Wouldn’t Want Week #1 to be TOO Good

Point total: 10 (1 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze)

Recap

Week 1 was 100% NNY, but it wasn’t exactly a beautiful rebirth as a minimalist household like I’ve sometimes imagined. It was a normal week. If anything, we bought MORE than usual because Jonathan & the kids realized that the used book store is a green light! So four new (old) books.

Also: two eBay purchases. The first was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory book in Spanish for Jonathan, who is quickly narrowing the gap between his Spanish ability & mine (it’s just not fair that he studies Spanish all the time while I’m reading the google entertainment newsfeed). ANYWAY,  Spanish language novels are hard to find through the library (García Márquez is not quite his thing). 

The second eBay purchase was a dress for little sis that matches a 2nd hand one that big sis already has (we are suckers for matching dresses). Everybody happy, money saved, earth hopefully helped at least a little (compared to ordering both new).  

Our gold moment wasn’t dramatic.  We travel a lot, and we always use a Peapod for the baby (who is 1.5). Right before the trip, we found a little hole in the mesh (insert crying emoji). Damaged baby sleeping gear is one of those places we won’t go. Then we remembered we still have a travel-sized Pack n Play.  It’s nowhere near as convenient, but it’s FINE. #contentedness

Lastly, a NNY kid update: our son got an Amazon card for his birthday.  In our past life (last week) as prime members, everything would have been great! I expected a tantrum when I reminded him of our family goal, but then we remembered: Amazon used books. He’s happy with that, though We’re starting to feel like the endless online used options undermine the point of NNY. We’ll go a few more weeks using these rules, and if it doesn’t seem like we are getting desired result, we can make changes. Arriba y adelante!

The Rules + Keeping Score

Nothing new for a year. Here are the exceptions:

-Food

-Consumable housekeeping items (soap, toilet paper, laundry soap, etc)

-Underwear*, socks*, shoes**  

-School-required supplies

-Do-or-die home/car repair items

-Art supplies, Christmas gift-making supplies***

We can buy second-hand, although in an eBay world, NNY could quickly lose any meaning. For the sake of encouraging us to be content with what we have, we will add up weekly/monthly points (with the goal of the least points)

**Update** we ditched the points a long time ago. Just didn't care enough. 

GOLD (-5 points): when we fill an emergent need without buying anything (use what we have/repair something/make something) 

SILVER (1 point): fill a need**** using a yardsale/craigslist/a second hand store

BRONZE (5 points): fill a need using eBay

COAL (50 points): buying a new item from a store or online

We'll calculate points based on the number of items.

 *I think we have a year's supply of underwear and socks, and we can earn a gold by fixing a hole, but we won't get too crazy with this

**a few months ago I read through a bunch of other NNYers exception lists, and many of them had shoes, but we already buy second hand shoes when the mood strikes (don't tell our podiatrist) (we don't have one). I DO worry about good sports shoes, and sometimes a good newish pair of every day shoes doesn't pop up from a second-hand source.

***this is a big loophole, but we're talking markers, paint, crayons, paper--stuff that gets used up quickly around here. We are going to help the kids plan & make some Christmas gifts, so there's that.

****Hopefully analyzing each purchase will help us focus on "needs". The kids are on board with NNY to an extent, but the ones who are old enough to understand the ramifications have already thought about where they can buy used-but-intact lego sets. Clearly not "needs", but we want them on board, so if they use their own money to buy used toys, we will just add up the points and carry on. 

Why Again?

For a few days right before Christmas last year, we had a stack of Amazon Prime boxes that reached from the floor to the ceiling in our entryway. The thing is, we were already trying for a "simple Christmas"--a gift to read, a gift to wear, a gift to play with. But when you multiply that by 5 kids and add gifts from friends/relatives, adult gifts, and stockings from Santa (that old spendthrift), it was a truly striking pile of materialism.

Looking at those boxes, I told Jonathan that we should do that "buy nothing new for a year" thing, you know, like we used to read about people doing in 2012 (we're always late to the bandwagon). I was ready to start RIGHT THEN but Jonathan pointed out in his practical way that it wasn't quite the time for it--we were getting ready to sell our house, then move, then set up a small rental house in a way that would be comfortable for a family of 7, and maybe we couldn't do all that while limiting ourselves to chance finds at the Salvation Army.

But we're here now! Pretty much settled in. No excuses left. 

Above & beyond holiday overload, we hope a "nothing new year" will give our family the chance develop character attributes we want for ourselves and our kids. This fine venn diagram breaks it down:

NNY for the Earth
-We want our lifestyle to fit with how we feel about the planet. NNY will help cut consumption
-Having less stuff means we can live comfortably in a small house (7 bodies/1300 sq ft)

NNY for Our Minds/Spirits
-Less focus on things, more focus on experiences
-"making do" or repairing what we have builds attributes we want, like patience, resourcefulness, contentedness, creativity
-Less time online shopping = more time doing better things

NNY for Our Pocketbook (actually we don't own any pocketbooks, but I was just reading some historical fiction and it just slipped into the diagram)
-obviously, not buying things = more money saved (though we will still spend on activities)
-though our rules allow buying used, our point system encourages not buying

Day 1!

It's almost 9AM on day one of the "Nothing New Year" and so far: complete success! Actually I'm embarrassed to admit that there's already something I wish I bought yesterday (a black tank for under this one shirt...but...maybe next year?)

Yesterday we had a mini-buying frenzy, but nothing too crazy. "Supplies required by school" is a NNY exception, we needed to replenish our lunch-packing supply (with Juju in kindergarten, 3 lunches going out this year). Scott has always been anti-EasyLunchbox so I compromised by springing for a lunchbox to go OVER the EasyLunchbox so now he won't have to do the tough job of carrying his water bottle in his hand  But hey! From here on out, no free (new) lunch (boxes).

Last week we went to an amusement park and I climbed into a roller coaster seat next to the boys and the guy walked by and snapped the big padded collar thing around my neck and I thought--"I don't know if I really want to do this, but there's no going back now." Jonathan is the NNY collar-snapper. It was my idea, but with his iron-clad self discipline and love of noble suffering (it's a mennonite thing?) he was always going to be the NNY star. So after several weeks of me saying "we will start NEXT week!" he finally said, "If we're doing this, let's start TOMORROW." That was a good move on his part, because I never did the kind of REAL buying frenzy that would have happened if I had planned it. So the roller coaster is on the move!