Are you addicted to shopping? Is 'retail therapy' your comfort of choice? Or are you sick and tired of the drudgery of shopping, but can't see there is any way to escape it?
Help is at hand! Buy Nothing Day is celebrated in North America on 28 November and all over the rest of the world on 29 November -- generally considered to be the busiest shopping day of the year.
The idea is simple: don't shop. Read a book, spend time with your family, take a walk or visit some friends. But for 24 hours, make the commitment to put away your wallet, debit or credit cards and do something that is not mediated by a financial transaction.
Buy Nothing Day is celebrated by environmental activists and campaigners for simplicity and economic justice all over the world, using street theatre, performance art, community events, blogs, poster campaigns and simple word of mouth.
The message is clear: we, as a society, are consuming too much.
Our ecological footprint, in terms of what we eat, buy and throw away (not to mention the harmful by-products and environmental damage involved in manufacturing our consumables) is disproportionately large.
One day of not shopping, albeit on the busiest shopping day of the year, won't change that. But Buy Nothing Day is a way of raising awareness of the problem of over-consumption.
Try it for a day. Engage with real life without money changing hands. If you find it easy, tell your friends. If you find it difficult, that should be a wake-up call, a warning that perhaps we are morte materialist than we had thought.
29 November: Buy Nothing Day. Participate by not participating.