In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t really promote Black Friday deals of any kind on this blog. Obviously, I’m not a “deals” or coupon blogger. Although a lot of my essential oil remedies and cleaners can save money, and I always do let you know on my Facebook page and Twitter if any of my favorite organic and natural brands have sales or coupons, or if organic grapes/strawberries are on sale locally in Dallas, you will never see me extreme couponing or doing “anything” to save a little money. You know what saves money? NOT SPENDING MONEY ON STUFF.
So this Thursday night and Friday morning, you will not see me at any stores. In fact, in the past my husband and I have joked that we participate in Buy Nothing Day.
Buy Nothing Day is an international day of protest against consumerism celebrated annually just after Thanksgiving.
Technically, I don’t think we’ve gone the 24 hours without buying something because we usually have to go to a grocery store and buy milk or eggs or something. But no, we don’t get started on our Christmas shopping. I’ve never gone to a store at some insane hour, and I don’t plan to start now.
In fact, this year we plan to do very little Christmas shopping. Not because we don’t celebrate Christmas, but because we do. We celebrate the birth of Someone who is special to us, and we don’t do it by spending a lot of money on stuff. Did Jesus have stuff? From all accounts, Jesus was nigh-homeless.
Last year, we were in a weird situation that caused us not to buy gifts at all. And you know what? We didn’t miss it, and our family didn’t miss it. I made some things for our close family. This year we will be buying small gifts for our nieces and nephews. But I don’t think any of us adults are planning on spending money on each other. We all have everything we need: food, clothing, shelter.
If you aren’t up for AdBusters’ version of Buy Nothing Day, you can always host or attend a Black Friday “Snuggle In”! Get all comfy cozy, watch some Christmas movies, and tell the shopping stress goodbye! Are ya with me?
I used to work retail and back in the day, it was nothing like it is now. I did go out for a bit last year with a friend that was here visiting but it’s not really my thing AT ALL. I prefer to stay home or do something else! 🙂
We participate in Buy Nothing Day too. You’re not going to get us out at 4am to buy junk that we don’t need. We don’t have the money for gifts anyway, but even if we did, we wouldn’t be spending it on Black Friday sales. Like you said, we have everything we need…food, clothing, and shelter. That’s enough for us!