Buy Nothing New - year in review

Okay,
So I kinda slipped on the whole blog thing. (I'm sure lots of you are now talking to the computer saying "THAT'S a bit of an understatement.") The Buy Nothing New challenge continued and went pretty well, but the blog updates were just nonexistent. For that, I apologise. I'm just not good at consistently writing things. This happened when I was little girl, and even later as a teenager, and kept trying to keep a diary. I'd get about 3 days into it, and get bored.

So now it's a bit of a recap. Here we go:

I DIDN'T BUY
I sucessfully did not buy anything new for myself. Any of my biggest vices: craft supplies (at least not new), kitchen gadgets, home accessories or storage options. I also didn't buy any CDs, new clothes or shoes (my sneakers have holes in the back of both feet.... it's fine unless it rains), socks or underwear (although Robin kept giving me pairs she got for free from Victoria's Secret), jewellery or accessories, and or anything else cute that I wanted to get "just because". In fact, not only did I not buy any craft supplies, but I also ended up giving some away on freecycle. Not buying things just because I had a half-formed project in my head forced me to really look at what I had and realise that I didn't need about 40 pairs of knitting needles... especially because I hadn't done any knitting ALL year. I BOUGHT: Used - quite a few clothes, a bunch of books, an Etch-a-Sketch (!!), a couple pairs of shoes off eBay (and NONE of them fit!), some pillowcases (for their cute printed fabric), a beautiful blue travel typewriter from Belgium (a bit like this one, but a deeper shade of blue AND the travel case matches in colour! ... oh, and some of the keys are different so it's almost a QWERTY ), a set of cute retro cups (a lot like these ones), and probably some other stuff I can't remember. It wasn't too much, but it certainly allowed me some random needless purchased, and alowed me to get some stuff I needed.

I also bought new some supplies to fix up our old flat (a new shower curtain and paint, rollers and brushes to cover marks on the walls), but those all got left at the flat. I'm sure I bought a couple light bulbs, but those were exempt because you can't buy them used. I think I may have bought one roll of tin foil ALL year, and no clingfilm. I started covering a lot of stuff with a baking sheet while cooking, and then we used a lot of random plastic tubs from takeaways, margarine, and yogurt instead of storing stuff with cling film.

Other new things were gifts for people (many were handmade, although not enough). I also got in the habit of buying postcards because they are like minigifts, but I could still support artists who'd made them and even keep them for a couple days. I bought some zines for The Art House to have as references, but I've been lazy and haven't yet taken them there. Oops. I bought a LOT of stuff at the Craft and Zine Fair that I organised.

Unfortunately, I failed constantly at not buying "convenience" food, I bought quite a few packs of crisps while at gigs (although that could be argued as an "experience"), and some tea/chai while out and about. Probably less than during 2008, but it still wasn't good.

I FIXED (Macgyver style or otherwise)
A pair of shoes that were wearing out by adding heel supports that I had sitting in a drawer
A couple tops by darning
Two pairs of trousers (I still need to fix three more) by taking in the waist. Up until I learned how to do this, I didn't have a single pair of trouers that fit me correctly--they all just sat on my hips, making the crotch of the trousers ridiculously low.

We also made do with our one-side-at-a-time toaster, glass roasting dishes doubling up as baking sheets, and I kept finding batteries and a never ending supply of dental floss sat around the house.

I LEARNED
- Take care of your stuff. There are a lot of things that I wish I'd paid more attention to them. I lost my stainless steel water bottle by leaving it behind at a conference--you aren't going to find that used. I misplaced other things, spilled stuff on clothes, and marked up our walls in the old flat so we had to buy paint and brushes. Not being able to buy new cured me of the disposable attitude we seem to have with our things.

- "A stitch in time saves nine" is actually fairly accurate. Mending and repairing has been key. I've successfully learned to darn things (although my attempts are a bit clumsy), so unless you stared at the back of my green cardigan, you'd never know that there was a little hole at the top of it. I'm sure with practice and a wider range of colours and shared of thread, I'll improve. I've thought about getting a darning mushroom, but I'm not entirely sure what you do with it.

