Friday, November 23, 2007

Dilemma!

I have a terrible ethical dilemma. Perhaps you can help me out.

Tomorrow (Saturday 24th November 2007) is Buy Nothing Day.

It's a day where you challenge yourself, your family and friends to switch off from shopping and tune into life. The rules are simple, for 24 hours you will detox from consumerism and live without shopping. Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending!

It's organised by the awesome culture-jamming organisation, Adbusters. You can send an e-postcard, download a computer desktop or a poster, join a BND Facebook group, participate in an event near you, or do anything at all except shopping.

So where's the dilemma?

Well on that same day, and that day only, The Guardian newspaper is giving away a 100 page baking guide by bread guru Dan Lepard. To get the free guide you have to buy the newspaper.

Do you see my problem?

I've decided to be loyal to Buy Nothing Day, and not go out and buy The Guardian that day. But I'll ask in my local Freecycle group if anyone got the paper and didn't want the guide. I'll ask on Freeconomy as well. And I'm asking you chaps, is anyone prepared to post me an unwanted baking guide (I'll refund your postage, of course)? Don't go out and buy The Guardian just for me. That would defeat the point. But if you get it delivered anyway, and you didn't want the baking guide yourself, that would be great.

Have a happy Buy Nothing Day.

19 comments:

benjymous said...

You could ask around any local cafes to see if any of them have a browsing copy delivered, and if you can nab the supplement at the end of the day.

They'd probably want you to buy a coffee though, so you'd end up having to explain the whole buy nothing thing, which might go well or badly depending on the proprietor!

Sometimes newspapers let you order back issues of supplements, so it's possible you might be able to buy a copy on Monday, which technically would be ok (wouldn't it)

I'm sure it'd be good PR to the Guardian, anyway!

Lesley said...

Can't you ask your newsagent to put a copy aside for you to be picked up the following day? You could pay for it today if he thinks you look too shifty to trust!

Nic said...

You have to get it!!
I would go into the newsagents and ask them to put it aside until Sunday, when you can pick it up and pay.

KibitzKnitz said...

I've always thought that 'Buy Nothing Day' was the same as Black Friday (the insane shopping day after American Thanksgiving), not the Saturday past. Maybe you can observe on Friday and get your booklet on Saturday?

And yes, all the weirdo's are out at the malls, where they've been lined up to get in a !!4am!! ??? Crazy.

Melanie Rimmer said...

In the USA (where BND started) it's Black Friday. Since "Black Friday" doesn't mean anything outside of the States, it's the Saturday after for the rest of the world. I suppose the analogue to Black Friday here in Britain would be January 1st, the first day of the January sales.

Anonymous said...

If we don't shop on Saturday we don't eat, or I have to shop on Sunday and I try to avoid that even more. So, I'll be getting the Graun as usual.

We won't use the baking guide, I doubt - I'll look through for anything gluten-free and then I'll try to remember to send it on to you.

Unknown said...

On Saturday I was going to buy 1000 Google shares. As it's Buy Nothing Day, I've decided I can't allow my conscience to do that, so if anyone out there has already bought 1000 Google shares and don't want them, then I'll be happy to take them off your hands for free. I'll pay postage for the certificates...

Anonymous said...

Just go out and buy the paper, everybody, else does probably cheat a bit as well so why not you? Maybe if you need to realy feel good again after buying that paper you offest it with eco credit and get a few folks to save some energy or something like that! ;)

Anonymous said...

That's really funny. I'm sorry, Mel, but I just have to say something. The whole point of buy nothing day is to buy nothing. To ask it to be put aside to buy the following day defeats the point entirely - you're just deferring the day you buy it! LOL

I would love to support it but it is my daughter's first Coeliac meet tomorrow which involves a 40 miles drive, parking, (coeliac)lunch, and so on, and as we are having so much bother getting her to accept her condition, there is no way I'm missing it!

Melanie Rimmer said...

I disagree. That's exactly why I said "Don't go out and buy it just for me, that would defeat the point".

What I asked for (and Linz has kindly offered to do - sheers, Linz!) is that someone who has bought the paper anyway, and would otherwise have put the supplement straight in the bin, should give it to me instead. So nothing extra is being bought. And something that would have been thrown away is being used instead. Hope that make sense.

Frankie said...

Oh stuff it... Just buy the paper and don't let anyone lay a guilt trip on you! I might buy 2 copies in protest at being told what to do.

Anonymous said...

