It’s been a hard winter over here. My husband hurt himself and the recovery was slow, and then Kai caught pneumonia and was scary sick for a longer time than we would’ve wished. Everyone is finally back up and moving, and so I’m working on my New Year’s Resolution: blog more!

From January 15th to June 15th, we’ll be doing the Buy Nothing (New) Challenge. Between a huge pile of medical bills coming our way and generally wanting to increase our savings and pay off our student loans, we’ve been taking a good hard look at our lifestyle and are ready to make a change. So we are going five months without buying any new consumer goods. We’ll be using up, fixing up, and making do.

The Rules:

• If it’s new, whether it comes from a Big Box store or WAHM or anywhere else, it’s off limits.
• Thrift stores and Goodwill are a-ok.
• Local Buy/Sell/Trade and Buy Nothing groups are ok.
• Non-local Buy/Sell/Trade groups are off limits.

The Exceptions:

• Consumable goods
• • Food, limiting eating out and focusing on cooking.
  • Toilet paper and other hygiene products, favoring reusable products wherever possible.
  • Gasoline.
• Kai
• • If she ends up growing out of her shoes, I will buy her new shoes.
  • Swimsuit.
• Homeschool
• • I know we’ll have to buy more printer ink at some point soon.
• Gifts
• • I have two baby showers to go to during this period, both for moms who want to try cloth diapering. As you guys know, I am a huge proponent of cloth diapering, and will be buying both new diapers.
  • Birthday present for my dad. (Surprise: It’ll be a book. It’s always a book.)
• Maintenance and Repair
• • Car repair
  • • There’s always something.
  • Home repair
  • • I know we’re going to have to replace the weather stripping on our back door.
• Bartering
• • If I don’t have to use cash to acquire the object, then it’s okay, even if its new.
• Already ordered:
• • We have one outstanding order that still requires some payment, and we’ll be doing that.

The Consequences:

• If we buy something that breaks the rule, the offending item will be posted on Instagram, for all of you to shame me/encourage me to do better as you so choose.

In June, we will look back at our journey and see if we want to try for another five months. I plan to update on the blog once a month, and probably more often on Instagram #buynothing5. Wish us luck!