The Rules

My husband arrived home and I was a little nervous yet very excited to tell him about my idea.  He looked at me,… paused, and said, "Yeah, I don't think I'll do that."

Well, dang.  That is not what I had planned but it's still a doable challenge.  We'll have to establish some shared ground rules and understand, meanwhile, that we'll have some exclusive governances.  It may be hard, or at least a little awkward, but not impossible.

So, aftermuch thought, I've decided that the rules that I'll be living by are as follows:

• No buying any new things for a year except for edibles (with a  couple of exceptions* for hygiene and transportation).  
• I will not be buying used things.   No new things, even things that are just new to me.
• Included in this challenge are all of my cleaning supplies for self and home.    I must make everything I use out of edibles, unless I really can't find an adequate recipe that contains all edibles. Then I can make the supply of some non-edible ingredient.

*About the exceptions-  I'm allowing myself to buy (recycled) toilet paper and garbage bags, though a big bonus to this project will be lowering the about of garbage my family produces.  Gas for my car is a big one that I am not excited about adding to the exception list, but my older son is in childcare that we all love and are not willing to part with.  The only thing I do not love about his pre-school is that we cannot walk there.  We are, regardless, going to keep him in that program and continue to be able to work.

The rules that my husband will be living by:

•  Basically just because he can buy things, he can't buy anything for me.  This may seem like an obvious rule, but I feel like it should be said out loud.  He can buy all of the disposable diapers he wants, but I cannot use them.  

Feeling just a bit nervous and alot of happy about the project, so we start! 

How it began

I've been giving a lot thought lately to trying to steer my life in a positive direction.  Most things are great, but even having two amazing children and a supportive husband, living pretty simply and consciously, working only part-time, I still frequently get that hamster-wheel feeling.  I still want to give my boys a better, cleaner world than what they have now.  I still have a striving to bring something meaningful and lasting to the world around me.

Don't get me wrong.  I do my best; at least I usually think I do.   Though at the close of the holiday season I know that I made several purchases of things that weren't really needed, out of obligation or habit.  We "celebrated" buy nothing day.  There were, however, plenty of times in the weeks that followed to make up for one day free of spending money.  What if, I thought, next year I didn't spend anything between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day?  Well, we have to eat, so purchases of food would be OK.  And drinks are OK because they're kind of like food.  But what about nothing new, no new stuff?  It seemed that I was getting closer.

I'd been pretty inspired a few months ago, after reading The Moneyless Man: A Year of Freeconomic Living.  He, basically, removes himself from the cash economy altogether.  While inspirational, it's not, however, anything I feel like I can do at this time in my life.  But if he could live his full, rich and pretty comfortable existence without any money, couldn't I do with buying nothing new?

The intent wouldn't be a boycott of the holidays or, really, a boycott of spending.  The point is that I have everything I need.  My life is rich and full and comfortable, too.  Everything in addition to that is superfluous.  So...

Why not a year?  Most people in the world don't get to choose their consumption levels or restraint duration.  What I'm doing, really, is nothing new.