Wednesday, November 28, 2007

The Rules

Yesterday, Amelia asked me in the comments what exactly I was and was not consuming.

Since I've been making up my rules the best way I see fit, I figured it was worth clarifying what I can and cannot do. While I looked to The Compact and Colin at No Impact Man for inspiration, my rules are slightly different.

1. I cannot buy any new durable goods.
2. I cannot buy any clothes. Period. This does not include shoes.
3. I can continue to use non-durable products I already own, but once I run out, I need to find the most environmentally friendly replacement.
4. I can spend money on experiences- concerts, plays, museums, etc.
5. Presents are exempted from my ban on new goods, but I try and make a good faith effort to buy something either from a small independent artist or producer, or to buy my friends experiences.

That's pretty much it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

AHHHH!! That sucks! No new clothes??? What about from a thrift shop?

I mean, I guess you save a lot of money... and the environment and all... But still... wow. I could never do that. I'm a material girl. And I keep my heat blasting all night because I like the noise. I kind of suck... blah.

Anonymous said...

I realize this post is ages old, but I'm commenting anyway because I only found it recently. We;re starting a similar project in our house, and your rules are the closest to our rules that I've seen, so it's interesting to see how you have been doing. Well, actually, gifts and shoes are not exempt for us, but we are a little lax on other things. . . Anyway, inspiring to see other people out there doing interesting things with less mindless consumerism. I put a link on my brand spanking new blog to your site. Hope you don't mind. Jen http://cleanbin.wordpress.com