Happy No New Stuff Year - The support thread for those flying in the face of consumerism!

[WewishyouaBUMPERLICIOUS]

My husband and I have set ourselves a challenge of not buying any new stuff for 6 months. Obvious exceptions are food, cleaning products and toiletries. Also outside of the rules are items that it would be detrimental to buy second hand for my 6mo baby, i.e. cot mattress, dummies etc.

I posted about this a couple of months ago, and have also noticed some posts on the style and beauty threads proposing the same thing. So this is the thread for those who want to join this challenge in some way, whether it be just buying no new clothes, buying nothing new at all, buying nothing at all, buying only second hand etc. Our motivation are different, for some it will be saving money (me), for others it may be flying in the face of rampant consumerism (me) and for others is may be trying to mitigate their impact upon the environment and in protest against the poorly treated workers producing the dirt cheap goods we come to expect today (also me!).

This thread could be invaluable support, with links to various recycling websites, tips on altering your clothes to liven up your wardrobe, advice to stop yourself frittering money on non-fat lattes and a pain au chocolate each day on the way to work and support to tell you "no you don't need a new lipstick - here's how to make your own!"

So come one come all: I dare you to set yourself this challenge and not buy anything new for as long as possible!

always loads of tellies on freecycle - people upgrade their huge box tvs to fancy flat screens and put up the old Tvs.

Hi apostrophe, I know exactly what you mean about having all you need and then suddenly seeing something that you 'forgot' you needed, too. Especially since I live 100 yards from an Aldi .

Bumper, may I float the suggestion your way of giving up the telly? We've not had one for a couple of years and don't really miss it (and I used to be a real addict). It's not a hardcore thing, dh and I are both big film buffs so we watch lots of dvds on the pc (which you don't have to have a telly license for !) and probably spend way too much time online, but now whenever we go to stay with dps or dpils, I always think, "oh goody, I can catch up on lots of programmes!" and then we get there and I can't find a single thing I actually want to watch.

Admittedly it's easier for me since dd is too young yet to be pestering me to get one, that is going to be a hard choice. I read something about Roger Scruton in the Times the other day, saying that his TV-free kids read all the time and could hold up their ends in conversations about the critique of pure reason, which immediately made me think "yeah, and then go to school every day and get kicked in the pants."

woops, sorry Simply washing

Apparently some Sainsburys sell it, but our local doesn't, so I don't know if it costs more or less from them.

Maybe even 1/4 the price if you use half what they recommend per wash

huh? Friction? felting?

I understood the skimping bit!

Thank for the offer jammy! But I'm sure we'll find another one closer to home. i've put an ad on freecycle anyway. i'm going to see if i can find a repair man who will do a free quote but chances are it's not worth the money.

mybabyisinthegarden, i would like to think i could do it, & maybe if i was working i could but i am at home all day with a bfing baby, and esp when the weather is shite like this, you know those days where you are just stuck to the sofa with a sleeping feeding baby? I need it for then. tbh i don't actually watch much real tv, but we have this bt vision box that lets you record stuff so i just record lots of things that i don't have the chance to watch in the evening. i would consider when dd is older though.

funnily enough dh said when i proposed this challenge "but what if something like the tv breaks?" and i said to him "what do you think we would do any if the tv breaks, we can't afford to buy a new one" and we can't but chances are we would have "found" the money from somewhere, because you do don't you. And if we were going to get a new one it would have to be a good one (dh is a gadget freak) and we would justify it by saying that if we were going to spend money we might as well buy one that'll last, and would have got it on finance or something. But not this time! Free or very cheap is the name of the game! and tough if it isn't 32 inches or wide screen etc etc I just want to be able to watch Dawson's Creek when I am stuck at home with the baby!

Anyway, welcome astrophe! I think what you said about having it all one minute then needing something the next is exactly the tone of the thread. It makes you wonder where it would all stop.

I mean if someone gave you a million pounds, just one off payment, and you bought everything you wanted at the moment, and a house, decorated it top to bottom, got a new wardrobe where everything matched, a designer handbag that you would "wear with everything", had your once in a lifetime dream holiday, then would you stop wanting stuff?

Oooh, found this btw!

£115 to repair our bust dvd player!

On top of the £20 I had to pay just for the man to look at it.

Am now searching for a replacement on freecycle ....

Does anyone rent TVs any more? Is this an ecologicaly sound thing to do?

my parents still rent their tv, sophy

oh god mh I am actually leaning towards buying a spinning wheel. I just know I don't have time for it atm, the trouble is, I am increasingly feeling, when looking at a knitted product I have made, that I am kind of cheating by buying the wool-I dunno what this is exactly, it just feels like the challenge isn't really there...

BUT I am expecting baby #3 in a few weeks and my house is small and chaotic already...

I can spin with a drop spindle but that takes days to get anything out of.

Have actually gotten back into tv watching of late, it means we don't buy dvds. We have a freeview box and record a lot of stuff eg off film4. My big issue with kids/tv is the ads, and thats easily solved by recording stuff off cbeebies.

bumperlicious - thanks for the link i shall save it and read through

Ok, I have a new dilemma, stick with me on this one, it's long and boring!

