Sunday links

I'm a big fan of the older crowd - I am inspired by their stories and wisdom. Fabulous Fashionistas is a British documentary about six such inspiring women, with average age of 80.

Tim Minchin gave a great graduation address at his old (and my old!) university. You can read the transcript here or watch it here. I would tell you my favourite parts but it's all good. Fantastic advice for life.

Australians are the richest people on Earth! Based on median wealth, that is. However, most of the growth in income goes to wealthiest, not those who need it the most. There is an increasing body of evidence (admittedly, small psychology studies) showing that wealthier people tend to be less nice people.  The world's richest woman (and fellow Western Australian) Gina Rinehart is an exception, if her lawyer is to be believed. He recently told the NSW Supreme Court that she's "...so selfless that she could not retire or pour her billions into philanthropy." (Sydney Morning Herald "Rich people couldn't care less", "The biggest victim here is Gina, says her lawyer"; ABC Dr Karl's Great Moments in Science "Greed is not good")

Meanwhile, "Moneyless man finds happiness", about the guy who started Freeconomy and has lived without money for the past five years. The comments say it all. (ABC Environment)

And from the sublime to the ridiculous, a look inside a temperature-controlled warehouse that stores clothes and accessories for the ridiculously rich, including Ivanka Trump and Gwyneth Paltrow. (Mail Online)

More "fashion": scrunchies and perceived obsolescence. (Waste Not)

Also, in case you're wondering, Buy Nothing New Month has been very easy so far. I browsed a few op shops but didn't buy anything. Unlike last year, I am allowing myself to buy groceries but I am not buying any staples or bulk items, just fresh produce. I think I need to follow up with "Get Rid of Heaps of Shit" month. There's so much more to share but I have to go deal with a silverfish problem.

Buy Nothing New Month 2013

Suddenly, it is October. That means two things: it's almost a year since I started this blog, and it's Buy Nothing New Month. I only realised this yesterday when I received an email from BNNM. Browsing last year's posts on BNNM I realise how much my shopping habits have changed since participating last year. I think have spent far less time shopping and bought less stuff. I tend to make most of my purchases when I am travelling (having made work-related trips to Sydney and Adelaide this year).

Over the past six months, excluding food, drink, hygiene products and medications, goods I have purchased include:

Gifts

• organic cotton fair trade baby booties
• locally handmade books made from vintage maps
• locally made teatowel
• Australian-made baby ugg boots
• toys made of recycled plastic
• locally made baby pants
• books
• cut flowers
• an Austrian-made wooden trolley with blocks
• a Swell bottle
• two pens shaped like hip bones (for my geriatric friends)
• a helium balloon (oh no! Least ethical purchase this year?)

Clothes and accessories

• very versatile, Aussie-made black shirt (to replace a shirt that was beyond mending)-very versatile, Aussie-made blue wool dress
• vintage shirt ($5!)
• NZ made shirt (to replace ten donated shirts)
• three pairs of Aussie-made trousers (to replace trousers that had worn out)
• fair-trade scarf
• scarf by up-and-coming Aussie designer
• locally-made necklace
• locally-made earrings

Other stuff

• books (I'll post about some of these, and local book shops, later)
• German-made wooden broom (expensive luxury I will have for decades)
• fresh flowers (not often enough)
• organic coriander seeds (a school fundraiser for a work mate's daughter)
• a replacement battery for my bathroom scales (I couldn't find a better alternative)
• lipstick (cruelty-free, Aussie made)
• eyeshadow pencil (By Terry, from Mecca Cosmetica. Possibly tested on animals)
• hair elastics (made in China)
• Vogue magazine (featuring Advanced Style)
• Frankie magazine
• four car tyres - the most expensive and potential most toxic thing on this list?

All were purchased from independent stores, markets or directly from the designer (unless otherwise stated). Only one item (the vintage shirt) was purchased used.

It is helpful to see what I have purchased over the past year, and what a long list it makes when all put together! It also emphasises room for improvement (buy fewer books! Find alternatives to batteries and hair elastics! Stop buying make-up when you only wear it once a fortnight or less! Don't buy magazines and not read them! You don't need any more jewellery - you hardly ever wear it! Stop wearing out all your favourite trousers!!!)

I hope to learn some new lessons, and form new habits, this Buy Nothing New Month.

Occupy Christmas

A wise colleague told me earlier this year that we must "decry the rampant materialism" that has led to individualism.

The local TV news last night reported that there are 39 days until Christmas, then warned those us who have not commenced Christmas shopping that we had better start now. They also reported that residents of my state (Western Australia) are expected to spend $5 billion this Christmas (based on this report by the Australian Retailers Association). While I don't begrudge local retailers and producers a living, I do wonder how many Christmas gifts, decorations, cards and other purchases will end up in the bin long before next Christmas rolls around.

