'No new stuff' - bargain hunter goes cold turkey!

So, I have completed week one of my 'buy no new stuff' for a year challenge. The most important thing that I have to report is that... I bought no new stuff! Yay! If you missed the last post you can read about my challenge in my last blog.

I've had a fun week thinking through some of my observations that even one weeks worth of not buying new stuff has thrown up. My first observation happened early on New Years Day....

I'd rather be playing trains

There I was feeling perfectly contented, and even slightly more than that because I had managed to rise early, which always pleases me, when the familiar ping came to my ears of an email plumply landing in my inbox...of course, I check immediately, it could be important (because I probably receive about one email a year that requires immediate attention, and I wouldn't want to miss it, perhaps it has decided to arrive early this year, it being the first day and all that...). It was from my favourite online shop, reminding me of their wonderful online sale, reminding me that some things have 90% off, oooo. I quickly delete it. Be gone temptation. Because there, in to my hand arrived the temptation. To buy stuff, acquire stuff that I don't need. For eyes to feast and suddenly, what I hadn't even considered was now on my mind and there was a lack in my life, because I didn't have what my eyes had feasted on. I deleted the email and went to play trains. With my Youngest Poppet, I should add. Me 1 - Stuff 0.

The temptation is everywhere. Television, internet, magazines, billlboards, it is hard to escape it. It is everywhere because it works. There is only one reason companies pay huge amounts of money advertising their stuff, because we buy it. We buy the many lies they imply and buy the stuff. Job done.

I live on a Hight Road, and walk past shops four times a day most days doing the school run. If I'm honest, most of the time new stuff doesn't really phase me, but I am a bit of a bargain hunter. I just love a bargain. My most tempted moment this week was walking past a shop and noticing some quite nice looking things on their 90% off stand. Normally I would have dashed in immediately but I managed to walk past in a slightly pained sort of way. I looked the other way, to avoid the temptation, only to be greeted by more 'sale' signs on the other side of the road, even the passing buses and lorries were trying to entice me. Perhaps I should look at the pavement, but its grey and largely dull. The sky offers more promise, it is after all part of God's handiwork (even if it has also been grey and largely dull this week!), it speaks of better things, the awesomeness of creation, the glory of God. But if I gaze too long at the sky while walking along, I'll soon bump into a bench or a tree, a lamp post, or a person. H'mm, let me take notice of the peoples ( as my Youngest Poppet would say). Let me stuff the stuff and take notice of the peoples. Because God has made us to be in relationship with people, not stuff. Somehow we have made stuff such a big deal, in all sorts of ways, and so often, on so many levels it is at the expense of the people. People I may never meet, and people I know intimately; perhaps even at the expense of spending precious time with the precious little person whose hand I hold as I wander down the street.

I am so excited about what this year of buying no new stuff holds, I feel its deep layers beginning to unfold already. But my first task is easy and not at all deep... delete the emails.

Thank you for reading. Please do share this post if you would like to!