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

569 replies

WewishyouaBUMPERLICIOUS · 30/12/2007 08:17

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!

OP posts:
PersephoneSnowballSnape · 05/01/2008 09:40

there is probably a thread for this somewhere but can anyone advise me how to clean a very smokey oven without buying horrible oven cleaner - i have bicarb/vinegar etc.

not going great with me. bought ds game for sons birthday in august off of mn. is £30 in shops, spent £7 including postage. technically i'm £23 up, aren't i?

GreenSam · 05/01/2008 15:58

I'm in too. I have been not shopping for five days now, and I am shocked by the amount of things I would have bought had I not made this pledge: everything from new pens and envelopes from the stationary shop, to rather cool organic T-shirts from our 'ethical supermarket'. I am so looking forward to comparing this year's and last year's credit card bills.

As for presents: I am planning to get into candle-making. Yes, this will mean buying some wax and wicks, but I'm not sure they can'tr count as consumable? Then I'm going to trawl the charity shops (I am allowing shopping for re-cycled/reusable goods) for pretty tea cups and saucers, and make them into candles (saw some selling for an exhorbitant amount in Bath). Thus my presents will not only be homemade and inexpensive, recycled and reused, but also reusable. Ha, am feeling rpetty smug about this new avenue of creativity!

I think the money idea for kids' presents is a good one, but doesn't it just transfer the consumption? At least if you do the buying you can direct the stuff they get, and ensure it's not just plastic tat that they'll get bored of in a couple of days? My son, 7, got a cactus collection for Christmas, which he loves.

BroccoliSpears · 05/01/2008 16:26

Hello, can I come late to the party?

I've been avoiding buying unnecessarily for a while now and am planning to ramp it up this year, on both ethical and financial grounds.

I am deliberately not being evangelical about it as I tend to get a bit carried away and humourless about hings quite easily, so I shall be making exceptions for my nephew's birthday present later this month, and a few necessities for the house.

Otherwise it's freecycle and charity shops all the way.

Fingers crossed for a sewing machine on freecycle so I can set about my horrid, ill-fitting wardrobe soon .

BumperliciousIsOneHotMother · 05/01/2008 16:38

"I am deliberately not being evangelical about it as I tend to get a bit carried away and humourless about things quite easily"

Brocolli this describes me too!

The local Friday ad is also a good place to get second hand stuff.

BumperliciousIsOneHotMother · 05/01/2008 16:38

Oh and greensam I am loving that candle idea!

BroccoliSpears · 05/01/2008 18:40

That candle / charity shop cups idea is genius

PrismManchip · 05/01/2008 20:01

If you add scent to a candle, do you just use essential oils?
Or are there Rules?

I have decided not to get the new mobile phone I have been shopping around for. My old one is perfectly good (apart from a couple of glitches) and so I'm getting a £10 per month tariff and not upgrading. Feel quite good about that (also it's one less thing to learn!).

Staceym21AtLast · 05/01/2008 20:15

good one pruni. my MIL brought me a new phone for xmas but i would have been happy with the ancient nokia my dad leant me when mine broke. but neither are wasted my dad's had his back as a spare again and iv got one that i dont knwo how to use

BroccoliSpears · 05/01/2008 20:42

I did it with special Make Candles Smelly Stuff. I have no idea if you can use other stuff. I'd imagine you can as people have been making candles for a lot longer than Hobbycraft have been selling special Make Candles Smelly Stuff.

policywonk · 05/01/2008 22:46

Persephone Here are some suggestions for ovens from my eco-cleaning book:

GENERAL CLEANING
Make a paste of 225ml/1 cup white distilled vinegar and 30g/quarter cup of powdered laundry detergent [bet that smells yummy]. Heat your oven at 350 degrees for 5 minutes and then turn it off. Spread the paste around the oven, applying it more heavily to very greasy areas. Leave on for an hour, then use a plastic spatula to scrape the dirt away.

OVERNIGHT CLEANING
Sprinkle water on the oven bottom. Cover with baking soda and let it sit overnight. Wipe off and apply liquid soap with scouring pad. Rinse.

tyaca · 06/01/2008 00:57

lol at robbing the candle ideas...

brocolli - i have a sewing machine i have used once. not a partic great one i dont think, maybe £80 from argos but had all the relevant bits. been meaning to freecycle it, as too heavy to make ebay worthwhile. i'm in s london, let me know if you'd be interested.

bumper --- i know exactly what you mean about the envy, but not sure how much of that accounts for my need of ""stuff"".

for me, its a lot more about filling a v short term impulse. eg - why buy a £30 body moisturiser, when i could just actually use the ones i have at home? the spend is as interesting as the owning.

this year, i noticed i'd bought three grey marl jumper type things from Monsoon. My route to work takes me right past a Monsoon. The year before, i worked near a real big Reiss. All my grey marl tops were from Reiss.... the summer before i was five minutes aways from an All Saints.... etc etc

at certain times, for certain reasons, i will cane a couple of hundred on clothes// cosmeticy stuff// god random crap (smythson diary FFS and i wonder why i have mountains of debt). it matters not to me where i am or what its on. it's just what i do {{DID}}

what i'm hoping is that these triggers were a lot to do with work stress. for me there is a real sense of "rewarding" such a BS term myself.

so now i'm not working. perhaps indefinitley. sure new temptations will present themselves, but interested to know how lifestyle changes will affect my spending habits...

