Day 296 of our Green Year: No Impulse Purchases

Months ago, we pledged to limit our purchases by having the purchase questions. As well, we have chosen to reduce our possessions.
Well, we are going to go further and completely cut out our impulse purchases. We do not purchase much on an impulse, very rarely in fact, but never is much better than rarely. we want to have no impulse purchases and that means we are going to use these tips to get rid of our impulse purchases. Impulse purchases can be anything from a fair-trade and organic chocolate bar at the organic store, to buying a DVD.

• Determine whether or not you need the item, or just want the item. If you want it, then you don't need it and you can ignore the urge to buy it.
• Stick to your shopping list and stick to your budget, do not deviate from them at all.
• If there is a new piece of electronics out, don't buy it. Typically new electronics are rushed to the market before they are ready so that the company can profit off of the hype for the product. Unless you want a bunch of bugs in your electronics, wait until later when the price is down and the kinks are worked out.
• Forget about fads, fashion trends and anything else like that. You may think you want something that everyone else has, but 20 years down the road when you are looking at a picture of yourself, you may not think you made the right decision. Fads are completely useless trends that you should ignore.
• If you do an impulse buy, find out if the product is green and what effect its ingredients or processes have on the environment. If you do this, you will probably not want to buy the product.

Day 96 of our Green Year: Reducing Possessions

It is a well-known fact that as a species, we love possessions. We love to horde them, we love to hang onto them and we love to show others that we have them. However, our consumerism culture has actually created the environmental problems that we now face.

Our desire to own two or three cars, a large McMansion and more electronics than someone would ever need have raised the energy demands of the world, and pumped untold amounts of chemicals and pollution into our world. Our consumerism, could very well be our undoing.

As a result, Layla and I have decided that we will be reducing what we buy and only buying what we need will help reduce our carbon footprint. Do we need an iPod? No not really, we can just as easily listen to music on our computers. Do we need a new car? No not really, we can just as easily use our old one, or walk.

Before we make any purchase, we are going to ask "Is this good for us and the environment?"
This will help us keep our possessions low, because while we put a hold on what we buy, we will also be reducing what we have. Layla and I will be donating much of what we own to reduce our possessions, while also listing many products on FreeCycle.
We are hoping to do what many people around North America are doing, and that is living with 100 or fewer items (10 forks count as 10 items by the way). This will help make moving easier of course, but it will help us live a bit better with Mother Nature.