To suggest that people should buy less stuff

People are more willing to "overpay" for small/cheap tat types of things like bath bombs as even when over-priced, it's still basically cheap and pocket money, i.e. a fiver for a cup cake.

Completely different to big ticket items like electrical goods which would probably cost 3 or 4 times the price if made in the UK due to the costs of labour, utilities, etc.

Quite a lot of things are still made in the UK such as sofas and other heavy furniture simply because the higher labour costs are offset by the huge transport costs of moving heavy stuff around the World. It's the same reason we still produce a lot of tinned food and loo rolls in the UK - the costs of transporting shipping containers from China makes no sense for such mass produced items which are mostly done on automated production lines anyway, so outweighs the higher labour costs of a handful of people supervising a production line.

I find it depressing that so many 'small businesses' seem to focus on making things people really don't need. Cookie-making, chocolate-making, luxury bathbombs, lotions and potions. And yet the basic businesses and services are rapidly disappearing. In the last year I've needed to get a key cut, I have been looking for a readybuilt wardrobe that's not too costly, and I have a hoover that needs repaired, and no local business in my quite large town can provide those sorts of things!

@Catza and @CockSpadget if you have websites could you send me a link? Am about to start a big renovation - sadly necessary after 30 years here - and would love to buy British and sustainably.

On eBay lots of Chinese based firms have a UK based subsidiary and a big UK flag as their logo. So little is made locally now and people have to work two jobs so don't have time to make things themselves.

Trumps tariffs are to improve balance of trade - so it's likely to be a thing going forward

I'd love to see some governmental initiatives to encourage people to renovate and repair things rather than it being cheaper to dump and replace. For a start I'd reduce or zeroise VAT on repairs, i.e. car repairs, electrical appliance repairs, tradesmen when doing repairs (roof repairs, etc). Make it cheaper for people to repair things rather than dump and replace.

Same here. We keep our cars until they drop too! It's awful for the environment for all these cars with lots of life left in them to be scrapped. The scrappage scheme of several years ago was an environmental disaster - lots of perfectly serviceable cars were scrapped and huge numbers are still languishing in fields and even cannibalising working parts from them is banned! Makes no sense at all.

I completely agree @Noras and it's got a whole lot worse since people started using social media and buying into shite like elf on the shelf, balloon arches, 1st December baskets - every date or special occasion marked with endless single use tat bought from Amazon/Temu and thrown away. Whole new set of Christmas decorations each year, changing your sofa/curtains/cushions ever year, whole new wardrobes for each holiday. People who go shopping not because they need to buy something, but as a hobby.

But you will get people on here with their whataboutery saying that as long as China/US/other people are polluting or consuming, their actions won't make any difference. Or saying that things like "how dare you comment on my Shein/Amazon hauls, I bet you have kids or fly, or eat meat so you have no right to comment" or are ewwwww second hand = manky people, or just don't give a shit about any of it, as long as they have an endless supply of new cheap shite, probably made by slaves or children because it is their RIGHT and nobody is telling them how to spend their money.

Totally depressing. The Pixar movie Wall-E was actually a prophecy.

My mum had kitchen which was 29 years old when she moved away 7 hears ago. She still has 38 year old furniture which moved few times too! Well my DPs waited for that furnitute on waitlist for a year so ye, better be worth it (satellite country) 😂

I had to replace 10 year old kitchen when I bought house because it was dire quality and upkeep was lacking. I have seen some few year old kitchens in which it was very clear, they will need replacing in few years for same reasons.

It's not always a "want" to replace, sadly.

Plus so many kitchens now have such impractical designs for me and many seem to be more for show than use. I have issues with it now looking for new house knowing I will have to change new-ish kitchen because the layout is so impractical for someone who cooks big (as in often, large amounts, from bulk raw ingredients and needs space, uninterrupted counter space and proper storage and proper fridge freezer). Or the sellers in desperation to sell just quickly put cheap nice looking one which will not last. But it looks pretty🤷

I just think it’s absolute madness to spend hundreds (and sometimes thousands) on new furniture, when there is so much great quality used available. I have several mid century teak furniture items that I’ve got for either free or next to nothing (£40 max), they are actually a brand that is still being manufactured, and cost a couple of thousand per item new!

Good quality clothes made in the UK are available at a reasonable price point - eg Patrick Grant's Community Clothing range. eg a 100% lambswool, preshrunk made in the UK for £72-£105. The problem is that you can buy an acrylic one in this season's high fashion colour from eg Primark for a lot less.

I don’t do that either, I used to do it when young and skint.

I simply don’t understand why the op is spending less and paying off her debt makes her think we should all buy less and this will some how help the economy and reduce our payment deficit. It makes no sense.

sure, don’t buy tat and send it to landfill, but that’s not what she said.

You're not wrong but:

1. The big problems are not caused and cannot be solved by individual consumers and are about the behaviour of massive corporations and governments
2. Suggesting that people buy local and from independent businesses is a bit privileged- those options cost much, much more than Shein and Temu "tat".
3. We are bombarded by advertising 24/7 and so are our kids and it's really, really hard to constantly say no to ourselves and to them.

Speak for yourself. Some of us still buy things to last, and don’t feel obliged to ditch perfectly good whatever items because they’re not ‘the latest’.

Buying less stuff is admirable, but you seem to care a lot about the nationality of the people you buy from. Why is that? On the whole global trade is a good thing.

@SoftPillow Can I add use the library to your list?

Yeah and the London accent has been Americanised

Both me and DH prefer old furniture to the newer stuff, most of which is, rubbish.

We love our old solid oak dining table which we bought about 20 years ago for £10 in charity shop and our dining chairs which we bought around the same time from ebay.

Gosh what a revelation.

Also I love historic textiles, antiques, paintings. Take whatever you can afford so ¯\🙄/¯

I don’t understand how stopping buying stuff reduces the payment deficit. And I personally don’t have debt, so quite frankly feel I can spend the money I earn as I please.

im sorry I dint under stand your logic. I understand why you should stop buying stuff if you’ve debt, I simply don’t understand why I need to do it too.

Another thumbs up for Patrick Grant's LESS.

Not an easy read, pretty challenging at times, and certainly no easy answers. But it's made me rethink my attitude to buying and my possessions.

I'm aiming to make fewer and more mindful purchases this year, to repair, repurpose or make my own where possible, or buy used. And I'm going to start using our local library again, which I haven't done for years.

None of this is good for the economy but things have to change for the sake of the planet and for our well-being. Consumption doesn't equate to contentment.

Yep. Society’s addiction to consumerism is pathetic. Though I’d expect nothing less of humans. After all most of us think it’s perfectly okay to brutally murder another living being for our lunch, or pollute the world for a bit of plastic tat.

At Christmas im always mindful of this excellent article “Bake them a cake, write them a poem, give them a kiss, tell them a joke, but for god’s sake stop trashing the planet to tell someone you care. All it shows is that you don’t.”
www.monbiot.com/2012/12/10/the-gift-of-death/

I've bought cheap furnishings and clothes which I only replace if I cannot recycle them or repair

I agree.

You can't tell people what to do, OP. But if the world carries on the way it is, there'll be less stuff to buy and it'll be more expensive which'll put people off.

e.g. US tariffs