Buy Nothing

Are you in a local group that is part of The Buy Nothing Project? If not, please consider joining. The Buy Nothing Project aims to empower people to engage in a generous giving economy. When you are part of a group in your area, you can post things that you don’t want – it helps create less waste, less landfill, and goes to helping people. You can pick up things that others post. And if there is something you need, you can ask on the group, and only buy it if no one has the thing you are looking for. No selling or bartering is allowed – it’s purely about giving freely, and relying on your local community to meet needs rather than to buy things and have them shipped to you.  

I have posted and given away a lot of things – furniture, clothes, excess garden produce, knickknacks – things that otherwise would either go to a landfill, or I would have to haul to the thrift store where someone would have to pay money to get it. I also have received lots of things – clothes, decor items, garden tools, a cell phone charger, pots for my plants, an umbrella, houseplant cuttings, books, a backpack, etc.

But two of the things gifted to me stand out as the most valuable and useful – things I would have purchased anyway except for the BNP. I received a tumbler composter last year that has created a LOT of compost for my garden and keeps on giving.

The second, I picked up last night – a lot of 4 giant bottles of Protein Powder. The amazon cost of these is $160. I typically buy protein powder anyway because I am vegetarian and need to supplement my protein intake. I used to eat lentils and beans for protein, but I have diabetes and eat low carb now. So, I can’t eat as many beans. So, protein powder it is! This generous give from the group will last me about 5-6 months.

The lady I picked up from has an absolutely enormous and gorgeous house. I did a porch pickup in the late evening. It was dark outdoors, and the house was lit from indoors. So, I could not help but notice the mind bogglingly huge living room with a 20+ foot ceiling through the floor to ceiling glass windows. That must be what living in luxury feels like. I can only imagine what the house costs – must be $1 million +, even in my little town. So, she’s clearly rich. And she still is in the group – that is admirable. I love it when rich people are frugal too.

You can go here to find your local group: https://buynothingproject.org