{ Mu'Mu }

Dottie Angel Challenge Update

Buy Nothing

Stick With What You've Got

 

Oh I've done very badly with the Dottie Angel challenge recently. I blame Christmas - it started off with buying new fabric-to-make-homemade and went silly with paint-buying and a few new light shades. Although I have so far resisted buying a new sofa - still waiting for thrifted prayer-answering, I'm glad I saw this video and website today. Reminds me why buying never makes me happy... and really, who could not listen to David Suchet's dulcet tones and be wooed into buying nothing??

Another good challenge for the year :: small changes mean big results.

Utmost Challenge :: week 2 - 3

It's been a testing week. Firstly I got lemoned at a craft fair for a new toy and it wasn't until I was actually at the car that I realised I had broken the challenge! New. Toy. I think being at a craft fair threw me into a subconscious false sense of security thinking it was handmade feel-the-love and all that. But NEW. Toy. Because my children don't have enough toys.

Gah.

But it gets worse. New casserole dish, a purchase out of stubborn lust, even though my 365 conscience was screaming in my ear to cease and desist. Lust, people. Pure LUST. This is how the devil gets you - he dangles what you want in front of your eyes. And I had wanted a cast iron casserole dish for such a looooong time - and you know how much they cost, right? That's right - stupid pound and 50 pence. And Big Supermarket were selling their version on sale. For 17 pounds . And it all crumbled around my ears!!

And to cheer myself up for breaking the challenge - I bought books on AMAZON. Could my life get ANY more wretched??! Get ye GONE satan.

So, is a challenge really a challenge when you have the option to ignore it? Such a middle class luxury this sustainable living lark. There is always a buffer zone in this society; always the option to opt out, convenient consuming ever present.

Not to succumb to a guilt trip think I would like to stay positive about it all by listing all the progress we have made:

1. For the past two weeks the majority of what we have eaten has been organic.

2. I haven't bought anything from outside our locality (uh apart from the items above)

3. I now have a composter in place - only taken 7 years of nagging to get one, but nevertheless here it is - high pitched nagging and whining works best when coupled with a tantrum. Just so you know. Plus it is secondhand so challenge still in place.

4. For the first time since I was 17 I have bought second hand clothes - I don't know why, but I have never considered thrifting clothes until now - mostly I have bought cheap (crap) clothes from cheap (crap) high street places or made my own, and since sometimes this can work out cheaper than thrifting I never really thought about it. But throw in fair-trade and environmental issues and it makes sense to thrift as much as you can, right? The bonus being that if you selectively thrift you can pick up quality clothes for next to nothing, as opposed to crap clothes for next to nothing. Being selective I managed to thrift not only lambswool sweaters, but also a quality wool overcoat for the winter. Masha'allah. I have also managed to find some great clothes for reconstructing.

5. Because I am paying a teensy bit more for our food I am making sure I am utilising everything - unlike cheap food which sits in the fridge then chucked - this time I am careful about not wasting a mouthful. So even though we are paying a teensy bit more, we are actually wasting less and getting proper value for money.

6. I've moved onto using soap-nuts for washing clothes - found a source that works out as cheap (or cheaper) then conventional stuff, and bonus is I don't have to buy conditioner (or vinegar) because the soap-nuts leave everything so soft and conditioned anyway and is absolutely mild. It's probably the major drain on finances when I look at our shopping list - cleaning products - and, sure, I buy Ecover stuff, but financially it makes sense to find homemade solutions for these products as much as possible too, so that's next on the to do list - find good recipes for cleaning products.

I think my consuming is becoming more conscientious but this unwritten opt-out clause for anything I deem appropriate really has to be stopped - I know where these things lead ultimately - self justification unravels everything in the end.

Utmost Challenge :: Week 1

It's been quite a thrifty week, and there have been some really nice scores masha'allah.

I am collecting vintage pillowcases for a project for next year insha'allah, I have a couple I really like and some that are OK. Still on the hunt for more, and these are quite cheap so no guilt there.

I have placed our first order with our local organic farmer and am stupidly excited to have found a milkman that delivers milk in glass bottles to the doorstep like in the good old days - this has freed up freezer space from a weekly milk shop meaning now I can get more preserved food in there (think apple pie - think home made pesto - think um.... anything but MILK), eradicated plastic and the leaching that occurs from it into our milk, AND encourages recycling as we return our empties everyday! It also means that since I don't have to shop weekly for our milk I no longer have to drive to the store and can shop for the rest of our needs by good old fashioned walking there and back! With a reusable ecoTOTE!

Some problems/thoughts encountered this week :: is shopping in the local market OK? Cheap and cheerful and is a snub to Big Supermarket, but are items locally sourced and fairtrade?? Can't guarantee either, so am staying away from even the market for as long as possible.

