Tristan and I have enacted our consumer-fast. So far, we've decided that what we will buy falls into two categories: nourishment (food) and hygiene/cleaning.
However, we want to be clear that we aren't trying to guilt anyone into not buying things. We only want people to start thinking about what they buy and what they need. Also, we want to figure out what we actually need. So, whereas we may be very strict in the first year, when the first year is up, we may actually buy some new things; however, we are going to research what we buy and research what we don't buy and figure out what are the best things to invest in. That's why Tristan in particular wants to call this experiment "Changing Our Spending Habits" or "Becoming Conscious of Our Spending Habits and How Those Habits Impact the Earth."
One recent negotiation that I've recently faced, for example, is the following: I wanted to buy lipstick, as I'm running out. But, lipstick is neither hygiene or a food item!!! But, chap-stick is a hygiene item and Burt's Bee is a pretty good company. They use 30% post-industrial waste to create their products and they don't test on animals. So, using this logic, I will buy Burt's Bee chap-stick with some color. This negotiation equals a new way to consume lipstick...
We hope to find many more of these smart shopping negotiations. In other words, we hope to buy fewer things of better quality that impact the earth in a minimal way. That will be our main goal; however, we believe that in order to achieve this goal, we need to be very strict for the first year.
And readers, even if you don't want to do this for a year, consider doing it for a week or even a few days.
All in all, even in the days that we have done this consumer-fast, we've been blessed by a strange sense of well-being.
If you are interested in trying this consumer-fast, let us know how it goes.
Peace,
s&t
I'm buying you lipstick for Christmas.
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