It’s not easy being green (and pink)

We’ve been talking for a while about Compacting. You know, trying not to buy stuff. Getting secondhand stuff if we really must buy anything.

Late last year we decided to give it a go in the new year. So far we’re doing…not that great.

Leigh went out a few days before new year and had a big buy up of new clothes, which seems kind of contrary to the spirit of compacting. I was even worse, going on a “well if she can, I can” buy up. In my defence, I bought a hair straightener with a gift voucher I received for christmas. The voucher was for David Jones, and there is not exactly a secondhand department at DJs. So it’s not my fault.

We’ve also since bought a new birthday gift for the girl next door. Oh. And a new purse and camera. We had some things stolen from our car over christmas and I felt like it was unfair to have to have used things to replace our nice things that some little gobshite took. They also got the brand new in-car dvd player the kids got for christmas, and we’ll replace that with a new product before our next trip.

It’s not as bad as it sounds. We have managed to reduce the volume of imported food products we’ve been buying – focussing instead on local product and home grown food. We also bought Hunter two pairs of shoes from St Vinnie’s. She needed them, they were in great condition and they were cheap.

We also went trawling through some of the secondhand shops in the more expensive suburbs. I confess that while leigh was looking for things she liked, I was checking tags for brand names. I bought a skirt and three tops. They were all secondhand, so I get a tick on that front. But really, I don’t especially need clothes at all. So, a cross there.

Meanwhile, the veggie garden is coming along okay (or so leigh tells me. I haven’t actually ventured back out there).

The chard seems happy, there are some onions and leeks coming along. We lost some of the spinach on the hot day and it’s still too early to judge how the rest is going.