linda may

In 2004, writer Judith Levine also went a year without shopping. She and her husband Paul were much stricter than we have been: no spending on movies, music, theater, restaurants, and no “Pre-Approved Purchases” list. They allowed themselves expensive French Roast coffee and wine, but no packaged or processed foods. They live in New York City, where opportunities to shop and spend are even more omnipresent than Portland, but they also spent half the year in Vermont. And it seems clear that the more time they spend in rural Vermont, the fewer the shopping temptations. I read her book, Not Buying It, for the first time in 2006 (I was also living in New York at the time) so clearly I was interested in such a project even then. Levine journals about her experiences and manages not to seem like she is white-knuckling it all – but is drawn into reflection about the economic causes and effects of capitalism (AKA consumerism) alongside her individual behaviors as a consumer.

I can relate to Levine: she listens to NPR, she loves the arts, she wears Athleta, she waxes poetic about libraries. Yet I have the same feeling now that I had then – the book is wonderfully researched and written (a page-turner even) but I feel more heavy than inspired. I see someone from my parents’ generation grappling with the same consumer challenges 20 years ago, and if anything, things have become worse with the explosion of online retail. If I focus too much on the systemic causes she describes I get a bit overwhelmed. I recognize that capitalism has set us up to value convenience and comfort over community and the natural world. The knowledge that I’m not alone, that I’m not morally bad, that my shopping habits developed in context is helpful, and keeps me from shame spiraling about my spending. But I want to focus on what I know is within my control, and what will keep my momentum going, one day at a time.

January 29: Worked from home. Didn’t go out for coffee! Packed tomorrow’s lunch.

January 30: Packed my lunch. Drank Work Coffee. Nate gets a $51 haircut which we budgeted for, and after months of being shaggy – it looks great.

January 31: Reviewed my spending for the month for our family of four. In my original post, I estimated that if I made a habit of packing my lunch, minimized our coffee spending, and only ate two meals out per month, we could save at least $200. Much to my embarrassment, in 2022 and 2023, our family’s total food spending averaged just over $2,100 per month. In January 2024, we spent $1,343. That includes groceries, coffee drinks, beer & wine, food carts/restaurants and all meals out. In December 2023 we spent $1,670 on food – so we saved over $325 from the previous month, and more than $700 over our 2022-23 average. I feel so relieved and surprised that what we have been doing is starting to work, and my sense of optimism is a little bit restored.

February 1 & 2: Packed my lunch. Drank Work Coffee.

February 3: Phone call with Kenya. I get a little sidetracked talking with her about the new documentary The Greatest Night in Pop, on the making of “We Are the World.” I was obsessed with this song as a sixth grader, and this film reawakens this obsession. I’m pretty sure I taped this song off the radio and listened to it over and over, constantly hitting rewind on my tape deck. I remember taking pride in being able to identify each singer of every line by voice – Lionel Richie, Daryl Hall, Dionne Warwick – despite not having MTV in 1985. Watching the footage of the recording, I am my 11-year old self again, adoring Steve Perry, chuckling at Cyndi Lauper and being in awe of Stevie Wonder. I think how incredible the feeling of being in community with 50 people who all love to do the thing you love to do – and are really, really good at it – must have been in that studio. Nate asks me to stop singing the song at least twice.

Kenya talks about how it is hard for her to cook simply – she wants to make a fancier version of everything – and this often results in buying extra ingredients. She gets anxious when she uses up her ingredients, and her re-stocking habit has culminated in the best-stocked pantry in the Pacific Northwest. She had a very expensive furnace repair come up this month so reduced spending was a necessity. I share my food budget victory, but the uneasy feeling that, should my furnace need repair, I would still have to put the expense on a credit card lingers after we hang up. Packing lunches, meal planning and not eating out for a month is one thing, but real financial security is a long game. We talk about focusing on increasing our income for our next call.

February 4: We are out of nail polish remover, which my daughter and I need to do manicures. We walk to Walgreen’s in the breezy February sunshine. She talks me into a bag of sour cream & onion potato chips. I grab some Earl Grey tea. It takes forever to find the polish remover, hidden way above eye level on an “end-cap.” Meanwhile we pass rows and rows of Cerave and LaRoche-Posay skin care products on sale that would ordinarily have me filling my basket, but we finally check out with our 3 items for $11.57.

Nate comes home from Target with a massage gun. “I had a gift card!” He defends, though I didn’t actually object. It was not on the pre-approved list, but he has been talking about wanting one for months, so it probably should have been. Though we are in this no-spend thing together, I am definitely the one in our marriage who buys more stuff, so I’m working on keeping myself focused, and not trying to control everyone else’s spending. So the week ends feeling good. And I’m not just saying that because I got my shoulder knots worked out.