It’s winter solitice and our six months of buying nothing new has come to an end.
How did it go?
Well, I didn’t make the blog that exciting. Sorry. It’s difficult when the project is about NOT doing something. The rules we set down didn’t make a huge difference to me because all I seem to spend money on is:
- food and household goods
- utility bills and house upkeep
- vehicles
Sad, but true.
Not buying new was good when it came to tools. I got two hand axes from ebay for about £10. The Kent pattern one is perfect for spliting logs into kindling (an oddly enjoyable task that gives me an odd connection to our iron-age ancestors).
I’ve blown that today by going to B&Q today and spending over £80 on door locks (there’s a recession and rural crime will probably rise) and some tools so that I could finish fixing the shower.
Oh, the shower. It’s been leaking forever, thanks to limescale. So I got the replacement bits and it took me the best part of five hours to get the bloody thing working again. The good news (1) it works (2) it doesn’t leak anymore from the control housing or the shower head; the bad news: the shower has an isolation valve and the one for the cold feed snapped so I can’t open it. So as long as we want scolding hot shower it’s fine. Grrrr. I HATE DIY.
I bet I’ll bugger up fitting the door locks too, but that’s for another day over the Christmas break.
So what has been hard about not buying new. Well, I think if it went on much longer then clothing would be a real issue. I bought some trousers via ebay for a fiver. They fit fine, but they are old man trousers. It took several washes to get rid of the old man smell. Even now they just don’t look right. An anti-fashion statement? I have spent most of my life with the anti-fashion look. It doesn’t work.
I’m itching to rush down to Gap and replace all my trousers. I’ll see if there are more ethical options. There’s Howie’s of course (at a price) but their stuff is probably too cool for me.
Of course we did buy something substantially new – our heating system upgrade. The back-boiler is now in place and so we are now burning through our seasoned firewood very quickly. It’s just as well because our gas boiler is offline at the moment because it was leaking propane gas!! It was only one small seal that was the problem, but the boiler guy has had a nightmare getting hold of the new bit. He promised to be round tomorrow to get it fixed.
So apart from the gas boiler not working and shower now out of action, things have been better. But at least we’re not cold thank’s to our new back-up systems.
Overall, though, the Not New Year has been pretty good and it has made me think about problems a bit more laterally and sometimes the second hand solutions have been a lot cheaper and better than just rushing out to the shops.
Happy Christmas!
- Sean
