These are trying times...

I've been reading a book called All Consuming by Neal Lawson. The screamer is 'How shopping got us into this mess and how we can find our way out. So obviously cheerful from the start.

But the thing that I continue to ruminate over as I read chapter after chapter is that I can't actually fathom that there are people out there that fit the descriptions of people in this book. The sorts of people who actually make sure that their babies have completely new everything - clothes, shoes, toys, furniture, doo-dads, bottles, etc. The kind of people that REALLY throw away a kettle or a microwave because it was 'out of date after a few years' (Journal of Consumer Policy 27, 421-49). The sort of people who don't ever reuse, recycle, etc. People who never think, when they buy that cheap item of clothing/whatever, about what that cheapness may mean to the person, somewhere, who made that cheap thing so that it could be purchased in a nice, clean, spacious, western store.

I'm honest about the fact that I love (LOVE) IKEA. I do. I'm a HUGE fan of organizational furniture, and IKEA is exactly that. PLUS, they've got organizational units that can be used in CONJUNCTION with their organizational furniture. Bliss, right? And I have some of their furniture in my home.

But I also have furniture in my home that has been handed down through three generations, bought at an auction house, brought home as a hand-me-down, scooped up from a dumpster or skip on the side of the road. I'm surrounded by items purchased in charity shops and second-hand stores. I wear dead people's clothing (Thanks, Kinky Friedman).  And I buy old clothes, and I create new things out of them - bags, pillows, stuffed animals.

My children have both slept in a cot acquired from Freecycle. We've bought a new mattress for each kid because cleanliness and health can be an issue. But the cot itself has had at LEAST four other kids sleep in it, and if I've got anything to do with it, I'll pass it along to someone else who'll need a cot soon for their kid. My kids have also worn clothes that have been passed around between groups of friends who've all had kids on a rotating schedule. We see pictures of our kids, and know what year it is by the clothes they're wearing. And we've rotated toys, pushchairs, car seats, foldable buggies, bottles, cups, sleeping bags, swimming suits, etc.

I know people who've spent over 4000 GPB on their children between birth and two years old, not including child care costs. I think that I may have spent about 400 GBP on BOTH my children between birth and two years old.

And I'm sitting here, in a chair I got from Freecycle, and had recovered, with my feet on a footstool (that my mother-in-law recovered for me) that I acquired when I moved into the first house I bought. I have my coffee cup sitting on a coffee table given to my by a friend who had to move his dad out of the family house and into care. And the basket holding my firewood was salvaged out of a dumpster - in perfect condition. Two out of my four lamps in this room are hand-me-downs.

My slippers, yoga trousers and t-shirt pre-date my oldest child. There's a pillow on my chair made out of a t-shirt that had a D-train (Bronx to Brooklyn) logo on it. And I just sewed up a hole in some school tights for my daughter to wear to school tomorrow, instead of binning them.

Are you seeing a link here? It's not that I'm cheap (although I CAN be; it's in my genes). It's because I somehow also inherited the philosophy that it's actually OK to 'make do and mend', as they say here in the UK. My grandparents all went through the Depression, and then through the post-war years of penny-pinching that was necessary. And I remember thinking how silly it was when my Grandma used to scrape every last bit of chocolate brownie dough out of the mixing bowl with the spatula. But now, of course, I realize that by doing so, you get ONE MORE BROWNIE. It's that simple.

By sewing up that pair of tights, maybe there's one less thing that gets chucked into landfill. And while I know that IKEA provides jobs to so many people, maybe by my having a hand-me-down coffee table instead of a flat-pack one, I get to have something that's been around for a long time, meant something to someone once, and maybe saved one tree out there, somewhere. And maybe it also saved a tiny bit of petrol, and a tiny bit of energy in not having to move that one extra flat-pack coffee table to my local IKEA warehouse.

When I do buy something new, I'm going to continue to see if I can't find it made by someone local, or someone who might be trying to start a new business, or maybe from a local auction house, so that someone's memories don't get thrown into the huge container marked 'Wood and Timber' at the local recycling centre. With the holiday season fast approaching, and shops gearing up for that major consumer outpouring of professed love and affection-based spending, I don't think I'm going to participate that much this year. I'd rather check out my local craft fair, and buy something that someone actually made, by someone who lives within 20 miles of where I live. (NB: I KNOW that there are people who buy the lovely shawls made by Nepalese women who need to make money, and resell them on to people here - I respect that. But I need to support people out there who are making things closer to home).

A few other things to think about: Libraries. Local post offices (if there are any left!). Local INDEPENDENT shops. Just because you've got a WHSmith to hand, doesn't mean you have to go there. Use your local library instead. Between 1987 and 1997, almost 90 per cent of local councils in the UK reduced access to their public library services (Sheffield University's Centre for the Public Library in the Information Society, 1999). Use your local post office. They sell stamps, but they also sell lots of other things - greeting cards, wrapping paper, bits and pieces you always need; the people who work at your local post office know more than you could ever believe. USE THEM. And use the local indie shops. Buy your magazines from the local newsagent - not the chain supermarket. And consider the local deli, sandwich shop, jewellery store, knitting shop, butcher, breakfast joint, frame store. These are the places, and people, who make your community unique, and wonderful. By supporting them, you're keeping your money in the community, and you're helping the village or town you live in thrive. And that says a lot.

I know Mr Tesco and Mr Sainsbury need to make their shareholders happy, but maybe instead it would be OK to shop at the Coop, or Waitrose. I'll bet you never knew that Waitrose was employee-owned, did you? Don't give in to the hype that it always has to be bigger, or better, or newer, or shinier. I'm proud of my old, slightly beat-up car. And I'm proud that I sew up holes in tights, have a compost bin, grow veggies, sew costumes for my kids, knit baby blankets.

Surely I'm not alone?