The year of not buying anything (nearly)

If there's one thing that having kids has taught me, it's the difference between happiness and pleasure.

Being woken up at 5.30 am by a half crazed three year old, bashing you on the head with handmade birthday card, the one he simply can't wait another second to show you, is happiness.

Gently stroking the hair of a one year little girl, to get her back to sleep at 2am is happiness.

So is swimming so hard the pain in your arms makes you want to cry.

Even rehearsing for a pitch at 2am is happiness.

Because the things that make you happy (as umpteen pyschology experiments show us) are rarely the easy things. And it's certainly not buying stuff for yourself.

Giving makes us happier than recieving, be that buying for people or doing for people. Experiences always win over goods,especially doing things with others, because the memories they provoke last much longer than stuff we buy - and our basic trait of seeking out novelty makes us bored with new stuff really fast.

We also need to feel valued and to flourish, like you've accomplished something, or feeling like you're making a difference and it's doing something for a higher purpose than yourself.

In addition, we're saving up for a extension on the house, not just a shared task which is already good, but something which will create more space for the kids playing upstairs and more family staying more often. So saving more money, not my greatest skill, would be good.

So for an entire year,I'm not going to buy anything for myself I don't need.

I have more than enough clothes (and don't care about fashion), enough CD's and DVD's to last a lifetime,I have a pile of books that will last a year and I don't give two hoots about gadgets.

This doesn't preclude subscribing to Spotify, going to the cinema, holidays or downloading a film of course, and food and drink. All are rich source of experience for me.

But I'm going to buy something, I already know that getting stuff for Mrs Northern or the kids just makes me feel better, but even then, not as happy as doing things with them.

Of course, if my bike packs in, our TV needs replacing or my winter coat falls apart, then NEEDING is different to WANT.

So I'm going to find out how much happier experiences not stuff, plus giving rather than recieving, makes me over a year.

Naturally, I'm aware this is not original, but I'm not doing this to be get a book deal or anything. I'm doing this because I'm curious, I want to teach myself to be better with money and I already know what makes me happy, so I want to try and do more of it.

Let's see what happens.

 

Comments

[Richard]

Hi, it's funny your doing this as this exactly what I did in 2009 - for similar reasons, saving for a big event.

I managed to go the full year without buying anything (I operated to these rules and nothing major broke!) and it taught me so many things.

Firstly, as commented on your bag, just how easy and how satisfying it is to get things fixed. You develop a new relationship with tailors and cobblers - great traditional crafts - that are used less and less as we've become more of a disposable society.

I realised how much stuff I already had. When you can't go out buy new things, you look upon your old things in a different light. A number of things got pulled out of the loft or from the back of the wardrobe and got a second lease of life.

Finally, I realised how much I relied on flippant purchases to give myself a little boost. And how much this was temporary and just wasteful.

4 years on I think that year has still changed my purchasing habits and how I view of lot my purchases today. It very easily helps you frame the question, do I really 'need' this. Ultimately the answer is normally no.

Good luck!

[northern]

Hi there. I hope it turns out as well for me as it did for you. I guess stopping to smell the flowers from time to time is something we should all do

[Jonathan]

HI there
Hope it's going well with the not buying stuff. I was a planner for 15 years, did a Masters in Sustainability and decided to stop doing that 'getting people to buy stuff that they don't want' thing. Bought my first new clothes for two years (jeans and a jacket) this Christmas. Be interesting to see if your experiment has an impact on your thoughts on the responsibility of the ad industry. It, and other things, was profound for me.
Enjoy the continuing journey and good luck.
Jonathan

[northern]

Hi there. Great to hear from you.
I'm sure this experiment in truth will do just that.
It's going well so far.

I'm sure this experiment in truth drive re-appraisal of all sorts of my habits and attitudes.

Especially when the very model of capitalism, let alone advertising which is just a cog, is based on waste - creating the want to buy more than you need
I think this is being brought into sharp focus right now, as the middle and lower income people, who need to buy lots of stuff to keep this ship afloat, increasingly find themselves unable, or too fearful to, as their real income, prospects and quality of life recede in favour of continuing to pay for the excesses of the tiny minority at the top, who's excess still can't power an entire economy

Anyway, whayt are you doing these days?