I like green

I know St. Patrick's Day was yesterday . . . that's not the green I'm talking about:

I had the chance to spend a little time with a wonderful woman over coffee & tea (and some wonderful conversation) this morning. She took a vow to buy nothing new in 2008 . . . and she did it! I found this idea interesting and quite fascinating. She went a whole year without buying anything new. Her year was up a few months ago and she couldn't really think of anything she'd bought new since then either. I asked her if it was more work for her to not buy new and she said it took a little getting used to, but that once she was in the "groove" and was used to doing it, it wasn't hard. If she needed a pair of jeans she went to a thrift or consignment shop and got a perfectly wonderful non-new pair . . . she said she loved using sites like craigslist and ebay too. She said the only part that got a little tricky was when she needed a gift for someone . . . you know now everyone appreciates a nice "used" birthday present. But she stuck with it and made something or gave gifts of time/activity rather than "goods". Obviously she bought food and she said that there were exceptions for things that were not readily available in non-new form (you know, like undies . . . you don't really want those used!!).

I'm thinking about doing this. I know that shopping is a little form of therapy and relaxation for me, but so are a bunch of other things . . . cheaper things . . . things that are better for me! Like reading or making cards or exercising or just being outside or playing with my kiddos or a conversation with a friend or a walk! Plus we really do have more than we need already. I was thinking I might start small . . . I'm thinking, maybe, the month of April.

I think it might get a little tricky when it comes to the kids (my friend who did this doesn't have kids . . . although she does have a very active and cute little puppy that she "parents"). If one of the kids really "needs", say, a new Easter dress I can't really go to 8 different thrift/consignment shops looking for one that would be good and would fit and all that . . . I don't have the luxury of that kind of free time, nor do I have the patience to be running all over town trying to find one particular thing in a particular size for a certain particular almost-8-year-old!

Or, for example, just today I bought Anna a new carseat. She has outgrown her "bucket" (as we call the infant car seat that people cart their kids around in) and needed a big girl seat. We got her "bucket" from a friend (so it wasn't new) and I checked to see if anyone had a rear-facing convertible carseat that they weren't using right now that we could have/borrow but didn't find much success. Places can't sell used carseats, (which I totally understand, there's no way to prove that it hasn't been in a car accident or something in which case it's safety would be compromised) so there really isn't another avenue to get something like that in non-new form . . . so I guess, maybe, that would be something that could be considered an exception . . . but, since it's still March and I'm thinking about trying this in April, I'm safe anyway!

I just think this whole idea makes so much sense! It's just another form of recycling . . . which I am a huge fan of . . . and of trying to become more simplistic in our lives and what we "need" . . . plus it's super "green" and I'm kind of a fan of "green" stuff.

Our sermon last Sunday was wonderful and talked about ENOUGH. We were asked to consider that "enough" is actually the opposite of poverty rather than wealth (which is most likely what most people would think of as the opposite of poverty). Enough is where we all should desire to be on the spectrum of wealth . . . people in poverty should (ideally) move "up" toward enough and people of great wealth should (ideally) move "down" toward enough so that we all land closer to the middle of the spectrum to a place where we are more well balanced. As far as I can tell, we (the Stoll family . . . and most Americans) have way more than enough and I'd like to work to get closer and closer to enough and rid myself of the extra in my life that I don't need . . . which reminds me of a wonderful book called "The Treasure Principle", if you haven't read it, you should! I'll leave it at that!

So, I'm saying officially that April is going to be my trial month for not buying anything new. I imagine it'll be a little tough and take some extra thought and work to get used to, but I'm gonna give it a shot . . . and if I really, really need something, Kirb not vowing to buy nothing new in April (he doesn't shop a whole lot anyway), so maybe he could just swing into Target real quick on his way home from work . . . :)

I don't feel like I buy a whole lot of "stuff", but I guess this'll be the test to see if that's true or not. Plus, it should be good for the family budget!