- Take stock of what you already have (and use it). There were lots of times where I'd tell myself that I "needed" something which wasn't actually the case. I didn't really need more tops or jumpers, as I already had stacks at home. A lot of my craft supplies got used up because I actually paid attention to what I had already, instead of buying things when I saw them. As a result, I have two sets of really adorable bunting made with floral prints I'd had for YEARS and hadn't done anything with held up by some of the ribbon I'd bought ages ago without any real purpose intended.

- If you're going to buy something, go for quality. I really wish that I'd taken that advice when I bought the shoes that now have holes in them, or the baking sheets and cake pans that keep having the non-stick flake off. My mother has had the same baking sheets for almost my whole life. I need ones like that--I've gone through three sets in four years. With the money I'd spent, I could have bought really nice ones and saved myself a lot of hassle. The next pairs of shoes or boots that I buy are going to be ones I can get resoled by a cobbler. No more disposable shoes for me. I'm hoping to upgrade some of our freecycled furniture piece by piece to good quality antiques (or almost antiques)....or at least once we figure out which country we're going to live in.

- Avoid temptation and gain some perspective. I didn't walk into West Quay for months on end last year. When I did, I tended not to look in the shop windows. I'm a bit better now, having actually gone into TopShop, H&M, Principles and Debenhams to look at what's in style so I can see what I already have and what I might try to pick up used. But it was a lot easier not to walk into the kitchen supply shop in Winchester than it would have been to have to debate with myself why I should not buy something. I feel like I am much more aware of the act of shopping now, though, so I don't feel as tempted to buy things. I'd bet that going for a couple months without shopping would do the same--you'd think about the process a bit more, consider whether or not you want something as much as you initially thought.

WOULD I DO IT AGAIN?
Absolutely. It wasn't that difficult, but I'd try to get ALL gifts for people as handmade (by me or others) or secondhand if I did it again. I don't feel like I suffered through the year, and most of the time I didn't even think about the challenge.

Reviewing our month - and realising it keeps going

We’re at the end of our challenge….. ish. We decided to do it over 30 days instead of the 28 days in the shortest month of the year. We’ve also decided to make up some of the days. Not because we are masochists, though.

We’ve been under £2 on average for every week, but we’ve gone over a BUNCH. Both of us have gone over £2 5 times. In addition, we haven’t eaten all of our meals within our £2 a day. There were three days when we both got our dinners elsewhere—from our lovely couchsurfers, at Nina’s birthday, and eating at the Art House on a busy day. In addition, I cheated last week and had lunch with my friend, and I had two dinners at someone else’s house earlier in the month.

Mac’s opinion is that we should make up the days that we had a meal outside of the challenge, but those when we went over shouldn’t be made up because we should show that on some days we went over. To give you a bit of context, the most we went over was £2.29 (that was Mac on day 7 with that silly expensive cauliflower and dhal) and our average we went over was 10p. So no pricey meals to be found during the month, despite us going over.

I’m planning to make up all 6 of my days where I had a meal elsewhere, but I think it is going to have to wait a week or so while we eat some of this cheese we bought at the Winchester Farmers’ Market.

Robin’s idea was interesting that we keep the challenge during the week but not on the weekend, if we want to keep doing it.

I’m interested in still doing it, but I don’t know if I can stand doing this spreadsheet any more.

I think both Mac and I have liked doing this, and we’ve managed to eat well during the whole month. Yes, there is a long list of foods we are both craving, but we’ve been able to eat three good-sized meals every day, and we’ve managed to have chips and pizza, Italian, Chinese and Indian food. Not bad.

I think I might need to work on my recipe writing skills, though.

Day 19 - mushroom and leek bake and NO cookies during the day

Mac has just made leek and mushroom bake from this recipe here. I don't know what he's making them with.... I wish we'd started some pearl barley as soon as Mac got home because that would be DELICIOUS. Instead I think we're having potatoes.

Here's the recipe for those of you who don't want to watch the whole video over and over again.