NB - bought nowt, really nowt at all this year, save for a coffee. and some stuff for decorating which was def a necc.

sorry to ramble

1dilemma · 06/01/2008 01:38

Minum I share your envy!

twentypence · 06/01/2008 03:38

For those of you who have a makeup box full of tried once impulse buys - I have listed 38 (!) of mine on Trade Me (New Zealand Ebay). Most of them have bids and they are used!

I am not buying anything which is not natural, paraben free and SLS free (oh and it's got to be made in NZ as well)

This means I can buy from 2 shops, both of which are miles away - impulse buys are down to zero.

CharlieAndLolasMummy · 06/01/2008 09:21

well have to go shopping now to buy Stuff for holiday

This is going to be a tricky one for me. It is mainly food, but ack am going in remnants of sales, so great spaving opportunities...

Another thing for me is that I tend not to see food as so much of an issue in terms of consumerism. I am pretty good about buying only local and organic, but within this I seem to allow myself rather generous latitude as to what constitutes necessities... .

But the real issue is clothes. I am house sized atm, and I am faced with a straight choice of wearing one of the two dresses which still fit, with trousers, which I think is a slightly naff look, or buying Proper Maternity Clothes which will last me now about 4 weeks. Given the price of maternity clothes, I am not enthusiastic about this option, and tbh there isn't even a vast amount of point buying off ebay at this point IMO-the stuff will take a week to arrive, and then I won't get much use out of it.

Oh and can I just confirm, eyebrow tweezers ARE a necessity, yes? My lovely kids have just shoved mine down the back of the radiator and I am feeling hirsute...

PersephoneSnowballSnape · 06/01/2008 10:51

eyebrow tweezers are a necessity!

thanks for the tips policywonk. i'm going to try the overnight one. I'm scared of the other one!

I'm not sure if i'm doing well or not. went to the salvation army store yesterday and walked out with a habitat beech A3 picture frame for £1.99. a pair of unworn clarks shoes for £3.95. bag for my dd £1.99. two books for me - fat girl slim cookbook 79p and tenderness of wolves 59p. book each for the children at 29p each ( including a felicity wishes pop up in fab condition, which retails at £11.99) hat (£1.49) and brown calfskin 1950s mans gloves (£1.49)for me as well.

arguably i didn't really NEED any of the above, but i don't want to live a totally treat free existence. i spent about £14.00, on things with a RRp of over £100.00.

i just read the observer online. it's not the same as slopping around on my sofa with a big cup of coffee - but i'll tough it out.

CharlieAndLolasMummy · 06/01/2008 14:42

ok I did buy the tweezers, I have my limits

buying newspapers is a thing for me. I can't really justify it, except that in my life its easier to sit with a paper than read it online, as I can semi supervise the kids at the same time. But its a luxury, no doubt about it.

In practice though, the other option is not to keep abreast of the news, and that really wouldn't be something I'd personally feel comfortable with...

Anyway, I am actually quite pleased with myself. I took with me a list, and I bought only stuff on the list, even though there were lots of stuff on offer, etc. Yes I could have bought some tack for the birthday parties my kids get invited to, but actually, I don't want to store 20 potential presents that no one wants for the next year. I have decided to just buy stuff as and when I need it, even if it does mean missing out on a bargain. I am willing to bet that I will actually save money this way.

filthymindedvixen · 06/01/2008 14:43

feel proud pf myself - we just went to sainsbury's for thw eeekly shop and I resisted all the sales stuff and just stuck to food shopping...

BroccoliSpears · 06/01/2008 16:51

Thank you Tyaca for the lovely offer. Sadly I'm right up in the north of the country so can't take you up on it. They do come up from time to time on our Freecycle so hopefully I'll find one before too long.

policywonk · 06/01/2008 16:54

Oooh, Tenderness of Wolves for 49p - that's a bargain.

I can't not buy the Grauniad, I think I would de-materialise. I can happily not buy the Observer though.

PersephoneSnowballSnape · 06/01/2008 17:00

i cut down on my weekly newspapers last year,leaving myself the saturday guardian and the obs. now I'm feeling itchy as I'm denying myself my weekend papers as well.

sophy · 06/01/2008 19:22

I gave up the Observer quite a long time ago, and didn't miss it. Saturday Guardian gets me through the whole weekend. But now I'm down to just Saturday Guardian plus local weekly paper. Hate reading the paper online. But maybe not buying a daily will free up some time so I can actually read DH's Economist. And getting through more books, so that's a good thing.

BroccoliSpears · 06/01/2008 19:56

Is there any way to get an 11-year-old boy a birthday present without either (a) Buying tat or (b) disappointing him? I can't give money. He doesn't like books. I don't think he'd like a scented candle in a recycled tea cup!

inamuckingfuddle · 06/01/2008 20:03

broccoli depending how close you are to him maybe you coudl give a 'promise' gift e.g. a day out somewhere?

had no cash on me when I went to get paper so instead of getting £10 out and frittering I came home empty handed and actually read yesterday's properly!

Minum · 06/01/2008 20:10

Is he into music - could you get him a download voucher ?

My dilema is running shoes. I hvae a pair of 3 year old trainers, which are fine, but I'm having shin pains, and running websites recommend new trainers, that can help - is this advertising blurb, or do I need them to protect my legs ?

sophy · 06/01/2008 20:15

brocc, how about cinema vouchers. Or tickets to a football match? Or to a show you think he would enjoy?

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