How to Escape the Culture of Consumerism

With foreclosures at an all time high, Americans are beginning to look at their spending habits with a more critical eye. And it's not just houses we're overspending on...laptops, designer clothing and luxury cars are just the tip of the consumerism iceberg.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Go to your neighborhood bookstore and buy a book on simplifying your life. Read it. This will help to put you in the proper frame of mind. Ultimately, your frame of mind is going to be THE crucial factor in your decision to reduce your consumerist impulses.
2. Make a realistic budget, including all of your monthly expenditures. Don't leave out your daily double latte, either. Think how many things you can cut down on or eliminate from your budget. Keep your reading on simplifying your life at the forefront while you do this
3. Make a list of the things you want to buy in the next six months. Cross off the items that are not absolutely necessary to keep you fed, clothed and moderately comfortable. While doing this, keep in mind advertisers' need to persuade you to buy things that you don't really have to have. That sexy, skinny new laptop is not necessary if your current laptop, dingy though it may seem by comparison, still does the job.
4. This step may be difficult for you, but be brave. Go into your local Goodwill store, buy an article of clothing, take it home and wear it. If your frame of mind is maturing, you will find that you can fit it into your wardrobe with ease. If you picked carefully, your friends and co-workers may give you compliments on your new acquisition. So far, so good. Now go back and buy a book and a kitchen item. Keep returning until you feel comfortable. After, like a good American, you are recycling, so give yourself a major pat on the back!
5. It's Spring, so clean house. Get rid of things you haven't used in the last year (passing them on to Goodwill would be a good idea). Paring down your possessions will give you a feeling of being free, of no longer being in thrall to a bunch of "stuff" that will drown you by the time you're fifty. Remember when you traveled around Europe with all your possessions in a backpack? You can feel that unburdened feeling again. And that skinny laptop? Those sales guys are starting to sweat, wondering when you're going to pull out the plastic and succumb to that siren song.
6. Subscribe to "Mother Earth News" and/or "The Ute Reader." Re-read that book you bought on simplifying your life. Give some really serious thought to the fact that you and you alone are the decider of what you need in your house and your life. It's not those sales guys or your debt-ridden neighbors. It's you..just you. And congratulations -- you're now well on your way to escaping the jaws of consumerism.

Tips & Warnings

• Here's a tip for you. If you're terrified that someone is going to see you entering the Goodwill store, (1) tell them you just came to donate; (2) tell them you're looking for antique cameras for your collection, or (3) tell them with a big smile that you buy all your stuff there..and see how they react.
• This process of taking responsibility for paring down your consumerism may take longer than you think, so take heart. Our culture is built on the premise that you must and will consume anything that's bigger (although sometimes smaller is the hook), more elaborate and more expensive. Screwing your courage up will not be easy ... but you CAN do it!