The Not New Year

Well this idea has been brewing for a while. It started when I bought, from Tescos of all places, “Not Buying It” which explored practically the challenges of materialism, but simply not buying anything for a year. Then came along the brillant, mad and funny “Making Do” series of video blogs on You Tube. Given the hype of this, the BBC wanted to create a ‘fly-on-the-wall’ series following families going on their own 6 month ‘not buying it’ year, we interviewed, but was deemed to be too far down the eco road to be ‘interesting’! I guess watching families truly struggle makes better TV.

On reflection, with a small baby that needs a fair amount of ’stuff’ (dear god I had no idea), so I think it would have been too much. Instead, we decided to spend mid-summer <opps we are a week late!> to winter solstice <yes that means up to Xmas> not buying anything new. The joy of it is, we felt we had to act on it NOW, to prevent a situation in which we bought loads of things in anticipation of this ‘project’. This of course left me a blind panic last night trying to buy some shoes on the internet – I failed, so <sob!> they will have to wait <sob!, sob!>.

So what I do want to gain from this (I am sure Sean will blog tonight on what it means to him)?

I am very interested / concerned / depressed about climate change and the oil crisis. I worry about the world we are, day by day, creating for my daughter. We are living in an unsustainable economic system based on a lie that we can all continue to live/drive/fly/shop at this rate without destroying the planet. We need to stop and think. We need to be more self aware of what we are doing, day-to-day rather than walk around in a consumer day-dream.

I am very aware of the change in my behaviour after having Megan. There has been a huge increase in shopping, for her and for me. For her there has been a mind-boggling amount of equipment and ‘things’ that by buying somehow makes me a ‘good mother’. Then there is the post-baby ‘crikey I need to feel better about myself’ shopping (thank you Gok Wan) – new make-up, new ‘treats’, new clothes as the weigh starts to shift – all possible under the justification of “Yummy Mummy” status – and I have fallen hook, line and sinker. There is always the question of ‘what-to-do’ with baby, and one of the easiest options is the shopping centres, with baby changing, food and entertainment all built in. But what price for the household budget and my mental sanity? I have little paid work now…time to STOP spending, not increase! Where have my ideals and values disappeared to? I aim to clarify and find them again.

So – ebay, boot fairs and charity shops from now on. What I dont want to happen is shop just as much, but in a different way. This is about working out what we REALLY need, not want/desire….

Thats enough for now…….baby to see to…….

Tammy