Could you not buy a new item for one year?

[Matt Timion]

This group of ten people did.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070103/ap_on_re_us/shopping_sabbatical

Makes me kind of want to give it a shot.

[omgwtfbyobbq]

I don't think we need to go hog wild. Consumables, as well as some items like tools are nice with warranties. Everything else is way cheaper used... I've bought some tools, and two CDs new this year. Everything else has been used.

[LxMike]

I joined the group and i'm waiting on the approval e-mail. gonna see what the exceptions are.

[ELF]

Could you not buy a new item for one year?

Thats easy when you don't have much money ;)

[Silveredwings]

I already do that to a fault, but not to an obsession. I buy very few new things if there's a way to make the old one work. Failing that, I try to get things used. I repair and nurse things along well beyond anyone I know. I also pass things onto others that are still servicible but no longer of interest to me.

I didn't think of joining a group just to keep on doing that, but I'm glad there are more venues out there for trading things among like minded skin flints. :D

[kickflipjr]

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thecompact/

I joined the group 2 weeks ago mainly to learn more. I would say see if you can go for a month then try doing it for a year.

Thats easy when you don't have much money

I already buy WAY less then the average person american. But I make WAY less then the average american. haha.

[onegammyleg]

I already have my own ways of recycling.

http://www.jonnyboulton.co.uk/images/photos/IMG_2625_medium.JPG

[The Toecutter]

Funny that the article mentions dumpster diving, train hopping, and sleeping in abandoned buildings, given that I've done them.

[onegammyleg]

I got my big screen tv out of a dumpster, brought it home and the power supply was broken , so I put it in storage.
About a month later I found another similar model with a blown out tuner section, so i swapped parts.
Now I have a free big tv that works perfectly. :D

PS , and now I have a dumpster pc (that just needed a hard drive) that I now use for a server.

[The Toecutter]

Lots of office buildings throwing out perfectly good computers. It makes me angry, especially since often times, the dumpsters are padlocked to keep people from digging the contents out and saving them from the landfill!

[CO ZX2]

Could you not buy a new item for one year?

I could. But would I. There are two in this household. If I did, I would probably be doing it alone.

I am like others here. Used items when possible. Make do with what I have as much as I can. Scrouge.

[repete86]

I already have my own ways of recycling.

http://www.jonnyboulton.co.uk/images/photos/IMG_2625_medium.JPG


I certainly hope that you aren't insulting dumpster diving! Freegan food is the best kind. It's hard to believe what a supermarket or gas station will throw away. 7-11 throws away all of their sandwiches every morning, which means that you could eat fresh 7-11 sandwiches every day of the week for free if you wanted to. Behind a Publix yesterday I found a bag of fresh apples. They were throws away because they had bruises on them. A few days ago we got a full pizza that was still hot out of a Papa John's because it was the wrong order. I just spend the weekend with a bunch of eco-anarchists out in the woods, so pretty much everything we ate was dumpstered. It's a great way to cut down on waste and save money at the same time.

[The Toecutter]

My friends and I took over $400 worth of dumpstered food during a power outage in November. It was freezing cold out, and due to the electricity being out, all the frozen food in the grocery store we squatted out was piled neatly into boxes and thrown outside so that it wouldn't thaw in the grocery store. The food was later placed into a dumpster. The outside temperature of about 20 degrees acted like a freezer, and the food was completely fresh. Ice cream, cakes, frozen dinners, everything was still good.