Artwork - yes handmade, but necessary? Hm. I would say 'yes'; this whole challenge is not meant as a puritanical penance for past consumer sins, but a way to make my consuming conscientious. I love beautiful things; I love art, but by ensuring my consumer choices (ie. framing options etc) are fairtrade I am not going to stop beautifying my surroundings.

Eggs. I already buy free-range but upping the ante to organic free-range might mean I have to auction a kidney to pay for it. I am bummed out about it.

Things I have desired and been tempted by this week :: Kilner jars, paint, Harris Tweed (technically OK since it is SOOOOO handmade), and fabric in general. Need to give more thought to the fabric thing.

Thus endeth the week one ummings and ahhings of an utmost kind.

An Utmost Challenge

It was her birthday and she found nasal hair and the gauntlet was thrown down - a 365 challenge which appealed instantly to me.

The challenge was simply (?!) to commit to buying only secondhand or handcrafted for an entire year - nothing new. Clothes would have to be reconditioned and/or creatively altered, anything for the home would have to be thrifted.

Now I know what you're thinking - you're thinking, Debbie - this isn't a challenge for you - it's a justification for your spending habits. And you're right, at first glance this 'challenge' does seem a bit tautologous - what would be my next challenge - breathing and in and out for a year? But the challenge, for me, was like the lighting of a blue touch-paper for a much bigger change and what it sparked off was something that has been bugging me for a long time, but never really got around to consciously making any real effort to alter:

1. I spend too much money - not as much as some, and certainly I'm not one of the last big spenders, but still, in reality it is more than I need to spend; I justify and rationalise my spending, but push come to shove most of it is basic lust and greed and soul-destroying Want.

2. This happens mainly because I like to use retail as therapy and also because I am like a child in a sweetshop (nearly wrote sweatshop but will get onto that later) and have zero compunction to delay any gratification. This is OK if I didn't succumb to Want and only bought on Need.

3. This has to stop - a) my finances, like the USS Enterprise cannae take it captain, I cannot change the laws of physics and by ignoring basic facts, like if outcome exceeds income, I will remain a pauper. b) More than that, beyond simply saving money each one of my acts as a consumer has a ripple effect into the wider world; no action happens in a vacuum - cause and effect still operate and every word and deed has consequences. I cannot simply justify consumer choices based on price. If something is cheap you have to ask yourself 'why is this cheap - who bears the brunt of the real cost - the consumer or the worker', and if you buy clothes, food, furniture, sports equipment for a small price you can be pretty sure it is subsidised at some point in the process, and usually because someone, somewhere in the world, is paid a pittance and lives in conditions that you wouldn't allow your pet to live in. Any person who buys something cheap outside a Fair Trade company is complicit in another person's slavery.

4. I don't want to cause suffering. My spending habits cause, or maintain, or uphold the continuance of slavery and suffering. By committing to only buying secondhand I am stepping out of that cycle - my money will not go into that vicious cycle.

5. Another reason why buying new is BAD is the carbon footprint it leaves - products made in countries with no environmental laws, carted halfway round the world so they can sit in the back of a cupboard and then thrown out - by buying secondhand not only am I buying local  I am also therefore a) reducing the transportation and carbon footprint of goods b) reducing the amount of stuff that goes to landfill.

6. This got me thinking about food (naturally). I am always careful about avoiding buying food from halfway around the world simply to try to save our atmosphere from unnecessary pollution, but also to instill a sense of season in our household - I do not buy out of season fruit and vegetables. But I am not so conscious about buying locally grown; I am not so conscious about supporting Multinational Supermarket conglomerations and their systematic subjugation of the producers of food. I put my convenience before these evident concerns.

7. As I have taken up the challenge of a 365 for secondhand and handmade I decided to also extend this, for as much as possible, into our food buying. Here in the UK there is not a system like CSA, but there are independent organic producers of food who deliver for free, and although they are a bit more expensive than supermarkets it is simply because they are paid the right wage. So this year I will also commit to buying as much of our food from a local farmer as possible, as well as getting to grips with growing our own!

8. Tif has allowed exceptions to this challenge, and my exceptions to this challenge are a) hygiene - anything needed for hygiene can be bought new from Kathmandu - sorry but that is the line I draw - but effort for local goods will be made, and b) home-school resources - again, secondhand and local being the aim, but anything new if necessary.

So there you have it.  A challenge, and hopefully a new way of conscious consuming. Insha'allah I will be posting about this challenge from time to time, but if you think you'd like to join the train, hop on! Go and tell Tif, and you too can be a 'challenger of the Utmost Kind'.