Category: Year Without Shopping

One month post-shopping fast and I have been reflecting on what I learned, how I’ve changed and what I want to do differently in the future. I made my first purchase just a few days ago.   Initially I thought on January 1st I would be rushing out to buy something, anything after all that time continue reading »

Month #10 of my shopping fast! Fall is my favorite season.  The smells, the colors of the trees. The way it’s cool in the morning and evening but warm during the day. I love the foods that emerge this time of year too – soups and stews, hot chocolate and although I am no fan continue reading »

I am in month 8 of this no new stuff, no shopping, fasting of things thing.  In some ways it has been far easier than I thought it would be.  I have never been a real shopper so I have not missed it for its own sake. I have a ton more stuff than I continue reading »

I have passed the halfway point in my yearlong shopping fast. My family has completed theirs (they signed on to join me for the 1st six months). So as we reached the end of their fast (for which they had a countdown) I asked my girls, who are 8 and 12 respectively, what they thought continue reading »

On Waste and wasting: Today is trash day on my street.  I look at the heaps of waste we all push to the edge of our yards for the trucks to haul away next to blue boxes piled high with recycling and I think about how very much we throw away. How much I have continue reading »

Here is what’s been going on with me, my family and our shopping fast aka a year without shopping: I am still noticing the faded, worn and out of date things in my wardrobe, on my shoe rack and in my home.  I wonder as I do if I notice more because I cannot replace continue reading »

An update on my year without shopping  . . . The power cord conundrum So just some context for this story:  My family has agreed to do the shopping fast with me for the first six months. I was standing in the kitchen talking to my family when a shiny new i-phone power cord caught continue reading »

My year without shopping has begun.   When I brought the idea of not buying anything for a year to my family my twelve-year-old daughter literally said “this is the worst thing that has happened to me in my whole life . . .”  She really likes shopping.  Like a lot. Much to my chagrin.  continue reading »

Happy new year.  2017 was  . . . so many things.  Full of change, turmoil, natural disaster, political upheaval. One thing about the turning of the calendar’s page is that it brings a sense of newness.  The idea that we have a clean slate of sorts.  Which is probably why so many people make resolutions continue reading »