Happy Nothing New New Year!

Can I buy into #Underconsumptioncore?

I swear I needed these new, adorable shoes. All drawings by me.

I’m always up for a new trend in art supplies, clothing, food, hobbies, and even thinking. If I can get into one of one of the latest trends in that last category, I’ll be saving a bundle of $$$, reducing my stress levels, and even—zounds!—helping the environment.

#Underconsumptioncore is the most recent trend in anti-junk materialism, or avoiding purchases of items designed for a fling and doomed for the trash heap. Previous incarnations of #Underconsumptioncore include Minimalism, an extreme get-rid-of-everything-you-own movement, and Less Is More, which was about getting rid of stuff you don’t use. Let one of the devotees who helped get this positive trend going explain in this segment from PBS News Hour:

This is like the world’s easiest New Year’s resolution: stop buying stuff. And the reasons couldn’t be more obvious. Many of us buy a lot. People go into debt buying stuff they don’t even need. And that stuff ends up in our landfills and other people’s living spaces. Bad karma, friends.

I don’t buy a lot-a lot…but I do sometimes buy stuff I don’t need. Let’s look at what I bought this month:

• Comic books: purchased to support an artist friend, and a few I just wanted—for research, I swear! I mean, I am in comics school, after all…

• A Sequential Artists Workshop t-shirt: it was on sale!!

• Skin care products: purchased because I have skin I care about (but I did already have products I could’ve used up first)

• Birkenstock clogs: because I have feet, ankles, knees, and hips I care about, so this was a “need” that just happens to be super-cute

• Three books for my husband for his holiday gift

• A tiny watercolor palette and tiny sketchbook: purchased because I commute a lot to spend glorious time with my co-conspirator, Mom, and I can’t lug the iPad and a whole travel art kit, no matter how travel-y it is; I needed to go super-small

That’s not a lot compared to people who go shoe crazy or have to use bathrooms and ovens as storage space, but watching that news segment, with all those clothes washing up on distant, formerly pristine shores, made me think. And what I thought was…

Maybe I Don’t Buy Anything New in the New Year.

Whoooooaaaaaa, hold on there. Nothing new at all?? Parameters, people!

What could I not buy new?

• Clothes. I could totally do this, especially since I recently inherited a bunch of awesome jeans from my slimmed-down Mom that fit my now-curvier figure. If I actually needed or just craved something new—or, new-to-me—I could return to thrift couture. thredUP and Poshmark are two of the best places to get gently loved, awesome clothes; I’ve gotten some of my favorite outfits from them. For fancy occasions, I $ave ton$ by renting dresses from Rent The Runway. Stunning clothes for a small fee, and they give you backup sizes freeeeee!)

• Art supplies. Please. It would take me more than a year just to use up what I have now. So many watercolors, so many markers and pens and pencils… I already switched to fountain pens, which use smaller plastic ink cartridges that are less environmentally awful than throwing away whole pens. I currently have around FIFTY DEAD PENS that are not recyclable in my area. (Is there a pen recycling program in your area? Let me know and I’ll send my dead pens to you!) My one exception in this category: If I actually run out of drawing paper, I will buy a new sketchbook. Otherwise, no comics, and no comics, no joy.

• Shoes. Right now, I have all the shoes I need, but I’m putting some wiggle room here because I’ve reached the age where shoes are no longer about vanity, they’re about orthopedic health. Over the past few years, I’ve been phasing out my cute-but-painful shoes and replacing them with comfy shoes in varying degrees of ugliness. If my feet and joints are comfy, I don’t care what the shoes look like.

• Books. OMG, this is the tough one. Not buy new books? You mean, restrict myself to the tremendous pile on my coffee table?? Yikes. Well, for “new” books, there’s always the library. Un-fun factoid: a lot of books end up in landfills because there aren’t that many places to donate them, or that many people who buy second-hand books. I buy used when I can.

What can I buy new?

We’re not going for perfect, and some things must be bought new. These include socks and underwear; tech (like a laptop, if this one gives up the ghost, etc.); food (no dumpster diving, thanks); toiletries (obvs). There are probably others.

What doesn’t count?

Already, the loopholes!! No, I didn’t say I wouldn’t buy anything, just nothing new that will one day end up in a landfill. Examples of exceptions:

• Streaming TV subscriptions. Heck yeah we’re going to enjoy Skeleton Crew on Disney Plus, The Bear on Hulu, and The Dog House UK on Max! All great shows, highly recommended. Ditto movie tickets.

• Gifts that can be used. I’m thinking candles, soap, food items; experiences, like dinner out, tickets to a show… Gifts that won’t one day become garbage.

• Lottery tickets. Because if I win the next billion bucks, I’m going to make a lot of charities VERY happy.

I’m sure there are more in this category that I’ll find out about as I go along.

Wait, am I really doing this??

Can I really not buy anything new for a whole year? Honestly, I don’t know, so how about this: I’ll take it month my month. For the month of January, I’m going to (try to) not buy anything new, according to the parameters set above. * gulp *

I’ll keep you posted on what I buy, what I buy used, and what I buy not at all. And, since it’s always more fun/successful to do this with a friend… Anybody want to join me? You can make your own rules…

Is this crazy? Is this an admirable idea whose time has come? How much do you think I can $ave by doing this? Want in? Tell me!