So our TV is kaput. Obviously we are not just going to go out and buy a new one. But before we started this challenge one of the expections we had was that DH could buy a big computer screen to use with the laptop. The back ground being that he works in a crappy job but hopefully once we both go PT with the baby he can get back into his photography and start making us some money. But we only have a small laptop which would be difficult to work on.

We got a bit of money for Christmas and I gave DH some money instead of a present and he had a small bonus for doing well on a promotion at work so we agreed he could buy a screen. Anyway yesterday he said that you can get TV/computer screens, a little bit more than he was originally going to pay, would kill two birds with one stone, the only downside is there may, we are not sure, be some compromise on the computer screen quality (probably on he would notice!).

You still with me? Anyway, DH had rang his mum asking to borrow one of her old TVs that she has, but later on she rang up and said that she wanted to buy us a new TV so she was going to give us some money (a couple of hundred pounds!). No she is not particularly wealthy but she get various benefits and doesn't have much to spend her money on but she likes to treat her children and grandchildren so this was really nice of her, and she would probably be really offended if we refused. Any sticking with the computer/tv screen idea with now a bit more money to play with DH has been checking some out, and was talking about some Sony one which would be a great TV but not brilliant as a computer screen. I said the whole point was getting something you could use as a screen and the TV thing was a bonus. He said well, we could get it and then when the 6 months challenge is up get a more decent computer screen. And his mum is offering to buy us a TV anyway, so it's not like we are spending the money.

But I'm not up for this, it defeat the whole object, yes mostly it is about money and great if MIL want to buy us a TV, but we don't need it, and part of what I wanted to create in us is an attitude shift. Just because someone else is paying for it, I don't want us just to go out and buy a new flatscreen TV. It just doesn't seem right. I would rather just get a second hand one and use the rest of the money to pay off some bills or something.

Anyway, we are considering the best option. I don't want to offend MIL buy refusing the money, and having a screen that DH can use for his photography is the only way I will consider buying a new TV. He is going to check out the quality of the screens for the laptop.

Any thoughts? I feel like this would be a complete betrayal of what we are trying to achieve on this thread (and in DH's and I's life).

bumper, I THINK I know how you feel a little here. It may be someone else's money, but its your values! And it IS important to avoid buying new stuff if you can, IMO.

I also have another concern re the computer-I suspect that they use more power than a tv to run say a dvd. I have no evidence to back this up, its just a hunch (because they have to run lots of other programs and stuff at the same time) , but its why I can't bring myself to watch dvds on the computer...(I think its a different matter if you don't actually have a dvd player btw-but we do.)

I don't have any suggestions really, but I agree its very tricky...

Ok, so we did it. We got a new TV, well DH got it, but I am not entirely happy about it. This is how we have justified it:

1. The TV that we got was one that DH saw on the internet and wanted. He went into town and it was £100 off, and they offered him a display model for another £70 off.
2. MIL gave him the money so it only actually cost us £30
3. It is going to double as a large computer screen that DH was going to get anyway. he now isn't going to get one, so it has actually saved us money
4. It's more eco friendly to run than our hulking great old one

Ok, ok, 2 weeks in and we have failed on our mission . I am feeling very uncomfortable about it, for many reasons. You can't play the we are strapped for cash card one minute then buy a TV the next (even though we didn't pay for it), plus it has gone against the the principles I have been trying to instill in me and DH. But I have been making him feel suitably guilty. he said did I want him to take it back? I said no, but I just wanted him to appreciate what this means, and have him make suitable recompense. First thing he has to do is find an eco friendly way of getting rid of the old TV.

So go ahead. Judge me now.

bumper that sounds like a good solution. this isn't about judging you!! You have thought and dealt with it very well.

this isn't solely about not buying things it's mainly about thinking before you buy something. if it had been the washing machine you would have the same dilemma, sometimes we do need (although can see an arguement where tv is not a need) to buy things. but it's thinking about what we buy and where we buy it, posibly getting the best deal etc.

life seems to be moving on a bit. got to go to town today as need a few bits. got to get cat food and litter (wood pellet litter, its brill, infinately better than that clay stuff!!) and dd needs pull-ups (she has a reaction to the re-usable ones i have) but i think thats it. hopefully i shall refrain from buying things to cheer myself up. although im going out tonight and have no going out clothes (i havnt been out since well before ds was born) so might buy myself something nice as a treat. charity shop if i can manage it. if not i'll buy m+s rather than new look/top shop. although i dont have a lot of money i think that it will be better value for money in the long run and would prefer to buy more ethically as when i buy clothes, which admittedly isn't often at all!

Thanks stacey, appreciate the support. tell me about the cat litter, my mum has cats. Why is it better? Is is cheaper?

it is cheaper, its made of wood pellet rather than clay and it sort of dissintergrates when they wee on it, so it should (i have not read up on the sbuject) be better for the environment.

doesnt smell any different either (except my cat doesnt cover his own poo )

Bumper, you can put your old telly on freecycle or donate it to a charity which helps people on low incomes furnish their properties. At our local recycling centre they claim that 98% of old TV parts are recycled into other electronic goods.

Our DVD player has been sent to the dump it would have cost a fortune to fix but I have already been offered another on freecycle, so quite happy about that.