The Compact

Earlier this spring, some friends convinced us to join them on a year-long project to live by the 'San Francisco Compact'. This title refers to a movement started in the Bay Area of California by a group of people who were looking for a way to tread more lightly on the planet. What they did, and what we have done, is to pledge to not buy anything new for a year- except food, health and safety items, and underwear. We can buy anything else our hearts desire, as long as it is second-hand.
When I first heard of this project, I thought that there was no way I wanted to be a part of that. I figured that Jon and I were already very low on the conspicuous consumption continuum and that it wouldn't make a big difference in our spending/buying habits anyway, but would be a headache to be in 'compliance'. But then I ran some errands with my youngest son and while we walked through the aisles of the hardware store I was bombarded with his pleading for this item and that item. He didn't even care what it was, he just WANTED. And this is a kid who has been exposed to less than 10 hours of commercial tv/radio in his five years of life. But apparently he's bought in to the American consumer idealogy that prevails in this culture.
And so we joined up. We decided that we would make a small list of 'other things' that would be ok to buy new, but when we sat down to make up this list, the only thing we could think to put on it was running shoes. We told the kids that they could decide if they wanted to follow the compact with their allowance, or if they wanted to make some new purchases. When Eli found out that he would realize 52x his allowance at the end of the year he enthusiastically jumped in-certainly with visions of what this motherload of cash would be able to purchase next spring. Theo, whose first allowance was handed to him one week into the compact, was more eager to spend. When he got his first allowance he said, "Mom, let's go buy something, let's buy..." and then he looked at me, and I saw him remembering the compact and he finished with "...some food!" So apparently the compact is not going to quell his desire to spend, but it may redirect it.
As for me, I have loved the first 1.5 months. I don't think I have ever done much frivolous shopping, but I do remember some lovely trips to REI with no specific goal in mind. And there are several catalogs that came to my house that I would page through and covet. Really covet. I would go to the websites then and browse and check out the sales. Maybe once or twice a year, I would actually place an order. So actual money spent was fairly low, but time spent was not something I am proud of. Now, the catalogs come and I just toss them into the recyling bag without a glance. And I love it.
We have 10.5 months to go, and who knows what will happen. And there is the incident of the hummingbird feeder that I am not quite ready to fess up to yet. But I do see a change in our habits, our thinking, already. And that is true for the boys too. We're just hardly in stores anymore. And if we are, and Theo starts to beg, I say, "Remember that we're not buying anything..." and he moves on.
I never imagined that living by 'the compact' would actually provide me with a greater sense of freedom. My first reaction was that I would constantly be checking some onerous set of rules and I would feel very restricted, frustrated, and ultimately judged for 'breaking' the compact. That has not happened in the least. Instead I have felt our whole family kind of let out a big sigh, and step back, in fact, step off of the never ending treadmill of consuming that we so unwittingly were running on.
Let it be known that when my older brother found out that we were going to give this a try, he dialed up our mother and asked, "What in the hell is wrong with Gret and Jon now?" She, suspiciously, did not report to me what her answer was.