No body says it's mandatory to join in with this 'Buy Nothing' day. My hubby has just headed to the supermarket and I've helping him make the list. BUT I'd planned to take the kids & my cousin to Durham for the day. So I've decided to make a packed lunch with us, and only to site see & not shop whilst there. So I'll only be paying for the parking. I'm treating this 'Buy Nothing' day as an exercise in planning & self control. If I plan ahead & take a flak of hot chocolate to have in the car when we head home, and take crayons & paper to do rubbings in the catherdral etc, then I won't need to pop into Greggs for a hot pasty, or into a book shop to appease the kids. It's a choice thing.

Unknown said...

It looks like a lot of the content of the supplement is available on the website:

http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/guides/baking/0,,2210837,00.html

Anonymous said...

It's so easy to spend money without even realizing it. As you mentioned, the U.S. Buy Nothing Day was today, and while I didn't buy anything from a store, I did send a PayPal payment to an Etsy seller I owed money to already. You could say the purchase was already made a few days ago and all I did was complete it today. But honestly, I wasn't even thinking about Buy Nothing Day when I sent the money. I totally forgot.

Anyway, the spirit of Buy Nothing Day is really to avoid the mad consumerism that starts about leading up to Christmas. I think paying an Etsy seller for some handmade cloth pantiliners is still within the spirit of the day. It's certainly outside the mainstream economy. So surely your retrieving a baking guide that would have otherwise be discarded fulfills the idea behind the day as well.

Melanie Rimmer said...

Thatt's what I thought. Thanks for "getting it", Beth.

Anonymous said...

Mel, email me at lindsay.endell@mbs.ac.uk with your address (which I have, but this will act as a reminder) and I'll post you the supplement during the week.

I'm flicking through it to see if there's anything GF I can copy out first though!

Moonwaves said...

I thought I was facing a similar dilemna but then I realised that really, almost every day for me is a buy nothing day. Apart from food (necessity) I probably only have about 10 - 15 "buy stuff" days a year. I'm actually going to start keeping a proper diary about this on 1 December (and for one year after that) to see if I'm right or not. I've been slowly removing myself from the consumer society so that when I was thinking about buy nothing day and what I'd need to do differently, I realised there was nothing I could change from almost any other Saturday.

Anonymous said...

It seems that I have inadvertently had a No-shopping weekend from lunchtime Friday till now. I didn't even use the car.

Am I allowed to feel smug even though I didn't know I was joining in?

Geraldine

Anonymous said...

aaaa片, 免費聊天, 咆哮小老鼠影片分享區, 金瓶梅影片, av女優王國, 78論壇, 女同聊天室, 熟女貼圖, 1069壞朋友論壇gay, 淫蕩少女總部, 日本情色派, 平水相逢, 黑澀會美眉無名, 網路小說免費看, 999東洋成人, 免費視訊聊天, 情色電影分享區, 9k躺伯虎聊天室, 傑克論壇, 日本女星杉本彩寫真, 自拍電影免費下載, a片論壇, 情色短片試看, 素人自拍寫真,

做愛的漫畫圖片, 情色電影分享區, 做愛ㄉ影片, 丁字褲美女寫真, 色美眉, 自拍俱樂部首頁, 日本偷自拍圖片, 色情做愛影片, 情色貼圖區, 八國聯軍情色網, 免費線上a片, 淫蕩女孩自拍, 美國a片, 都都成人站, 色情自拍, 本土自拍照片, 熊貓貼圖區, 色情影片, 5278影片網, 脫星寫真圖片, 粉喵聊天室, 金瓶梅18, sex888影片分享區, 1007視訊, 雙贏論壇, 爆爆爽a片免費看, 天堂私服論壇, 情色電影下載, 成人短片, 麗的線上情色小遊戲, 情色動畫免費下載, 日本女優, 小說論壇, 777成人區, showlive影音聊天網, 聊天室尋夢園, 義大利女星寫真集, 韓國a片, 熟女人妻援交, 0204成人, 性感內衣模特兒, 影片, 情色卡通, 85cc免費影城85cc, 本土自拍照片, 成人漫畫區, 18禁, 情人節阿性,

免費成人影音, 彩虹自拍, 小魔女貼影片, 自拍裸體寫真, 禿頭俱樂部, 環球av影音城, 學生色情聊天室, 視訊美女, 辣妹情色圖, 性感卡通美女圖片, 影音, 情色照片 做愛, hilive tv , 忘年之交聊天室, 制服美女, 性感辣妹, ut 女同聊天室, 淫蕩自拍, 處女貼圖貼片區, 聊天ukiss tw, 亞亞成人館, 777成人, 秋瓷炫裸體寫真, 淫蕩天使貼圖, 十八禁成人影音, 禁地論壇, 洪爺淫蕩自拍, 秘書自拍圖片,