In 2012, Saturday November 24th is Buy Nothing Day. I first heard about BND via Adbusters magazine, which I used to read in Borders on Oxford Street. (Appropriately, I never purchased it.) BND is a protest against consumerism. It will be nearly impossible for most people reading this blog to buy nothing for one day because most of us are continuously paying things like rent, mortgage, insurance, utilities, education fees, phone bills and so on. However, it is possible to plan your day so you are not buying any food, drinks, fuel or "stuff" on BND.

A variation on BND is Occupy Christmas. This movement encourages us to purchase locally produced goods from independent retailers. Visit design markets, small independent stores and farmers markets and you won't be disappointed.

Will you give Buy Nothing Day or Occupy Christmas a go? I've found that participating in Buy Nothing New Month is still having a positive influence on my purchasing patterns.

I leave you with the words of the "world's poorest president", Jose Mujica of Uruguay, who decries the model of consumption in rich countries. He is interviewed in yesterday's BBC News Magazine:

"I'm called 'the poorest president', but I don't feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more. This is a matter of freedom. If you don't have many possessions then you don't need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself. I may appear to be an eccentric old man... But this is a free choice."

Buy Nothing New Month - The End

My first attempt at Buy Nothing New Month is over. During October, I didn't buy anything new except prescription medication. I didn't even buy any groceries, instead eating out with friends and using up items in my pantry. (I may have inadvertently stolen a banana but that is unrelated.) I made one second-hand purchase, a $5 book. I was given a vintage trunk by my aunt, which used to belong to my grandmother. Browsing through my bank and credit card statements for October, I paid for travel and transport (a hotel for next month, fuel, public transport), communication (phone and broadband bills), meals, mortgage, charity donations and membership of Doctors for the Environment.

What have I learnt from Buy Nothing New Month?

It was unexpectedly very easy. Only once did I regret not being able to buy something new - a painting at an art show. However, I don't have any wall space for new artworks (due to previous binge purchasing of art) and it was an expensive painting so it worked out for the best.

I have too much stuff. I could go the rest of my life without buying anything new and still have too much stuff. This is probably why I buy lots of gifts for my friends and family, who probably also have too much stuff.

I waste a lot of time browsing stores. This often leads to purchases. Multiple times throughout the month I passed by stores and considered going inside but decided against it. Had I not been participating in Buy Nothing New Month I probably would have gone in and ended up buying something. I found this liberating and found I had more spare time to do other things.

It is far more enjoyable to dine out with friends than to eat alone at home. I should do it more often and support my favourite local restaurants serving local, organic and free range foods. Conversely, instead of buying lunch at work I am going to use up all those leftover meals in the freezer.

I am on multiple email and SMS marketing lists for stores. I received, and deleted, multiple invitations to "secret" or short-term sales events, special events and free shipping deals. These are all local or independent stores selling ethically produced products so I'm not going to unsubscribe from the mailing lists but I will think twice about purchases and avoid impulse buying.

Instead of purchasing new (or even used) items, I should try to borrow them or source hand-me-downs from family and friends. I've lived in this city most of my life so I have a large network of family and friends that have also accumulated much stuff (especially as my parents have a tendency to hoard). I needed a phone for a teleconferences (my cordless phone only has a 40 minute battery life, which is shorter than most of my teleconferences) and instead of buying a new phone, I discovered that my parents have an old "dinosaur" model they're no longer using and could give me. I wanted a new kettle after my electric kettle died so my mother found their old stove-top kettle that I now actually prefer to an electric kettle. I needed a small piece of luggage for a week-long work trip and borrowed it from my father. My mother has since offered to buy me my own for Christmas but it's not something I'd use more than a few times a year so I declined.

Some "collaboration" websites shared by Buy Nothing New Month:
openshed.com.au share tools, appliances, musical instruments and more with neighbours
airbnb.com find accommodation around the world
ziilch.com free to list and free to take
meemeep.com move stuff


When I told people (especially retail employees) about Buy Nothing New Month, they mostly reacted as if it was a hardship or punishment, consoling me with, "Oh, you poor thing!" I didn't find it that way at all. I found that it liberated my time, my money and my creativity. I definitely want to try it again in future for longer than a month.

If you'd like to try buying nothing, November 24th, 2012, is Buy Nothing Day. It requires more planning than Buy Nothing New Month but is still very achievable. More about that closer to the date!

Buy Nothing New Month - Resources

Following yesterday's post about Buy Nothing New Month, here are a few links to help get started:

• The Story of Stuff project - simple but powerful videos
• Naomi Klein's No Logo still resonates more than a decade after it was published - pick it up second hand or from the library
• Affluenza by Aussie Clive Hamilton
• Overdressed: The Shockingly High Price of Fashion Elizabeth Cline's book about the costs of cheap, imported, "throw-away" fashion 
• Discardia: More Life, Less Stuff a website, a holiday and ironically, now a book
• The 100 Thing Challenge Dave Bruno's story about escaping the prison of American style consumerism
• Unconsumption blog for creative reuse and mindful consumption
• The Invisible Badge: Moving Past Conspicuous Consumption online presentation by Rob Walker
• Sarah Wilson's post on Buy Nothing New Month, with 20 tips on how to buy nothing new, including links to collaborative consumption sites like airbnb
• #buynothingnew on Twitter
• Many more inspiring links on the Buy Nothing New site

There are many more resources online - please share them in the comments!

