To suggest that people should buy less stuff

[Noras]

i just think that the mess we are in is because we get stuff from overseas that we don’t really need. People buy a lot of tat and junk eg cheap clothing, rubbish confectionary and artificial tat for homes. If we all just cut down on huge chunks of it we could cut out our balance of payment deficit.

Also people need to buy less from overseas owned companies. People need to check each and every company they buy from and go for smaller independents etc There needs to be an online list of stores to avoid.

The life some of you suggest we lead sounds utterly joyless.

The more I shop in charity shops / Vinted, the less I want to shop for new stuff.

Agree

I enjoy shopping
I enjoy stuff
I work in retail of stuff that is considered 'wants' over needs
I love the fact i can shop from my bed at midnight

2nd hand shops that have stuff that 'will do' or 'is close enough' dont work for me
I want styles i like, colours i like, clothes that havent been stretched out

All of my pyjamas are Christmas ones apart from one halloween pair, I buy them in the Next sale for about £10 instead of £25 and wear them all year round apart from the few very hot days we have, as there is a particular tall style that fits and washes well. I have about 6 pairs that I will wear until they wear out.

@NattyTurtle59
there have been experiments (this one in particular https://www.economist.com/media/globalexecutive/year_without_made_in_china_bongiorni_e.pdf )
on living without goods made in China, it’s nigh on impossible. They make so much for so many suppliers. I don’t think Trump has quite grasped what he’s going to do to the American economy (and the world economy) with his 10% tariff on imports from China.

My kitchen is 90s MFI Shrieber cream shaker style, I think it's quite nice. Most of my shoes and boots are Josef Seibel which is I suppose a middle price brand but they always fit me so I wear them a lot, no point in buying expensive shoes and boots if they aren't comfortable so sit in the wardrobe.

Actual we did buy a new sink about 5 years ago as the old one was a bit corroded by over zealous cleaning, I just searched and found one that I liked with the same hole measurement and DH fitted it, though it was one of those tasks that you think will take about an hour or two but really involves a lot of swearing and nearer a day as the work surface ended up being removed to get it in.

Why do you think? Because Netflix can’t support their app on every device for ever. It would cost them a shit ton of money, so of course there has to be a cut off point.

Op I subscribe to Ethical magazine (£30 a year for 6 mags and online) it’s brilliant , gives you all the info you need to make real changes to your lifestyle to help the planet. I thoroughly recommend it if you want to live a more sustainable lifestyle.

@minuette1

But people spend a lot of time in their kitchens, increasingly so as the cost of living rises, and sorry but 80s pine is ugly and depressing. Your house price surely reflects the interior spec too. People wouldn't be knocking £15k off the price - just as a modern kitchen would add value to your house, an ugly dated one would decrease the value.

I have 90's oak in my kitchen which you probably also consider ugly and depressing. One of the reasons I can't be arsed to update it is that within a year or so my new kitchen will also become out of date ... so what would be the point if it doesn't bother me? We aren't all on the lookout to upgrade and move house every few years either.

The lure of 'new' can be seductive. Our bedroom furniture is solid pine, over 20 years old and now very yellow. We looked at so many options for new as I am sick fed up of looking at it.

But we can't find anything that's as practically sized - big deep drawers - or well made - it's solid with dovetailed joints etc. So we are getting it stripped back and stained to freshen it up at a fraction of the cost of new (that wouldn't even be as practical).

This is something we are thinking about at the moment - our kitchen was in the house when we bought it, 16 years ago, and it is looking very dated. We have considered getting the doors and cupboard ends etc professionally painted, and a new worktop, but the carcasses of the cupboards are chipboard and are at the end of their life. If they had been in good condition, we would have simply refurbished it, but that's not possible.

I would love to have enough money to say that we will put in really good quality carcasses, so that, in the future, the kitchen could be refurbished, but we don't have the budget for that - and I doubt most people who redo their kitchen can afford solid wood cabinet carcasses etc.

You don't understand how much better it is for local areas that money remains circling in local economies then?

It makes me laugh on local FB pages where I see people moaning that the High Street isn't like it was when they were young. And then they go home and do all their shopping at the click of a mouse, and more local businesses close down.

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it

Not all chipboard kitchens are the same though. If you get a rigid built 18mm cabinet from DIY kitchens or somewhere today, that is going to last longer than a cheap 15mm flat pack with sagging shelves and a wobbly hardboard back, of which there were loads in the 00's.

I don’t care. The high street is dead because it can’t keep up.

If it was cheaper, more convenient and had a big range, I’d shop on the high street. It never has been, so I don’t. I really couldn’t give a crap that it’s dead.

But most people would want a kitchen they spent a lot of time in to be to their taste and specification. That does not mean ripping it out every couple of years just to keep 'up to date'. There is a middle ground between doing that and living with a 40+ year old kitchen that comes with a house. We replaced the kitchen in our house when we moved in which co-incidentally was 80s pine, and pretty much falling apart. We didn't replace it with something sleek and shiny, rather well made shaker style units which we hope will last for decades to come. However if it had been replaced by the previous owners in recent years, we wouldn't have ripped it out just for the sake of it.

The poster I originally replied to was well aware that her kitchen would not likely be appealing to potential buyers as she acknowledged that people would probably offer £15k under asking price because of her 80s pine kitchen. I don't know you have taken this to mean I would hate your oak kitchen, that is just so random 😂

Another issue is for example hand me down furniture. From who?
I am in that weird age group when elder elders were long gone by the time I was starting house but elders and other still very much alive and hence using their furniture (which is ever lasting and I would gladly take it). Most of my friends in the same age group had to buy new things and none of us had money for top quality stuff.
The affordable option was simply IKEA (people sneer at here often). It seems to last and last LOTS of moves so fair play to them for that price.

@Yabadabadooooo I've bought fabulous furniture from charity shops Facebook marketplace etc. We got a lovely sideboard which dh painted. Fits in great in our dining room. It was £45.

Yes, you can buy lovely things around if you have time to get them. We have mix of IKEA and second (tenth) hand. Most people I know have mismatch. Needed basics bpught new, top ups which could wait mix.
My second hand sofa lasted 8 years. Very pleased with modular (maked double bed) for 150😂

To clarify, I meant needed things. Bed, wardrobes, something to sit on, maybe a table but that can wait a bit too mostly

Yes to buying less.

No to protectionism and trade wars.

Both sets of our parents seem consumerist, mine particularly will stockpile things they don't need. If we buy an item, it's usually a good quality and more expensive item so that it will last. I put it down to a boomer thing, and we're behaving more like our grandparents with our careful purchasing, but I'm guessing people get dopamine from shopping or something?

I personally did really get into online shopping during lockdown, didn't spend crazy amounts of money or become addicted but I think it was because there was much less for me to do at that time. I got a real buzz from the parcels arriving.

In my normal life I've got a variety of activities I can do so don't need it so much but I do get the dopamine thing.

Not a 'boomer thing'. A 'your parents thing'.

True I was someone who saved a fortune (a few thousand) during lockdowns because I wasn't going to shops spending money.