Buy Nothing 2018 Experiment – May Update

clutter

I am 5/12th of the way through my buy nothing experiment I started at the beginning of the year. In short, I have decided to be more deliberate about my consumption and buy things only when they meet certain criteria as I described in this blog post.

 

As I progress I am starting to look at my possessions a little differently though, and not in an entirely healthy way. Although I don’t really need anything right now, I’m starting to look ahead. When I pick an item up to use it, sometimes I wonder how much life it has left. It creates a little anxiety at times, and I feel a bit constricted.

 

After I did my rounds of decluttering years ago, I could look in my closet and genuinely feel joy for the items before me. I know this seems a bit silly, getting joy out of a bunch of clothes, but it was there. At present I can’t really say the same. Perhaps I have just hedonically adapted to them all, but maybe I just secretly wish I could replace some of them with something newer and more joy inspiring.

 

Mrs. Happy Philosopher and family are able to buy stuff, and a think a part of me feels like I am missing out. First world problems. I will have to monitor this situation and observe my reactions. I feel like a few months from now things may get a bit more interesting.

 

Anyways, we had another pretty low consumption month. As with last month’s update, I have decided to include a new category of joint purchases. These are items that are hard to pin on Mrs. Happy philosopher alone, and I want to try and be as transparent as possible.

 

Purchases

Happy Philosopher:

  • Basketball ($13) – This was for my son. After years of playing soccer, all of a sudden he has decided he wants to be a professional basketball player when he grows up. The regulation size basketball that we had is apparently not really an outdoor friendly ball, and after a couple months of concrete the thing was trashed and basically unusable. I picked up an outdoor ball, and may get another one for two handed drills.

 

Joint purchases:

  • New litter box ($32) – This seems like a lot to spend on a litter box to me, but this one has a fancy lid on it, which has probably saved me an hour of vacuuming up cat litter since we got it. I don’t know how I ever lived without this.
  • Bedsheets ($30) – Old ones were wearing out and getting holes in them
  • Curtains ($45) – We have bought more curtains in the past 2 months that the last 10 years. These were purchased to contain the rage of my daughter who was tired of the little kid butterfly curtains hanging over her windows.
  • Shoes (1 pair basketball and 1 pair casual) ($115) – My son destroys and outgrows his shoes at an alarming rate. I’m confident these will last at least a month.
  • Sleeping bag ($25) – Our old kids’ sleeping bags we have are just too small. I can’t believe how much they grow. We actually need another one, but I wanted to check this one out and test it before getting another.
  • Dress pants ($30) – The boy needed something nice to wear.

 

Mrs. Happy Philosopher:

  • Sunhat ($13) – Cheap protection against skin cancer.
  • Mother’s Day Cards ($??) – Don’t even get me started. I may have to change my projected sustainable withdraw rate to count for greeting card inflation.
  • Shoes ($55) – I was told these shoes fill a critical void in Mrs. Happy Philosophers closet…and soul.
  • Flower pot ($10) – Quite delightful if I may say.
  • Shirts (4) ($70) – Although 4 shirts came in, I’m told 5 shirts left us, so this is actually a negative net shirt month for us.

 

As you can see, most of the things we buy are replacements of things that wear out or are outgrown. You may ask why I put the basketball as my purchase instead of a joint purchase. I don’t have a good reason, but here is my thought process. I ordered it without any input from Mrs. Happy Philosopher in the same way she did not ask which kind of flower pot I wanted. It wasn’t for me, but I was the purchaser. This fits into the category of sports equipment, which I have a very low threshold for buying. I guess I could have borrowed a basketball from someone to stick with the spirit of the experiment, but it is a little rude to borrow something for 8 months, completely wear it out and give it back. The basketball gets daily use and was a ‘necessary’ purchase.

 

Environmentalism

Even as I consume less, it seems our garbage can is always full at the end of the week. Unless you have been living under a rock and don’t consume much news like me, you have probably heard that China stopped importing our trash valuable recyclables. Many municipal waste services have responded by reducing the scope of their recycling programs, thus shifting more recyclables to the trash can.

 

Recycling has always been a pet peeve of mine. I often refer to it as ‘faux environmentalism’, because it really doesn’t do much for the environment. It makes us feel all warm and happy on the inside, but in reality most of it is an energy intensive process that just allows us to feel good about consuming too much stuff anyways and ignoring the real environmentalism of using less and reusing what we already have. Recycling is in large part an illusion that justifies our wasteful inefficiency.

 

Now don’t get me wrong. I still recycle stuff. I just don’t think it should be at the cornerstone of our environmentalism. Buying a bunch of single serving containers of juice, soda or organic kombucha and recycling the containers is orders of magnitude worse for the environment than just drinking municipal tap water in a reusable container.

