Rerum Novarum
Mar. 24th, 2006 01:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ltmurnau(Of New Things)
I saw some kind of goshwow mention the other day on some media outlet - tells you how much attention I was paying - about some people in California who had taken a vow of "nothing new" for the year: they would buy nothing new except food, gas, underwear and other fungibles and get everything else they needed at thrift stores, barter, recycling and so forth. It made me think about how much of my life has been like that, for the last 12 years and more.
I really can't remember the last article of external clothing I bought new - I think it was a suit jacket, about 10 years ago. Otherwise, everything I wear either comes from a thrift store or was a gift from a family member.
Sometimes I will buy a new book or CD, but generally only if it is on sale or on a remainder table. Otherwise, used book and music stores give me more than enough to look through. I don't think I have ever bought new computer software, except what came with a new computer (I have bought one new computer in my life, a Mac Performa 580CD in 1996 - paid full price, can be bought for 1% of that in a thrift store now). Sometimes I will buy new DVDs, but generally they are of older movies and are cheaper than the normal run of DVDs anyway.
And there's my chipper (http://ltmurnau.livejournal.com/102284.html), though even that was half-price on clearance, and sometimes I will buy replacement tools or rope. But I spent Sunday afternoon and evening filing a bar of aluminum rod down by hand to fit the hole in a replacement wheelbarrow wheel I had bought, because the old axle was too big.
I have a good job and a good wage, and I suppose I don't really have to live this way. But I like being frugal, and making do, and I didn't bother to tell the newspapers about it.
I saw some kind of goshwow mention the other day on some media outlet - tells you how much attention I was paying - about some people in California who had taken a vow of "nothing new" for the year: they would buy nothing new except food, gas, underwear and other fungibles and get everything else they needed at thrift stores, barter, recycling and so forth. It made me think about how much of my life has been like that, for the last 12 years and more.
I really can't remember the last article of external clothing I bought new - I think it was a suit jacket, about 10 years ago. Otherwise, everything I wear either comes from a thrift store or was a gift from a family member.
Sometimes I will buy a new book or CD, but generally only if it is on sale or on a remainder table. Otherwise, used book and music stores give me more than enough to look through. I don't think I have ever bought new computer software, except what came with a new computer (I have bought one new computer in my life, a Mac Performa 580CD in 1996 - paid full price, can be bought for 1% of that in a thrift store now). Sometimes I will buy new DVDs, but generally they are of older movies and are cheaper than the normal run of DVDs anyway.
And there's my chipper (http://ltmurnau.livejournal.com/102284.html), though even that was half-price on clearance, and sometimes I will buy replacement tools or rope. But I spent Sunday afternoon and evening filing a bar of aluminum rod down by hand to fit the hole in a replacement wheelbarrow wheel I had bought, because the old axle was too big.
I have a good job and a good wage, and I suppose I don't really have to live this way. But I like being frugal, and making do, and I didn't bother to tell the newspapers about it.
