Buy Nothing Challenge Week 3 Update

“Our business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves”
- E. Joseph Cossman

My Refrigerator

Friday April 24, 2009

Today marks day 24 of the buy nothing challenge. This is the update for week 3. Check out the beginning, and week 2.

I’ve reached the home stretch and the limits of my refrigerator. I ate my last carrot for dinner last night along with a turkey burger (no bun, out of bread), and now I’m officially out of fresh vegetables.

I still have a pineapple, an avocado, a baked yam, and a jar of sun dried tomatoes and olives, but that is it for fresh food. I’m moving to my freezer and pantry, and have been eating a lot of canned chili with black beans added to stretch the meal.

My Freezer

For the last three weeks, I have been ridiculously lucky that I have nice friends who have helped with this experiment. Kari gave me oranges, Tara gave me banana bread and Rachel brought me Nutella which she knows I love.

Banana Bread

It bears repeating that my parents have given lots of cans of canned chili and tuna, which I found incredibly nice.

I hope to return the favor when the buy nothing challenge is over. I’ve been struck by how giving and generous my friends and family truly are.

Once I explained that I wasn’t buying anything besides gas for 30 days, people have had really positive things to say about the buy nothing challenge. Here are their questions from this week:

Have you had to tell people that you can’t participate in an activity because it would cost money?

No. I’ve been lucky in this regard. I haven’t been invited to any events that I would have had to say no to. I have been pretty careful about avoiding the subject, lots of my friends know I’m doing the buy nothing challenge through my links to this page on Facebook, so most people haven’t asked or suggested activities that cost anything.

I did call my friend Travis last Saturday night (Day 18) to see if we could do something free (like watch a DVD or something) and instead he ended up buying beer, which was his idea and very nice of him. I have promised to get him back the next time we go out, so I do have a few people I’m going to want to do things for once the 30 days are up.

Have you been spending more time alone, or more time with family?

No. I already spend a lot of time alone, and previously I spent a lot of money during these times. Oddly, I’ve been doing more social activities because I started going to fitness classes with Tara who suggested that we go together in week 2. This has been great because we get to talk and visit but there isn’t a financial component involved. I’ve also noticed that I’m more open to activities where people suggest doing activities besides eating together or shopping together.

In the past, I felt a little bit of anxiety during these times because I would go into hanging out knowing that there was going to be a tab to pick up. If I was feeling broke, then that added an additional emotional complication.

Not that they don’t pay their fair share. I have extremely generous friends who I owe in many ways. I would just rather focus on their company and not wrack up a bill of some kind. The meal or the shopping never was as interesting as the company, so it seems pointless to use the money this way. In the future, I’m going to keep in mind how much more open minded I was about new activities during this experiment.

I do like spending time with family, but I’d say that hanging out with them has been about the same as normal, usually an activity once or twice a week.

Have you thought about seeing what you can do on Craigslist or dumpster diving to get things for free to satisfy your shopping desires?

Not particularly. I really feel as though the desire to shop has been lifted. The accumulation of stuff for the sake of stuff seems more and more empty to me than before, so in the future I’ll be trying to maximize and appreciate what I already have, more than ever.

The lack of shopping in my life has been great. When I decided to stop buying things I didn’t know that this would contribute the the amount of peace in my life, but it has in a big way. Knowing that the only options to for things to eat are in my cupboard or imagination and I had better make it work with what I already have has been a zen experience.

How have your ideas on the working public and struggling family issues and pay check to paycheck living changed?

I’ve been extremely fortunate that I’ve never had to live paycheck to paycheck because I was always such a saver who had a margin of safety.

The buy nothing challenge has really brought what it must be like to live paycheck to paycheck into focus. This foreign concept has really become clearer because everything I have has to last at least until the end of the month. If it doesn’t, then tough luck.

One thing I’ve realized is that this situation is even more of a tragedy because it is totally changeable if you are willing to do the work to change it.

For those of you who are doing the paycheck to paycheck thing, please stop. Save 5 dollars, 10 bucks a month, your pocket change, anything, to build yourself a cushion.

Evaluate how you are using your most important resource, your time. If you don’t think you have the skills to make enough to live well, think about ways you can get more skills. Go to the library. Apply for scholarships. Get roommates. Think outside the box. Spend some time considering ways you can save money, spend wisely and get out of debt to give yourself a future. Stop the cycle of mental abuse you are perpetuating on yourself.

The guilt and shame thought process where you start out hopeful, get your paycheck, blow everything, wait, feel bad, get hopeful as payday nears, then blow it again, rinse and repeat, has got to end if you’re going to get anywhere in your life.

Refuse to settle for a life where you are doomed to a repetitious grind where you let your precious life energy continuously flow away from you. Keep some of it for yourself!

If you already are out of the paycheck to paycheck cycle, then you get it and I applaud you. Keep looking for ways to grow.

Share!

Tags: