What do you need apart from your next breath?
Of course there are things like good food, clean drinking water and so on.
An article appeared recently on the BBC website extolling the virtues of the ‘No Buy Year’. It took my interest if only to see if there was something genuine to be learned from it.
I’d read about ‘No Spend Years’ and ‘No Shopping Years’ in the past and at best flicked through the articles doing nothing personally. They were just ‘of passing interest’.
It’s a sensible article and there’s much to be learned depending on your perspective and your own needs. Thankfully I don’t have any such compulsions – at least ones that I’m aware of. If I do have a weakness, it’s for courses that boost my business skills or help me learn a new foreign language.
Here’s the BBC article: https://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20190212-how-to-save-money-with-a-no-buy-year
If you’re a first-timer at this you can either go for broke, or start more sensibly by giving up a few easier-to-do things like skincare products, sugar-laden products (biscuits, ice creams etc) and other items you can easily make yourself at home.
We all need somewhere to start.
When you move onto to Stage 2, do what Hannah Louise Poston did and remove your credit card details from online retailers.
If you’ve ever moved home or cleared out the home of deceased parents, you’ll realise how much unnecessary junk accumulates over the years. Make sure your children aren’t faced with the same task.
Now you’re well on your way.
When the need to buy something arises, think about where to spend your money. Eat in more. Buy your food from local markets; buy from family shops where the money spent supports a small family business and is ploughed back into the local economy.
Think twice before you support a corporate behemoth (where your money isn’t spent locally!)
I haven’t had a Coke, Pepsi or any soda of that nature since the early 1990’s. I can’t recall eating any junk food since about then either. On the occasion I go into a pub, I always see if there’s a local brewery being promoted.
But that’s me, not you. You need determine whatever suits you the best.
When to start? Start right away…today. Make a list. If that doesn’t work, finish the chocolate bars you bought and start tomorrow. But start. If you waver and need help, join a blog or FaceBook group that has your interests at heart.
Don’t wait for the first day of January next year to add this to the list of other New Year’s Eve Resolutions that are quickly forgotten. This one really counts.
You’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Graeme Dinnen