Mushroom and Leek Bake
Served 3ish - 25p per portion

Ingredients:
30g butter (Mac used oil instead 6p)
5 leeks, trimmed & sliced (RIVERFORD)
250g mushrooms sliced (RIVERFORD)
1 clove garlic, crushed (8p)
100mL veg stock (1 tsp stock - 2p)
150mL cream (we used milk) (19p)
1tsp thyme (3p?)
30g grated parmesan (Mac only used 10g - 17p)
salt & pepper

served with 400g potatoes (20p)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 180C
Chop leeks and mushrooms, and mince garlic. Heat butter (oil) over medium heat and then add sliced leeks Gently fry 2-3 min, stirring often so they don't brown Add mushrooms, salt, pepper and thyme and minced garlic.
Cook another 4 min.
Add chicken stock and cream (milk--cook a bit longer if using milk)
Stir and bring to the boil for 1 min.
Bake in the oven for 20min.
Take out and sprinkle the top with parmesan.
Return to oven for 5 min or until most liquid has reduced.
Serve immediately


Breakfast: Mac - oatmeal (happy, Robin??) with jam - 17p, Megan - oatmeal with 20g raisins - 13p (I ran out of time for a cup of tea)

At work: Megan - 2 cups of tea - 8p, Mac - one cookie and one cup of tea - 8p

During work: Megan also had her cup of tea and hot chocolate because she's bad.r Lunch: leftover stirfry - 43p

Dinner: 25p (it only really made three portions)

Riverford: 75p

Megan 1.64 + 2 cookies + pistachios - 2.00
Mac 1.68 + 42g of pistachios for 2.00

Ok, I have a confession to make. I accepted two hot beverages today--paid for by other people. I'm a cheat.

Dave bought me a hot chocolate at lunch. I think he felt bad for me. Rob, my boss, bought me a tea (and bought another guy a tea) when we went up to the canteen for a meeting in the morning.

Dave had actually offered to buy me lunch, but I told him that wouldn't count. He also kept asking if I wanted cake or something. I think it was a bit mean meeting up with him when I wasn't going to be eating (I ate my stirfry beforehand so I wouldn't be so tempted). BUT I really like hanging out with Dave and I didn't think my challenge should get in the way. I guess this means I go over? I don't know. I'm not very good with enforcing my own interpretation of the rules.

Mac got cakes for free at work. Lucky. He had three mini muffins, two mini flapjacks and a mini caramel thing AND a satsuma. WHAT THE CRAPOLA?!? I guess I get loads of free cakes and cookies and stuff at meetings. But that's not during the work day when I'm HUNGRY.

Our £2 a day diet challenge!

Mac and I had been talking about this one dollar diet project for a while, and we decided to try a £2 a day version. That means we’ll both “spend” no more than £2 each for our food for the day. I say “spend” because we will be using things in the cupboard most of the time, but we’ll be weighing up everything to get a price on it all.

The reason why we didn’t try for the more ambitious £1 a day was because we wanted to keep our Riverford box. We either get the small or the winter box, which are 77p and 74p respectively. I thought 25p for the rest of the meals was pushing it a bit, so we settled on £2 a day. We’ll be doing this for a month.

So, what are the rules?

1. All food for the day must total no more than £2 for each person.
2. This includes drinks. (But with tea only being 4p per cup, we should be ok)
3. Any leftovers eaten the next day count as that next day’s total. (We’re planning to have LOTS of leftover)
4. We will aim to eat organic as much as possible within our price limit and will state when the ingredients are organic.
5. If we want to have people over for dinner (I’ve already offered this to Dave to make up for our weekly Friday lunches) then they’ll get a plate similar to ours with the same cost.
6. If someone is desperate to take us out to dinner or if we’re somewhere with free food, we will make up that meal after our month is over with whatever was left of the £2 for that day.

I think that the One Dollar Diet project focused a lot on “what’s available to everyone” to get their food. They wouldn’t accept free meals at conferences or work, for instance. The problem with that is that it assumes that what you’re doing is more realistic to what people who live on the poverty line are doing. That’s bullcrap. Most Americans are probably not living on $1 a day for food. If they are, they might not have access to a fridge or a stove. They wouldn’t have spices that cost $3.00 each to flavour their food (even if the spices added are only 2 cents for that day). They wouldn’t have beans bought in bulk to make them cheaper. To me, some of the rules create an artificial idea of their project.

I know that what we’re doing isn’t an exact replica of poverty. In the UK, poverty is very much relative. We are not a country where the majority of people live on $1 a day for everything, not just food. We have free health care, social housing programmes, free education, and benefits for people with kids, disabilities, and those on “job seekers allowance”. We have lots of people who probably live on very little, but we have lots of other people who live on very little and still afford satellite TV. I’m not saying that there aren’t people in the UK who suffer. BUT I cannot replicate their situation—I just don’t know enough about it.