 

Most of our trash is food and household item packaging waste. It is something our family is probably slightly better than average at not creating as a lot of our food is produce and bulk items, but there is still a lot of it. Here are a few simple things you can do to have a positive impact.

 

  1. Use reusable grocery bags. Some municipalities are banning disposable grocery bags, or charging for them. I think this is awesome. Once you get in the habit, it becomes automatic. I actually feel a little queasy now when I go to a grocery store and they use about 50 plastic bags to contain the 53 items I bought.
  2. Don’t put your produce in bags if not needed. If you buy 2 apples, they don’t need their own little plastic bag. If you buy 2 pounds of brussel sprouts bag them (preferably in a reusable bag you brought). In fact Mrs. Happy Philosopher just came home from the grocery store a few minutes ago with about 15 pounds of produce and not a single disposable bag. Be awesome like her.
  3. Buy in the largest quantity that is practical. Buying in bulk usually saves packaging waste, but is senseless if the food goes to waste before you eat it.
  4. Stop using straws. You are no longer in elementary school. Drink like an adult. Straws are ridiculous.
  5. Save clear plastic disposable containers for bulk items in the grocery store.
  6. Use cloth napkins and rags instead of paper towers.
  7. Make your own household cleaners (infused vinegar, concentrated soap and water), or use super concentrated stuff you mix in a spray bottle to reuse. Millions of recipes on the interwebs.
  8. If you do use plastic bags for produce, don’t use those little plastic clips or twist ties. Just tie the bag at the top or spin it around. Unless you are travelling through a combat zone to get home everything will be just fine.
  9. Stop buying bottled water. Seriously. If you don’t like how your water tastes just filter it. This rule can be ignored if you live in Flint, Michigan.

 

There are billions of articles on the internet about zero waste shopping, and if you want to go hardcore be my guest. You can take a whole shopping cart full of reusable containers into the store and fill them if you want. Start with the big stuff though, like bringing your own grocery bags and create the habit.

 

Oh, and here are a few blogs also doing some kind of buy nothing challenge. Check them out. If you have a blog and are doing this throw a comment down below.

 

https://lifezemplified.com/less-waste-challenge/

https://www.dadsdollarsdebts.com/2018/04/07/buy-nothing-new-update-month-3/

https://buynothing2018.wordpress.com/

http://www.countdowntotranquility.com/2018/01/buy-nothing-2018-challenge/

http://thesmartfi.com/april-wrap-up/

https://www.drmcfrugal.com/buy-nothing-update-april/

 

 

Due to popular demand here is a link to a similar litter box we purchased, haha!

23 comments

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  1. Seems like this month was less painful than last!

    I really like how you are transparent about the fact that you cannot force your minimalism on your wife and son. Kids grow fast, and sports equipment grows with them. Ours are golf clubs instead of basketball shoes.

    Only thing I have to disagree with is that
    … Aren’t straws better for your teeth when drinking acidic drinks? Or are you an all water kind of guy? No juice, soda, etc?

    Keep up the strong work! It’s impressive.

    TPP

    1. Juice and soda should be consumed rarely, preferably never. If one is consuming enough of these toxic substances that a straw makes a difference…the straw is not the problem. I mostly drink water, coffee, tea, beer, wine. I wouldn’t want to drink any of these through a straw.

      1. haha. That’s fair enough. I don’t drink juice either… can’t say I never drink diet soda. Guilty as charged.

    • wendy on June 3, 2018 at 6:22 pm
    • Reply

    I think you’re doing fine and I appreciate the honesty of what/how you’re thinking.
    Kids do grow out of things and their needs change…

    For your personal concern about not getting joy out of what you have left… if you can, take one or two items and pack them away for a month or two…and then pull them out 60 days later and put two other items away… you may be surprised by how appreciative you are of the stuff that went on vacation…
    You can trick some hedonic adaptation by hiding your own stuff!

    On one of my cross country moves, all my stuff (except two suitcases of clothes/misc) was in storage for almost four months… I lived in a semi furnished studio and bought a handful of apartment necessities… when that moving truck finally brought everything out of storage, it was like the best xmas *ever*, even though it was all my own used stuff!

    Hope you’re enjoying the start of summer
    🙂

    1. I like that idea!

    • DadsDollarsDebts on June 3, 2018 at 8:49 pm
    • Reply

    Thanks for the mention. You are doing better than me brother, but I guess we had different starting points.

    Most of my gear has been for camping and I think we are almost done. We had our first trip of the summer this weekend and it was awesome. Definitely bought some experiences with the possessions so all in all worth it.

    Keep the updates coming. It’s fun to see where you are at!

    1. Thanks EJ. You make an interesting observation. Experiences and things are intertwined. Where do we draw the line with these experiments?

