Selfsufficientish.com

The old "can I not buy anything new for a year" discussion has got a bit long and lost the original discussion of what was included. So how about we start again? The original idea came from the Compact Group in America who listed the following:

Where you can shop:
1.Second-hand stores (Charity Shops of any sort)
2. Craigslist
3. Freecycle.org
4. Local food markets are preferred (for instance farmers' market, local bakery)
5. Garage sales
6. Estate or house clearing auctions
7. Other ways to get what you need: Borrow from a neighbour, share what you have, make it yourself or even barter with someone.

Exceptions:
You are allowed to use services such as movies, theatres, museums, massages, haircuts, and music downloads.
1. Underwear.
2. Socks.
3. Food.
4. Pillows.
5. Household cleaning supplies.
6. Health and safety items.
7. Automotive essentials (like oil).
8. Home repairs.
9. Necessary medical supplies.

I think a lot of people make necessary tweaks to suit their lifestyle. For me, massages aren't even on my list of normal purchases and shoes are essentially new as my feet don't fit the high street sizes. I'd include seeds for the allotment as not necessary to be bought new if they appear in second hand shops, local charity events, plant swaps.

I have eventually found a serious cookbook (large) that is vegetarian with some vegan and a lot of stuff that can be tweaked for vegan. The local hospice runs a proper bookshop as does Oxfam. Sometimes there is just what you want in these. I'm not one for buying fiction as that is sourced from the library.

Socks and gloves seem to be a problem at the moment. Not even good stuff new as cheap as on the market stall in the second hand shops.

You know - everyone uses their larger shopping bags till they fall apart. Must be carrying the weight rather than getting stuff delivered and paying the fees? Or maybe we are all not shopping at the supermarket.

I've had to dig out one that was relegated to the garden shed to hold stuff and scrub it up (lucky it was only enviromesh against carrot fly).

My goodness me I've had a few good weeks on the clothing front. I've just been updating my blog and realised that over the past five weeks I have saved myself £191 by shopping second hand. I wanted some new gear for gardening wear and to replace some of the things where I have lost weight (on purpose I may add).

When I moved from flat to bungalow early last summer the greater majority of the furniture came with me. Some pictures, a pot stand and a bookcase went. The kitchen and bedroom furniture are fine but the sitting room is a mixture that really doesn't look right. That is not a good excuse for replacing unworn mix and match furniture all aged under 10 years even if it's with second hand and used.

So I'm doing nothing. That saves buying anything.

We did the same Flo when we moved to our bungalow, I have used charity shops for ages now for my clothing

Ooops. I bought a new computer desk. Grand sum of £60 delivered. The old one needed a bit of tlc but could have been worked on. However, it was a cupboard style and I didn't have a suitable corner which had access to sockets so that the doors opened easily. Not even by shifting all the furniture. It was a dust and debris collector which was a pain to clean under and round. The new one is really just a very large desk top with a slide out top for keyboard and mouse. So is an easy to clean and because I can get the knees under it - well it actually takes up less room.

There's a good but to this - I bought it from a charity which has a new shop and a second hand shop. So they delivered from the new shop and took away the old desk plus a small bookcase I no longer needed for the other shop. So the buying new is not as bad as it might have been.

The new desk looks great. Well done. (Yes, I looked at your blog. )

Eventually have sorted out the sitting room with no expenditure at all. Next door neighbour had a dining table and two chairs that he wanted rid of and I didn't have a dining table. So now I do have a dining table. The coffee table it replaced went to someone who had moved from furnished accommodation and was looking for house stuff via Freecycle.

The room was still far too overcrowded so a small settee and armchair have gone to a good home via freecycle. And I now have a room just as I want it.

I missed out on the dyson vacuum cleaner that was on Freecycle so did have to buy a new one. How sad.

Good and bad.
The good:
1. Picked up some free fertiliser for the garden from Freecycle as I was running low.
2. Been offered the use of someone's greenhouse to see if we can get the tomato plants to catch up with themselves and produce tomatoes.
3. Found a good pair of going out trousers in a charity shop.
4. Found some place mats in the charity shop for the table I have been given so that we can put coffee cups and things on it.

The bad:
1. Found a stash of liquid lawn feed I don't need. Had to throw that as it was so out of date.
2. Bought new plants for the front border of bungalow - roadside - as I had nothing that I could recycle from the allotment.
3. Had also to replace runner bean seeds - those that didn't rot in the rain were eaten by a snail before being planted out.
4. Knocked the barometer off the wall and broke it so have no temperature recorder indoors. Not replaced.
5. Had to buy more compost for the home garden. But then donated some of it to the village tubs at the front door.
6. Finally broke the cheap rubbish plastic rail holding up the curtains in the bedroom after repairing it many times. Had to buy a new replacement.

More bad than good this week then.

A good week so far. I've been planning to get a green chair to match the very expensive recliner. Instead I have found a green two seater cottage sofa which will match in the charity shop. £40 delivered. I do believe that the living room will soon be matching.

You wanna see the floral hippy trousers that appeared in charity shop for £3! They match a lot of my clothes, will give the family hysterics when I wear them. Didn't need them at all but there's fun to be had here.

Well I am doing really well on thisbecause money is really really tight right now and new things (even secondhand ones) just are not happening right now

littlemissrose wrote:Well I am doing really well on thisbecause money is really really tight right now and new things (even secondhand ones) just are not happening right now

I was thinking the same... Just get rid of your job, and you won't have any problems trying not to buy anything, new or not!

I really wanna do this next year. I've sort of done it this year, although because there are no charity shops in Berlin I have somehow gotten into the habit of buying absolutely no clothes at all except on trips back to Scotland (My town in Scotland must have some sort of record for the amount of charity shops it's squidged in).