Wednesday, March 19, 2008

100 Day Buy Nothing Challenge

Paying off my debt taught me many lessons about myself and life. It taught me that things don't bring happiness. We hear that all the time but I guess it was something I needed to experience to understand. I also learned that I could get by on a lot less than I thought. I realized that things that I thought that I "needed" were only things that I "wanted" and that has forever changed the way I spend money.

Even though I am still very cautious with the way I spend money, I thought I would give myself a challenge just for the heck of it. I have been playing a game with myself to see how long I can go without buying anything new. I did it kind of subconsciously and today I wondered, "How long could I really go without buying anything?" That's when I decided that I would set a number of days and rules for this personal challenge.

I decided I would try to go 100 days without buying anything NEW. I am not really interested in trying to not buy anything at all. Most of the reason why I started this was because I not only want save money, but I also want to reduce the amount of waste and energy that I consume. Americans tend to consume so much without wondering where the stuff comes from. We don't think about the amount of energy it takes to produce and transport all of the goods that we consume. I figure that by fixing, trading, or buying used I could significantly reduce the impact I have on the environment...and my budget!

These are my exceptions:

1. Food
2. Personal products like deodorant, toothpaste, etc. (those would be kind of gross to buy used!) I will however, try techniques to make my own homemade personal products to reduce what I have to buy.
3. Gas
4. Services

I figure it will get difficult with birthdays and holidays but I'll try to find a way to make something instead.

Like I said, I have been trying to not buy anything for a while so I looked back at my bank statements and saw that the last time I bought something was on 3/03. That means I have already made it 16 days and have 84 more days to go. I wonder if it will be difficult?

What about you? How long do you think you can go without buying anything new?

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4 comments:

singlemomindebt said...

Nice blog, and thanks for the comment! If you don't mind, I'd like to add you to my links!

As far as not buying anything, that's really one of my weak points. I'm not a big spender by any means, but I have a tendency to pick things up when I'm feeling down...usually justified by some round about self manipulation (I saved money by not buying x, so I can buy y now!). Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Hi lpkitten, good luck with this - it will be tough but I'm sure you can pull it off.

I've added you to my blogroll, by the way!

Anonymous said...

welcome back! What a pleasant surprise to see a comment you made on another blog and when I hopped over here I see you are back and doing great! Good to see you!

lpkitten said...

thanks for the well-wishes!