        • DadsDollarsDebts on June 4, 2018 at 7:31 am
        • Reply

        Very true. We could have arguably borrowed a lot of the gear for the trip. That would have been more prudent, but not the way we role typically.

  2. Hi, Happy Philosopher. I’m doing the buy nothing challenge too, so I wanted to drop a comment.

    It’s awesome that you’re getting more into environmentalism and gravitating a little more to toward the zero waste movement.

    We do everything you listed and quite a bit more…
    – We rarely use straws now and always refuse them when I go out to eat (which is rare). My wife and I have reusable glass straws for the times we choose to use a straw (for example if drinking something acidic like what TPP mentioned).
    – We use mesh reusable produce Eco green bags too. They are not expensive and can be bought on Amazon.
    – We make ALL of our household cleaning products. Most surfaces can be cleaned with dilute vinegar and a bit of soap. The exception is granite countertops, which we clean with a homemade solution of dilute isopropyl alcohol.
    – We also don’t buy disposable napkins or paper towels. And we rarely buy toilet paper (since we use a bidet).

    Since a lot of your waste is food… have you considered composting?

    And have you ever considered going vegan since it generally has a lesser environmental impact?

    1. Updated.

      We don’t waste a lot of food, I was referring to the waste from food and household item packaging. All vegetable matter is appropriately composted.

      I don’t think I could stick to a vegan diet, and it would not be practical unless everyone in the house was on board. You are right though, it probably is better from an environmental and health standpoint.

      Vinegar is an amazingly cheap and effective cleaning product.

      1. Ah! I totally read it wrong the first time. And very true that following a vegan diet is tough when not everybody is on board. Thanks for the inclusion 🙂

  3. I agree with you about recycling. The energy it uses is massive, and over time it just became the check-box for most people so they could wipe their brow, say “got that covered”, and go on wasting in other areas at stupendous rates.

    Sounds like you’re hunkering for some new clothes. Hold tight, it’ll pass.

    1. Reduce

      Reuse

      Recycle

      Unfortunately the illusion of recycling justifies less of reducing and reusing in our minds. ‘It’s ok I’m generating all this waste, it’s going to be recycled. Look at how green I am!”

      🙂

        • Jeff on June 4, 2018 at 4:36 pm
        • Reply

        Dear THP,

        The primary use of our recycle bin is the ungodly amounts of junk mail we still receive. I believe printing on recycled paper still requires about 60% the amount of resources that new paper does. The Nature Conservancy sends me more junk mail than the banks and car dealerships. Any tips on keeping this crap out of our house?

        Jeff

  4. Again THP, I applaud your commitment to this experiment and honesty with the purchases that you have made. I find it intriguing that you find yourself starting to view things differently and not just from a monetary standpoint. Although, I am not doing the “buy nothing” experiment, I am big on reducing waste to help the environment and wrote about it a few months ago http://wafflesonwednesday.com/squashing-the-trashsquatch/. Looks like we both are doing the same things from reusing plastic bags, to not using straws, using vinegar to clean, and composting. I have made a huge dent in the amount of waste I produce, but definitely still have some room to improve.

    • Jeff on June 4, 2018 at 4:33 pm
    • Reply

    Dear THP,

    Link for the cat litter box? I am pondering the litter and sometimes small poop fragments in the kitty litter room.

    Jeff

    1. I second the litter box link request. I’ve been locked in an eternal battle with kitty litter infiltrating areas nowhere near the litter box. Even built a larger box out of scrap wood to put the actual litter boxes in, which ended up being only marginally successful. I know enabling others to buy more stuff is in direct contradiction to the spirit of this post, but it seems you feel our pain in your own struggles with stray litter.

      Any help in this fight would be appreciated.

      1. I’m here to serve. I couldn’t figure out how to link it in the comments so I put in in he post 🙂

          • Jeff on June 5, 2018 at 4:06 pm
          • Reply

          Dear HP, would you mind checking the link again? It doesn’t seem to be showing up for me 🙂 I’m hoping to pick up some cloth napkins this afternoon, btw.

  5. Thanks for the motivation. Kids really make it hard to markedly decrease consumption. Although you’re not forcing your lack of consumption on them, are they interested in this concept? Do you find your project is rubbing off on them at all?

    1. My kids have no interest in the project, but they are naturally low consumers. They are happy with what they have, and rarely ask for more. Occasionally they buy stuff with their own money, but usually it is virtual (like a video game or some app).

  6. I often wonder about how to foster a low consumption mindset other than by setting a good example, since I’m guessing there may be some natural predisposition but also a fair amount of nurture involved. My 4 are little so I still have time to maybe have some impact (for better or worse!)

  1. […] months, and if you read my monthly updates this experiment looks like a success. Shortly after the 6 month point I quit the experiment though. I learned what I needed to know and I am moving on. Some of you may […]

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