As a quiet protest for anti consumerism, Buy Nothing Day encourages you to... well... buy nothing!
Image credit: Dylan Nolte on Unsplash
I came across this day while researching key dates and holidays throughout the year, and was pleasantly surprised to find this challenge that pretty much says, rather than buying something you think will make you or another happy, why not tune into life instead?
Yeehah! As someone who used to buy things like the average twenty-something UK consumers, I have been on a path to buy less for a number of years. Choosing instead to stay in with friends, rather than go out and spend on overpriced drinks, drink tea instead of alocohol, buy second hand instead of new, these were all lifestyle changes that I adopted somewhat consciously, somewhat not, and can now proudly say have developed into lifelong habits!
It's amazing what you can achieve when you don't put pressure on yourself, but slowly and quietly do things for you. I have felt pressure to shout about these things and little need to post performative posts, but I have come such a long way and I am proud of who I am now. I ask more questions, certainly when it comes to buying and that's not to say I don't still buy every now and again.
It's amazing what you can achieve when you don't put pressure on yourself, but slowly and quietly do things for you.
I too sometimes get thrilled by the brights lights of a pretty candle, or that book I have to have, but wow have I significanty simmered down. And that's it isn't it? If everyone just simmered down a little bit on buying, the world would be in a much better place, wouldn't it?
No one needs to go cold turkey, no one needs to completely eliminate that thing that they really like to buy, be it notebooks, or furniture, or plant pots, but it's simply having a check in with ourselves about how much we really need, whether we can do without, whether that thing was made ethcially, and whether if you hadn't simply walked past and spied it on your way somewhere, would you have bought it?
My argument would be, don't tell your overly consuming (in your opinion) friends and family a flat statement like 'don't buy that' or 'you shouldn't buy so many beauty products' because this approach more times than not, will not work. You need to go a little deeper, just as they do, to addressing why and what questions they need to ask... treating it as a punishment, or negative or some sort of loss is a sure fire way to make sure they simply shut off, don't listen or tell you to piss off.
Buy Nothing Day is simple. Buy nothing. Go for a walk with your friends instead of a shopping trip allows for more conversation, more bonding over real topics and interests that are important to you.
For more on the day, you can go to the website here.