Buy Nothing Day: Staying True to My Cheap College Creed

Maybe I can learn from my tight on money lifestyle. Maybe I will keep these habits for the rest of my life even if my pockets grow. I did not realize realized how much consumption pressure is put on us every day of our lives. When money is tight, and you don’t own a credit card (maybe it’s a good thing!) it’s a lot easier to say “well no…I don’t really need that.” The principles I have adopted aren’t just used when I am thinking about making a purchase, the creed is applied to several daily activities. When money is tight I force myself to reuse and I force myself to reduce. I recently read a book by Bill McKibben about genetic engineering, robotics, and nanotechnology that surprisingly connected to my creed. I found many parallels with consumer driven capitalist nation and the idea about technological progress in this quote…

Since the mid 1950’s pollsters have annually asked Americans if they are happy with their lives. The numbers who say yes have declined slowly but steadily for four decades, even as technology has dropped more and more conveniences from the sky. The researchers have found that people expect material progress to increase and also expect “inner happiness” or “piece of mind” to decrease. The results of such surveys indicate that in fact a substantial majority of people believe there is a negative correlation between progress and happiness (McKibben 121-122).

We are constantly being told what we need to buy not only so we become happy and cool but so we can survive in society. Cell phones for example are now considered a must have and if you don’t have on you can’t participate in society. Well I don’t own a cell phone; does that make me a Luddite? Not everyone owned a cell phone 10years ago and everything seemed to work out back then. I just hate how we have become conditioned to believe that we need something. I can have fun and be happy without spending; spending more money does not increase my happiness or my piece of mind. I have realized that, although corny, it is correct; the things most important in life money can’t buy. This statement is so common but yet humans still seem to be focusing on material power. “Must we forever grow in reach and power? Or can we, should we, every say, “Enough”? (McKibben xiii)” Being tight on cash has forced me to have many Buy Nothing days…and be totally ok with it because…I will survive!

I hope genetics has a lot more to do with this than I originally thought. My 88 year old grandfather is a role model for spending his money wisely and limited. My grandpa saves and reuses everything and would never ever throw something broken out before fixing it. I hope to keep my college creed and learn from my grandfather and have many “Buy Nothing Days” for the rest of my life.

Sources

McKibben, Bill. Enough:Staying Human in an Engineered Age. New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 2003.