In relation to how consumerism has absolutely tanked the local love of Jimothy, a raccoon with short-spine syndrome. Felt too fitting not to share here (would repost but was not allowed!).

https://www.dw.com/en/eu-ban-on-destroying-unsold-clothes-takes-effect/a-78024888

I think this is pretty important and a step in the right direction... not completely related to anticonsumption but I thought this might spark an interesting exchange of ideas.

The public library offered a mending class this afternoon. I learned a running stitch, back stitch, and hem stitch. Plus, they provided us with instructions and some basic sewing supplies to take home. I usually take my pants to a tailor to get hemmed, but I am feeling pretty confident after the class. I’m looking forward to fixing a shirt and fixing the hem on a pair of pants myself.

We also touched on a few different techniques for mending clothes that includes artistic expression with it. It was a fantastic class!

Hi all, I just felt the need to share in the hopes of getting helpful tips and maybe some commiseration.

My teen daughter is visiting this weekend and I came up with the idea of a Wizard of Oz themed family fun day. I am making cowardly lion chili (i.e. very mild chili) with "yellow brick road" cornbread and my kid is making a themed dessert. And we will watch the movie as well.

Well, my mom chimed in on our group text with "I'll bring themed gift bags!" She likes to buy us useless plastic shit, and gross dollar store candy I'd never put in my body. I donate what I can, toss some of the smaller things into my "nostalgia bin", and throw away the rest. I am against all of the pointless gift giving in general for not only anticonsumption and environmental reasons, but also I can't stand clutter.

I've brought this up before with my mom. Repeatedly. And yet, she keeps doing it, and usually I go with the flow, "She's old, let her have her fun. It's harmless". But it doesn't feel harmless. I mean we're killing the environment. Heat domes every other week. Lakes running dry. So today I texted back as gently and tactfully as I could to please not go to crazy with the gift bags, I don't eat candy, I don't need more plastic junk. My daughter chimed in with "Yeah the stuff is cute but will just end up in a landfill".

After a few hours my normally effervescent mom replies with: "Ok." That period at the end! She seems deflated. I replied and said sorry, wasn't trying to be a wet blanket". Still no reply hours later.

Am I the asshole here? Should I let a 69 year old woman have her fun? I feel like I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't. I don't wanna be a buzzkill. But I also don't want useless plastic shit that clutters my home while also harming the environment by being produced and shipped! Has anyone navigated this delicate topic with aging parents?

Seen in San Francisco

I was so disappointed the last time I went to Kohl's and in order to get to the registers, you have to walk through two full aisles of the impulse buying garbage before you get to the registers. It didn't used to be this way, either. It has only been a recent thing too. Do they think anyone actually buys this shit? We just want to check out and leave.

Hook came of my chalk line, and I couldn’t find it. Pop can tab to he rescue.

i feel crazy because i go to do my nails sometimes (since im a biter and sometimes they hurt unless i get nails) and even then its way too overpriced at this point. Thats at a basic salon though. These at home nail techs that keep popping up charge about $200 each session. It’s crazy to me that people are paying that much for them to just grow out in 2 weeks.

I eventually realized i need to just buy less and recycled instead of bulking env friendly or thrifted stuff

I call this the "buying" season. It starts with back to school, then all the fall/pumpkin buying, followed by Halloween and then the winter holidays. It usually doesn't peter out until mid-January, after the after-Christmas sales.

These are things I am being told I need to buy, that I am NOT buying:

1. Brand new school supplies. We have most of what we need here at the house and from years past. They also tell you to buy a ton of stuff, and then it comes home in June never having been used.

2. New Fall/back to school fashion. We all have jeans, boots and sweaters. My kids also have closets full. We will be going through our clothes before school starts, moving ill-fitting clothes to younger kids, and gifting items we can no longer wear to families with younger kids.

3. Holiday decor of any kind. I have more than enough. It's not new, it's not revolutionary, it's the same stuff every year.

4. Gifts for adults. Honestly, I've talked to everyone in my life, and we all decided to forgo gifts wherever we could. We all have enough stuff. I do not want another candle, blanket or body spray. Neither do my friends.

