Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping

By Judith Levine



Borrowed this one from my Mom. I think her exact words when I asked were along the lines of “Oh yeah, that’s from your Aunt, like I’m going to read something like that. “ Later my Aunt told me “Yeah I think Judith used this as an excuse so she didn’t have to buy anyone a gift the whole year. “After the first couple pages I was skeptical of the books whole idea.

Okay let me backtrack for a minute. I’m pretty frugal. I don’t spend much money on extras. I don’t eat out, mostly I bring food from home to work, which is no small feat in planning as when I’m at work I’m there for four days. Yeah my meals mostly consist of things that you can add hot water to but so what I’m not asking anyone else to eat it. I almost think I could do this, only buying necessitates for a year, but my wife said NO. Plus once you realize that the idea is not to buy nothing buy just not to buy anything that is not essential, you start to see where the problems can start. Just what is an essential? Judith talks about how they decided what was an essential, wine, coffee, books (because they are for her job). Yeah I could always switch to getting books from the library but she has an excuse about that to. (I gave the book back to my Mom or else I’d try and find the excuse.)

Why was I skeptical of the whole idea of the book? Well before they started the experiment they stocked up on a few items and splurged in ordering online before these items would be banned. Kind of like pigging out the night before you start your diet. It’s like saying you are trying to fail.

After a few chapters - or months as each chapter is a month, she settles into a routine. You learn about their lives split between their two houses, their cars, her political views (what does this have to do about purchasing things), and her views in consumerism in general. This isn’t about being economical; it’s about sticking it to the man who wants you to buy things you don’t need. Interesting? I guess. So let me cut to the chase for you. Save you the trouble so you can start buy not buying Not Buying It. I know this wasn’t about finances but just how much can you save? Well she pays of a credit card and saves 8 grand. Or maybe that was she paid of 8 grand that was on the credit card, I can’t remember. Does it really matter? If you want to see just how much you can save it a year, that’s a different book.