Day 221 of our Green Year: Buy Nothing Day

Today's blog is a pretty easy one, and it is one that everyone should do, especially considering yesterday was Black Friday. For those who do not know, Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year in the United States, and it has reached insane proportions. Just yesterday, one man had a heart attack as people trampled over him. He died, but people kept shopping.

Today, is Buy Nothing Day. It is a day when people around the world are urged to buy nothing in response to yesterday, which could be called "Buy Everything Day". For our 221st day of Our Green Year, we are going along with Buy Nothing Day and helping to raise awareness about it.

Buy Nothing Day is actually pretty easy to do because roughly six out of the seven days of our week are Buy Nothing Days. The only time we really buy anything is Monday, when we do our weekly grocery shop. If you take out food since we need it, then nearly every day of Our Green Year is filled with Buy Nothing Days.

Buy Nothing Day is very important and it is an important message to show people that even if there are big deals and rock bottom prices available, there is no reason you have to go shop. I watched a news report last night where a woman said she had to go out today to buy presents for her kids. I understand where she is coming from, and that is her choice. However, I could not help but think that rather than push the belief that consumerism is acceptable even in tough economic times, it would have been better to buy the kids a small present each (plus something from Santa each) and explain to them why times are tough. The "Business as Usual" philosophy is one that has been tried, and it fails. Instead of making the day after Thanksgiving the day to buy things you may not need, but think you do, why not make it a day to be thankful for what you already have.