We’re six full days into the first month of our No Buy Year and so far things are going great. We haven’t bought anything at a store, we haven’t visited any thrift stores, and we haven’t purchased anything from Amazon. That last one has been the hardest for me. Due to purchases made in 2024, we still had a few packages arrive after the New Year. The number has trickled down to zero. I’m pretty sure our neighborhood Amazon delivery drivers think we’re dead. And of course we’re still spending money. We’ve already been to Walgreens twice to pick up… (read more)

Susan and I have agreed not to buy anything in 2025. There are so many exceptions and asterisks to our agreement that you could drive a truck through them and by the time you reach the end of this post you may wonder what we actually agreed to stop spending money on. It all started a few years ago when a high school classmate of ours, Scott Dannemiller, wrote a book titled The Year without a Purchase: One Family’s Quest to Stop Shopping and Start Connecting. In honor of my friend’s achievement of not buying anything for an entire year,… (read more)