5. Extra food. I used to have a ton of anxiety around the holidays and buy a ton of expensive food and sides to pass around and share with everyone. Food is too expensive now to be doing that, and I find I'm often the only one showing up with shrimp cocktail or a cheese/meat tray. I will make some more cookies this year, and use those as a pass-around when I go visiting. I will reserve the "good" meal for my immediate family on Christmas Day.

What are some of yours?

Ok so this is equal parts a PSA and rant. I just stopped to add a few gallons of gas to get me where I needed until payday and not fill the tank. I made sure not to engage the lock since I didnt want to fill the tank. I was watching the meter to cut it off when I was at my budget while being forced to watch adds at the same time. When I hit what I needed I let go of the trigger and the gas kept pumping. I then notice that the mechanism that locks the trigger until the tank is full is engaged. I made sure not to engage it, I try to push the trigger open and its locked. I have to manually pull that locking mechanism out to let me to release the trigger and stop pumping gas. Turns out that they seem to have made the lock spring loaded so that as soon as you pull the trigger it locks. I have never seen this before at any other gas station.

I had to pull money from my savings just so I wouldn't overdraft. This has the potential to screw so many people who are on a tight budget and I ended up spending twice what I had intended to. The only reason this would be out into place is to force people to fill the full tank regardless of if they wanted to. Be aware of this since I assume more and more places will start to try this.

Be careful and FUCK MOBILE.

This ad had the nerve to show up, but none of the sense to be able to stay. REPORTED!!

AI is a blight, for sure; but intrusive ads annoy me more. How about you?

I was scrolling on one of the apps recently and saw someone with a meltable smelly wax hoard. In the video they were talking about how proud they were to have not spent over $180 on an order from the specific wax vendor, but then they went on to talk about how they placed several other orders worth hundreds of dollars, and this was only for the month. They talked about their order plans for the next month while sitting in a sea of wax bars. I was shocked, then I scrolled their page for a while and discovered that they have dressers and dressers in every room in the house (literally) full of unused wax melts. As in 2-3 dressers per room with the drawers full to the brim with wax melts. Random bins of wax melts everywhere too.

It got me thinking. How many people in my life have shopping addictions. What are common consumption trends that as a society are largely overlooked? I don't know anyone in my life as extreme as the wax melts lady, but I do have family members who have the tendency to focus on specific items and acquire a lot of them.

A family member of mine compulsively buys clothes weekly. Has two closets overflowing full of clothes they've never worn. Clothes shoved under beds, clothes piling up at the laundry, clothes absolutely everywhere. They cannot leave a store without some clothes. Clothes, clothes, clothes.

Another family member buys a specific expensive brand of makeup and skincare products, and at every family get together they give my household a giant canvas bag full of samples and unused products. This brand isn't a MLM style one, and there are no benefits to buying in excess to my knowledge. The last family get together was 2 years ago and my household is not even halfway through the products.

I do wonder about the psychology behind a lot of it too. Is it the initial dopamine hit that gets them? Is it deeper rooted insecurity? Is it a safety behaviour? Is it all of it combined?

Anyways, I guess I was just curious if you have people in your life with the excessive need to consume certain genres, and how it manifests for them? Do you notice any common denominators for them? Actually, really for anyone who overconsumes- it doesn't just have to be people you know. What patterns are you noticing? Does it help you or motivate you to consume less? I know for me seeing my family member's clothing piles has motivated me to have 40 clothing items in total.

I was recently spending some time brainstorming for capsule wardrobes and organizing it. Pinterest has started adding ads as panels which are usually pretty normal but I kept seeing these Amazon "creators pick" photos/ ads of hyper consumerist closets like it's totally normal to have 30+ pairs of blue jeans or 50 tan and white sweatshirts. It was so off putting the first time I saw it and I was shocked that this is the advertisement that's being pushed. It's crazy to me that this is perceived as something to strive for or even have? It's disgusting, it's gross, it's toxic and makes me sad and upset. It feels like it's pushing clothing as "collect them all" rather than anything remotely functional.