I hope that what we’re doing will be to show people that organic food is NOT out of people’s reach. That for £4 a day (that’s the same as a decent sandwich and a drink), two of us can eat a mostly organic, healthy, nutritious diet.

Yes, it will take us quite a bit of time to prepare our meals; it always does. But it’s SO worth it! We both work fulltime. Even when I was teaching and would come home at six exhausted, we’d still cook. Maybe it’s because it’s a priority for us. Watching TV or playing on a Wii is not a priority. According to this study by Ofcom, the average person in the UK will spend 25.3 hours a week watching TV. 3 hours and 37 min per day. Maybe they should have more TVs in the kitchens and people would start cooking….

THE rules

Robin has requested that I post THE rules I am going to follow. . . I guess she also means succinctly (NOT my strong suit)

So:

“The Megan Rules” for my Buy Nothing New year

1) I will not buy anything new that is not essential (essential including things like: food, lightbulbs, hygiene products, toilet paper, possibly cleaning products [but baking soda does an awful lot])
2) I can spend money on experiences (This includes things like films, dinner parties, theatre, gigs, art museums, days out with friends, AND includes the transportation involved in going to said experiences.)
3) Gifts for people are exempt, but I will try my hardest to get services, experiences, second hand gifts first. I will then move on to handcrafted new gifts. Only after that will I buy a regular-ol’ new item.
4) I will still aim to limit my consumption overall, and not binge on second hand kitschy sets of dishes or vintage clothing.

That’s pretty concise, right? 4 rules, and the 4th is a kinda guideline rather than a rule. So three rules and a guideline. Not bad.

As for how I’ve been doing on these, I’ve been so busy with meetings I haven’t had the chance to spend anything!

My £74.65 has NOT been taken out from the cash point yet, so I haven’t officially started counting down on that.

I DID manage to spend £6 so far at the Art House on cake and donations, AND I’m going there for lunch today. But I think that’s it so far. Seems like, once again, food will end up being the bulk of my £74.65.

I was considering buying tights before I started this challenge so I could wear skirts to work. Tights are NOT essential, so I’m just wearing trousers every day. I get goosebumps in the shower most days, so I often can’t shave my legs anyway (too much information?)

My first gift purchase is coming up—I need to get a belated Secret Santa present. The only suggestion I was given was “he likes Guinness. Get something Guiness-related in the sales.” . . . . Now, as much as I’m sure he loves random tat (a great British word meaning “worthless knick-knacky junk”), I didn’t see the point in spending £5 on a novelty Guinness Christmas ornament/hat/egg cups/plaque/whatever. So I’m getting £5 worth of local stouts so he can compare them to his favourite beverage.

As it starts to get warmer, I want to do some gardening (despite losing our allotment….. stupid lazy Megan). We have some supplies, but I think I’m going to have to work NOT to buy anything new. That means no bags of peat-free compost to start off plants, no seed packets (or does that count as food??), and no additional tools (where could I get used tools?). It’s not like I’m starting off a smallholding, but still—gardening is a hobby. Hobbies breed tools. It just happens.

Buy Nothing New year - 2009

Right. I am ready to start my “Buy Nothing New” year. However, I think I need to set some ground rules and explain how this is going to combine/overlap/negate some of the original £74.65 plan.

To refresh, since I am a deadbeat and haven’t blogged in a long time, I wanted to:

- stop taking purchased goods for granted
- support local businesses/artists
- be aware of the consequences my purchases have on everything
else—consumerism as an interdependent practice (fair trade? Organic? Flown here
from Timbuktu? Could I support a local independent shop? Could I fix/mend/repair
what I have instead? Will I even still want/use this later on?)

But the question was how best to do that. (is that the right way to write that?) I think having a “buy nothing new” policy will help, because it will include tangible goods, but I can still support local businesses/artists by paying for experiences. It also will mean I can buy used if I want something, which will make the temptation a little less and the goal a little more achievable.

So, let’s start with The Compact rules. It only has two rules, so that’s fairly easy.

