The one year long experiment of Not Buying Things (NBT) has come to an end. Did my best to stick to the rules, but to be frank, I had two exceptions:
- I just didn’t have enough clothes for work. I lost too much weight before starting NBT (~22kgs) and none of my clothes fit me. So I made a compromise, for every piece of clothing I purchased, I had to give away at least twice that number. So I did buy a few shirts, shorts and a pair of shoes while in Thailand. In return I got rid of 2 pairs of shoes and several shirts, shorts and pants. This was a one time shopping event.
- I broke all of my laptops last year, so I let work buy me a MacBook Air. I really wanted to stick it out, but in December I just couldn’t work anymore, so I accepted this. I could have probably waited, but for me my computer is my main tool that I use everyday for my career. Not just for typing an email or posting a blog, but for programming and developing products. It is fundamental for my daily life and I need a good tool to be able to accomplish anything of value.
What did I learn?
- Clothes really do wear out. Socks get holes and shoes get scuffed. There is only so much you can do with repair. At the end of the year, things start to look rough.
- You can loose several pairs of sunglasses in a short amount of time and have no sunglasses.
- I wasted a lot of money on buying things I didn’t need.
- I solved problems with more ingenuity versus money. I had to fix more things using household items. I had to reduce and reuse.
- I became less focused on making money since I wasn’t spending money.
- You have to spend money to look nice for work.
- I wasn’t any less happy.
