Last Day of Buy Nothing June

Well, we made it. Not sure how much of a lasting impression it will make on the daughter. She is already planning everything she wants to buy. And to be fair, I will be at Best Buy tomorrow to obtain a new I-pod and cannot wait. In many ways, Buy-Nothing-June been a nice break, and we all feel good about the donation to the World Wildlife Federation. In other ways, it hasn't been easy.

For me, in spite of a lovely break in Oklahoma with friends, June has been a really hard month. I have been surprised to realize how often after a bad day or a bad experience, that the idea of buying something to make myself feel better crops into my head. And how it just made the day worse to realize that I couldn't buy something. I don't think of myself as a "shopalholic" nor do I spend a lot of my time shopping, but apparently, I do turn to consumerist activities for comfort from time to time. It's never a major purchase--a kitchen gadget, a fun t-shirt from Target, a new pair of shoes--but I hadn't realized before June how often I "comfort shop". I actually almost caved after an incident yesterday, but realized that nothing I could buy would make my hurt feelings any better.

I haven't been able to turn to food for comfort either, as I am trying to drop some extra pounds. So without consumerism or food to turn to for comfort, I was forced to up-level my prayer life. I have to say that prayer does not give me the instant gratification of a pound bag of almond m and m's or a new pair of shoes, but its effects are much longer lasting and build over time.

Now if I can only remember this as we move in to July and beyond.

Buy Nothing June Marches On

In spite of my I-pod withdrawal, I am actually enjoying buy-nothing-June. It's nice to go somewhere with daughter and not have to go through "can I have? can I have? can we buy? can we get?" I'm not sure yet how we will transition back into the "buying" months and still maintain some of the restraint we have shown this month. We may need to strictly define what she needs to pay for out of allowance and for what we will foot the bill. Although, now that she's moving into tween-ville, those lines get even more blurred.

We have had to stretch a couple of times over and above the I-pod incident. Our two porches are in dire need of a power wash, but a hose down will have to do for now. Skip has had to give up his Saturday scratch ticket ritual. Daughter is pretty low on summer clothes now that school uniform time is over, so I have do laundry more often to make sure she has something clean to wear. I may be sporting a more natural look as the month wears on and my make-up supply runs out. At the risk of TMI, I am sloughing off summer skin with a homemade concoction of sugar and olive oil because my body scrub ran out a week ago. For the good of the family, I did purchase some heavy-duty hair conditioner to keep the tangles out of tender-headed daughter's sun and chlorine damaged hair. I decided that was a necessity.

I wish I could somehow tabulate the amount of time I have gotten back these last two weeks by not stopping here and there to pick up this and that. Add to that the time saved by not looking through sales flyers or e-mail specials, and I may gain a whole day of my life back in this one month.

Money saved. Time saved. Must remember this. Daughter has decided that the money saved this month should go to the World Wildlife Fund to help save endangered species.

Buy

Buy

Oil Spill Influenced Dream

I had a weird dream last night I can only attribute to all the damage done by the BP oil spill. I've been following all the damage that oil spill is and will be doing and reflecting on how my own dependence on fossil fuel helped contribute to this disaster. Skip and I have already decided that when I am ready to move on from my 2003 Toyota Matrix, we will replace it with an electric car. I have just been wondering how much abuse our earth can take before we completely destroy her.

So last night I had this dream. We were in our house, but it didn't look like our house. It was worn out and dilapidated. And all the houses in our Wisteria-Lane-look-a-like neighborhood looked the same way. Almost like an abandoned neighborhood, but everyone was still living here. In real life, we have a dining room table that we bought when we first got married and it's a little worse for the wear, but we really like it. In the dream, that table completely collapsed and we needed to replace it. So my husband and I had a very calm, reasonable conversation about whether or not we should spend the money on a new table when it was likely that the earth would not be able to sustain human life for very much longer. Did we really need a new table or could we make do without one until the world came to an end? About that time, I woke up, so I don't know what we decided about the table.

I think we all have this idea that even with all the talk of climate change and pollution, the earth will continue to absorb all of the abuse for many, many years to come. But if we keep causing these massive disasters, we're going to speed up the destruction. Mother earth can only take so much. Hoping for better dreams tonight. Last night's was a little too creepy.

Wouldn't You Know it?

Just 8 days into Buy-Nothing-June, my I-pod dies. Gone. No coming back. It is a testament to the Apple brand that it has lasted this long. It's old school--a third generation Nano. I've had it for two-and-a-half years and have long since gotten my money's worth.

Of course, it is ironic that in an effort to curb my daughter's addiction to buying, I am now having to face my I-pod addiction. Not too long ago, I misplaced it for awhile and was completely out of sorts without it. I listen to pod-casts of NPR shows while I'm doing house chores. I have music for when I exercise. I listen to audio books while I knit or fold laundry or do rote things like log all the church member's contact info into a new database program (still no church secretary).

Now exercise is torture. Housework is even more of a drag. Yesterday, my daughter was kind of annoyed that I had the stereo on while I was making dinner. It clashed with her television show (she is loving the tv freedom that comes when school is not in session). I told her she was welcome to turn off the tv at anytime.

So, I suppose, I'll have to get used to more time with my own thoughts running through my head instead of Carl Castle's voice or the latest from the Black Eyed Peas.

Buy Nothing June

After a long hiatus from this blog, I am back to talk about Buy Nothing June.

Find us on Facebook.

While both my husband and I are certainly guilty of often buying things we don't really need, we declared this consumer-free month to combat our daughter's growing obsession with obtaining more and more things. She has hardly enjoyed the wonderful gifts she received recently for her birthday because she is already looking ahead to what she can buy next. We're not sure how this happened. Skip and I are not big "thing" people. Our spending downfall is experiences--travel and entertainment. Vacations and concerts and theater eat up a lot of money that might be better spent elsewhere. But we have a really good time. :)

We have a great house, but our home is furnished--not decorated. My engagement ring is the only valuable piece of jewelry we own. I have a $10 cell phone. If someone broke in to our house to steal something, they'd be so disappointed by our ten-year-old stereo and square-box 36-inch television, they'd probably spray paint something out of spite. I regularly haul things we aren't using or have outgrown to Goodwill, so we're just not sure where our child got this fixation with stuff and more stuff.

Since she's still too young to send off on a mission trip to Appalachia or Mexico (a great way to gain a little perspective), we thought we'd just put an end to the consuming. She actually cried when I told her. I have a nine-year-old who had a breakdown at the thought of not being able to buy anything for a month. Let's hear it for my parenting skills.

We've told her at the end of the month, she can decide where we will donate the money we have saved by curtailing our spending habits. I hope this month is effective. Otherwise, we may have to send her to the convent. Do they take pre-teen Presbyterians?