1. Don't buy new products of any kind (from stores, web sites, etc.)
2. Borrow or buy used.

Now, the problem is that I’ll need to qualify those a little bit. Some things, like lightbulbs, you can’t buy used.

So, let’s add in some rules from Ruchi, aka Arduous.

1. I cannot buy any new durable goods.
2. I cannot buy any clothes. Period. This does not include shoes. (Why shouldn’t it include shoes? That’s bullcrap. They are still something new! I guess if I run out of ALL my shoes in a year and can’t wear any of them and need something to protect my feet, then I can buy a new pair. But I’m unlikely to get to that point.)
3. I can continue to use non-durable products I already own, but once I run out, I need to find the most environmentally friendly replacement. (Unless she’s talking about cleaning products and shampoo, I’m not buying it.)
4. I can spend money on experiences- concerts, plays, museums, etc.
5. Presents are exempted from my ban on new goods, but I try and make a good faith effort to buy something either from a small independent artist or producer, or to buy my friends experiences.

So, I think that’s pretty good. I will not buy anything new, unless it’s food, cleaning products, etc. I am NOT doing this to save money, so my shampoo and soaps will continue to be made from natural products with very little packaging—if that means spending £5 for a shampoo bar from Lush, I think that’s a good option.

What if our toaster finally gives up the ghost? We’ll try freecycle first, then maybe that charity shops that sells used appliances, and then maybe buy a new one. Toasters are fairly related to food, and heating up our whole electric oven to make toast would be seriously wasteful. But, you may ask, won’t that toaster purchase be a gateway for all sorts of other cooking-related doo-dads? NO! Why? Because I won’t let it. I think I have a good grasp on the difference between a toaster and a cute little nutmeg grater/storage container.

Hey, what a minute, you might say, I haven’t signed up for buy nothing new…. What about my birthday/Christmas/wedding/bar mitzvah present? Never fear. I’ll be following Arduous’s (Arduous’ ??) suggestion that presents are exempt. Now, I’ll still try focusing on getting people events/experiences/services for gifts (they are cooler and make for great memories) or making gifts (I will NEVER make you a macaroni spray-painted frame though, don’t worry), and you might get 5 cool used books instead of 1 new book, but you’d screw up the binding on the new book eventually anyway….

If I can’t think of anything else, I will get people a new gift, but will probably be trying to buy a lot from The Art House (I AM the craft coordinator after all) or etsy, and will try to steer clear of unnecessary plastic crap. You didn’t want plastic crap for your birthday anyway, did you?

I like the Arduous “experiences” exemption. I know that Robin probably thinks that it’s cheating, but there are a few guidelines I will set for myself. An “experience” is just that—it’s about the whole sensory package. So a trip to the Tate is A-OK, as is paying for a gig. Does this mean I’ll splash out when McFly comes to the Guildhall? No. It also means no more band CDs or T-shirts…. Unless I’m buying them as a gift. Transportation I see as included in the “experience”—to get to London for a day out or to a gig or to see friends, I’ll need to get there. Plus, if I had a car, gas would be included.

What aren’t experiences? I think that going to a restaurant with Mac counts, but grabbing a sandwich while walking around town isn’t much of an “experience”. Sitting in a café while catching up with a friend is fine, but buying a Starbucks chai or a tea from the canteen upstairs wouldn’t.

Now, “buy nothing new” does NOT mean that I will now buy loads of stuff from eBay, charity shops, or consignment stores. I think that’s going against the spirit of the challenge. I will buy things used IF and WHEN I need them. Period.

Since I’m only human, I have a funny feeling that I might not always succeed. I’m hoping that I don’t need the equivalent of Crunchy Chicken’s weekly confessional. I don’t want to fail once a week! However, so that I keep this blog going (so Robin can’t call me a deadbeat), I might need to keep up my £74.65 challenge, add other challenges, or talk about non-spending related things… Maybe an explanation of all the things I keep myself busy with when I’m NOT spending money. Or musings. Or other items of interest. We’ll just have to see.

I hope this seriously reduces my plastic usage. However, food seems to be the biggest cause of trash in our flat. Until a bulk foods place opens up where we can bring our own canisters, I don’t know if I have a chance in hell of reducing my plastic by that much…. But I’ll sure try!

Here’s to pushing yourself. And to resolutions that are NOT just for the first two weeks in January.