My friend and I have determined to go on a six month Buying Fast. Well, not a fast exactly, more like a Buying Diet. That is, we have determined that for the next six months, from July 1 to December 31, we will endeavor not to buy anything new. Through the lazy summer months when travel and browsing are national pasttimes, through the Jewish and national holidays, through anniversaries and birthdays and, yes, Hanukkah, we are seeking not to buy anything new.

This is not as radical as it sounds. There are others who have made pledges to abide by a full purchasing fast; or a no-waste lifestyle; while too many others have had financial stringencies imposed upon them. For us, this is a matter of choice, not absolute necessity. And yet…

We are undertaking this fast for four reasons:

1) as a spiritual discipline - a heshbon hanefesh (an assessment of the spirit): we hope this exercise will better reveal to us the nature of our consumer spirit, how and why we buy, what roles necessity, luxury, boredom, habit, temptation, impulse, and accident play in our purchasing patterns;

2) as financial assistance - neither of us has steady income at the moment, which, while not a matter of immediate stress is also not a matter of rejoicing. Keeping down the number of our purchases, as well as the costs, will aid our family finances.

3) to reduce our waste stream - In December 2008, Baltimore County published a ten-year waste management master plan. In there, they talk about the future of our landfills and the projected creation of per person waste. Our landfills are almost full. Finding new space is increasingly difficult and paying for their processing and maintenance is increasingly expensive. We don’t want more of our tax dollars in the public sector, or more of our membership and consumer dollars in the private sector going to pay the trash man. Yet, from 1998-2006, while the county’s population grew at the rate of 7.2%, residential trash increased by 15.3%. Even more alarming, in that same period, our recycling (both paper and bottles/cans decreased by 15% and 11% respectively. Projections include “the continuation of a slight upward trend in per capita residential generation (about 10 more pounds per person, per year, over the 2006 baseline of 1,022 pounds per person, per year) and no change in per capita commercial generation above the estimated 2006 baseline of 890 pounds per person, per year.”

We are not doing a good job in reducing waste. This is a small effort to assist reducing landfill needs, and to begin a trend in what is quickly becoming a 21st century imperative: creating greater efficiencies in reclaiming resources already in circulation.

4) presaging a new era - The market for sustainable development is beginning to teach us the difference between services and product. That is, today, if we want carpeting to soften the sounds and our footfalls at home, we buy carpeting. We own that carpet and are responsible for its upkeep, cleanliness and repair (for better or worse) and at the end of its life, we throw it away. Generally, then, the carpet is most often tossed in the landfill when either we vacate the home or choose to replace it.

But what if the carpet’s manufacturer was responsible for all that? What if they serviced the carpet, cleaned it and repaired it and reclaimed and recycled it at the end of its usable life? And what if we did the same for water-heaters, air conditioners, cars, refrigerators, all manner of objects that are currently discarded and instead reclaimed and recycled them as resources for next-generation use? If the manufacturers were responsible for such reclamation, wouldn’t they design them for reuse and recycling to ease their work?

Our new-purchases fast places us - symbolically if not actually - in this emerging stream of consumption.

On the whole, I imagine the hardest part of the fast will not be my inability to buy clothes (I work from home and do not need a hefty wardrobe. If you know me, you have probably already seen the bulk of my daily clothes. Many times. Besides, I have always thought that fewer clothes means fewer choices in the morning and therefore an easier launch into the day!)

Or shoes. (I rarely buy shoes for shoes are hardy things and generally last many years. Plus, my friend and I agreed that if we need shoes, we will allow ourselves to buy them new. Health, or at least the aesthetics of health, is being accommodated for here. Of course, we all wear pre-worn bowling shoes and live to tell the tale, so there is really no reason we cannot safely buy used shoes. But this is one of those things that may have been a deal-breaker. So we conceded.)

I imagine the hardest part will be gifts. Not receiving them - giving them. Hopefully anyone so moved to want to give me a gift (though both my anniversary and birthday have passed this year!) will know that I am on a new-purchases fast. (No cheating by having family or friends buy for us what we cannot buy for ourselves!) But how to give without buying new? Gifting from consignment shops is not always well-received. I suppose we can buy “antiques” as gifts, for that bears the air of elegance. But I am hoping that we learn better how to pursue the growing trend of giving donations as gifts, and how to give a gift of our own making. Things we sew, sculpt, paint, write, compose and otherwise intentionally and lovingly create are almost always warmly, profoundly received. Maybe this fast will both resurface latent talents in us, and produce gifts that while become heirlooms, or at least the narrative of future family stories.

The Buying Fast Rules (so far):

1) No new purchases between July 1 and December 31, to the best of our ability.
2) Any new purchases must be registered in a new purchasing log and disclosed at the end of every month.
3) At the end of the six months, on either January 1 or 2, a complete review of new purchases will be made.
4) Gift-receiving cannot be used to circumvent this fast. All new gifts must be registered.
5) Spouses and other significant ones cannot be surrogate purchasers. Ie, anything new that is of equal or more benefit to one of us must also be registered as a new purchase.
6) Necessary consumables (food, medicines) are not included in this fast.

(For more information about the county’s ten year waste management plan or to see the county’s resources for where to give away still-usable things you don’t want to throw away, go to
http://www.baltimorecountymd.gov/Agencies/publicworks/recycling/index.html)