of everything. His school does sales of used uniform but they always take place at three o' clock when I am at work (infuriatingly). Also, he will be 14 soon, and I want to be able to get him a present - maybe the thing to do there is to set a budget and not exceed it.
Maybe we all need to define our own perameters - as Green Aura says, its about working out what we need, and that's going to be different for each of us?

[Elliecat]

Yes - I really want to join this challenge, although I will have some exclusions: new windows, as most of ours are rotten, DIY products where they cannot be found secondhand, books for study and some newspapers (Saturday Guardian) and my husband's specialist magazines, which he refuses to give up!

The money saved will help to pay for the windows, and we are also saving for early retirement or working only part-time, and moving to France within the next 5 years, hopefully!

I am really keen to buy no new clothes or shoes, at least, and we'll see how we go with everything else!

Good luck everyone!

[applegirl]

re school uniform, this doesn't work for every school but my child used to go to a very small primary school and we had a wooden box in the hallway - you could put grown-out uniform or clothes in there and help yourself to anything. I just passed things down to younger children too. Where I now work we have a table where we put anything we don't want with a sign (help yourself!) and things get passed around that way.
I try to do the buy nothing new challenge every year, this year has been good in many ways, bad in some as we moved to New Zealand. Things like books being more expensive and having a good library have made this much easier, and my OH managed to buy a second hand sea kayak, birthdays are a stumbling block. Having seen the amount of stuff we brought with us I am finding it a whole lot easier to just use things up. And I have had a charity shop habit for years... Folks here use things up way more than in the UK, the charity shops here sell stuff (or at least have for sale) things which would get chucked away in the UK. For example furniture which has definitely seen better days and boxes of miscellaneous cables from electrical stuff.
Good luck with the challenge everyone, I am going to write things down when I buy them, hoping I will have a short list!

[Big Al]

This is the norm for me most of the time due to having no disposable income to mention of. Having said that to do this for a year will slow people down. For instance, I bought a chimney sweep brush head from that orange and black shop for £5.98 but saved £47 for each of the 2 chimnies I've swept. Also the neighbours know I have this brush and rods now so it will be used again over the next year. If I had to search for one to borrow i'd be forever looking and thus have no fire in the house.

Food for us and the livestock needs to be bought as does petrol, car servicing etc. As for clothes, We treat me to 2 pairs of new jeans from A$da last week for the princly sum of £4 per pair. They cost more than that in charity shops in my town so I'm afraid i won't be doing this challenge but good luck with it for those that do.

My personal challenge is to lose the last 45 kg of excess weight this year......

[Zech]

I thought I'd posted on this thread before Christmas, but must have pushed the wrong button because it's not showing. Just wanted to say to Helsbells and Green Aura, thanks for the advice and I didn't mean to ignore you

[yvette]

I've been a member of my local library ever since I moved here in 1987, but get frustrated by long-winded proceedures for inter-library loans and have often ended up buying books in the past. Only because of this 'buy nothing new challenge' did I probe a bit further and discover that, with a PIN number, i can search and reserve books from the combined catalogues of a consortium of 10 borough libraries. No more new books for me! It just goes to show how lazy/gormless/distracted I must have been in the past to miss that facility. Currently searching out titles on thrift and self-sufficiency...

[Big Al]

I've been a member of my local library ever since I moved here in 1987, but get frustrated by long-winded proceedures for inter-library loans and have often ended up buying books in the past. Only because of this 'buy nothing new challenge' did I probe a bit further and discover that, with a PIN number, i can search and reserve books from the combined catalogues of a consortium of 10 borough libraries. No more new books for me! It just goes to show how lazy/gormless/distracted I must have been in the past to miss that facility. Currently searching out titles on thrift and self-sufficiency...

It's not so much being gormles ( now there's a word I've not heard in a lot of years) but more the case of applying a bit of nouse to0 the current situation. You needed to read but not buy books so you looked aAT HOW TO SOLVE THE CONUNDRUM AND SO YOU HAVE, WELL DONE.

[crowsashes]

This is the norm for me most of the time due to having no disposable income to mention of. Having said that to do this for a year will slow people down. For instance, I bought a chimney sweep brush head from that orange and black shop for £5.98 but saved £47 for each of the 2 chimnies I've swept. Also the neighbours know I have this brush and rods now so it will be used again over the next year. If I had to search for one to borrow i'd be forever looking and thus have no fire in the house.

i think that would have been a justified purchase to enable you to use the fire to heat your home.

im taking part BUT my exception will be wool/yarn... i knit alot - i buy yarn thats on sale/reduced/end of batch or line so rarely wanted and is ALWAYS knitted etc into something i need or as gifts.

if it was easy enough to get second hand i would but on freecycle/charities shops its always few and far between

[Milims]

Pretty much the majority of what we acquire is second hand, with the exception of underwear, kids shoes, food, toiletries etc. After that if I want to buy something I go thru the "Do I need it"etc debate with myself. If I do need it then I try to buy as ethically as I can. It's become second nature to me but I'm by no means perfect (there's a knitted coat in my fave ethical shop that I'd love to buy with my Christmas prezzie money - but I'm still debating that!) But I'm left with a bit of a problem - my much loved and almost daily used electric grill with flat plate is on the verge of death. I could find other ways of cooking, but it would make life more complicated, time consuming, less convenient and possibly a bit more expensive - but I could still make use of what I have already. I could possibly buy a second hand or reconditioned one, but I fear that I will end up with the same problem sooner rather than later. I know I could use my Chrissie prezzie money to buy it - but (adopt brat voice here) it's my prezzie money!

Mrs F - why not becoem very best friends with the mummy of a child either taller than Soph or in the next class up

Hi and welcome Ellicat- why not pop onto the itros thread and tell us about yourself?

[Stonehead]

Well, I managed to get through the first three days of January without buying anything new and thought we'd never see anything new for at least another year. After all, it's rare for anything new to grace our doorstep.

Then a courier arrived yesterday with a present from my father. My 2001 Power Mac has been struggling for the past year, so my blogging was suffering. A reader donated a four-year-old Mac Mini to the cause in December, so I was just setting it up when the courier arrived with a rather large box.

I opened the box to discover a monster, brand-new iMac! One of the 27in widescreen ones with the top-end 2.93GHz Intel Core i7 chips! The screen is bigger than our ancient CRT telly. Gulp!

It's huge. It's shiny. It's fast. And it's new. Yes, brand new, built to order and delivered direct. Designed to satisfy the ultimate inner consumer.

Argh. I'm doomed. Years of stingy, self congratulatory austerity thrown away in an instant. How many years penance do I have to do for such a gorgeous piece of consumerism?

(It is very, very nice though.)

[Zech]

Does it count if someone else buys it for you?

I didn't last very long either, and don't have the excuse of a generous gift coming my way.

First new purchase: A pair of wellies. I did try to mend the old ones with gaffer tape, I promise!

Second new purchase: A lovely, shiny jamming kettle. I even paid extra to get stainless steel instead of aluminium. I feel completely unrepentant, just excited about marmalade! I fear there is no hope for me here...