Buy Nothing New Month

"We used to build civilizations. Now we build shopping malls."
BILL BRYSON

"Consumers have not been told effectively enough that they have huge power and that purchasing and shopping involve a moral choice."
ANITA RODDICK, BODY SHOP FOUNDER

"Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like."
WILL ROGER

"People used to die of consumption. Then it went from being a fatal disease to a way of life"
ANON

"Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need." 
FIGHT CLUB, MOVIE BASED ON THE NOVEL BY CHUCK PALAHNIUK




This October I am participating in Buy Nothing New Month, a movement for collective, conscientious consumption that began in Australia's shopping capital, Melbourne.  I have pledged to buy nothing new this month, with the exception of food, drink and medications. I am allowed to buy second-hand goods and first-hand experiences. There are several reasons I decided to make the pledge. Firstly, to protest the rampant materialism that infests the developed world, making us selfish and numbing us to the plight of those who have less and those who suffer producing all our "stuff". Secondly, to raise awareness amongst my friends and colleagues about our wasteful lifestyles. Thirdly, to remind myself that just because something is ethically produced, it does not give me an excuse to buy it.

As someone who enjoys shopping (I will even confess to reading the inelegantly named Shop Til You Drop magazine), I thought that Buy Nothing New Month would be difficult. (I am particularly vulnerable to anything that's locally made, fair-trade, well-designed and from one of my favourite local independent stores - a particularly wanky kind of conspicuous consumption, I guess.) However, it has proven very easy thus far. 

I thought that a weekend in Melbourne would be particularly challenging. Happily, I enjoyed my spare time dining with friends and colleagues and browsing the small galleries and second-hand stores of Fitzroy. My single non-food, non-transport purchase of the month is a 1946 edition of George Bernard Shaw's The Doctor's Dilemma, from antique and vintage store 84 Smith Street. I've wanted to read this play for a while (it advocates doctors being paid a fixed salary, without any financial incentive to offer unnecessary treatment to patients - more on that another time) and I was very pleased to find it for five dollars.

I thought that a friend's birthday gift might prove difficult but I found a gift that I had bought for him a couple of years ago and forgotten about (I have a drawer full of such purchases), which I delivered to him in Melbourne, wrapped in some reused tissue paper. The Buy Nothing New movement also suggests gifting experiences or second-hand goods (like antique jewellery)!

Although I have bought food when I'm eating out, for meals at home I've tried to use up things in my pantry that would otherwise probably sit there until they were inedible. Brinjal pickle with wholemeal couscous was quite tasty (although somewhat lacking in greens). 

One thing I've observed is that when I stay at a hotel I am impeccable, aided by the small number of items I have with me. For the recent weekend in Melbourne, I used a handbag for luggage. For four days working in the Pilbara, a tiny wheeled suitcase was more than sufficient. This is in contrast to my cluttered, chaotic home, which is full of gifts I've never given, art I've never hung, books I've never read, DVDs I've never watched, stationery I've never used, half-empty toiletries, clothes I've forgotten I own, unused craft supplies, CDs I've never played, alcohol that has sat on the shelves for years (scandalous, I know), and unnecessary multiples of so many items that I couldn't name them all. During a particularly decadent phase a few years ago, I would buy new clothes when I ran out of clean clothes to wear to work. I didn't even realise I was doing it until my mother pointed it out to me.

What have I learned from Buy Nothing New Month so far? I've become more aware of things I want to purchase, don't really need, but justify by telling myself that I'm supporting a small business or an ethical producer. I've become more creative with food and outfit choices. I've picked native flowers from my mother's garden instead of buying bunches from the florist that usually die within a few days. I've been catching up on some of those unread books. I've halted the ridiculous flood of gifts for my 10-week-old niece. At no time have I thought twice about something I didn't buy, or rued a lost opportunity. I haven't wasted any time browsing department stores. I chose vintage stores over the discount mall patronised by my colleagues when we were in Melbourne.

I think I need to extend Buy Nothing New Month into Buy Nothing New Quarter. That would provide a real challenge and force new behaviours, such as joining the library, using up those craft and baking supplies for the holiday period, finishing those unread books, "shopping the closet" and getting old shoes repaired. I would spend more time creating, spending time with family, making my way through the never-ending "To Do" list and not accumulating stuff.

Who wants to join me?


See Part 2 for Buy Nothing New resources
Quotations above via Buy Nothing New Month website