IT'S BETTER TO TRAVEL ALONE THAN WITH A BAD COMPANION

How does that William Morris mantra to minimalism go again? “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful". (Great advice dude, but there are some people out there that think their room full of beanie babies is a beautiful thing, just saying.)  Granted, my idea to take a camera around more often as a better way to make use of my downtime was exactly what I needed (my DSLR is great, but it's not very practical to carry around day to day), but it seems my go-to point and shoot impulse buy from a couple of years ago is an awful piece of gadgetry...well, that is to say it works but doesn't come close to what I want out of a camera. Maybe I'm too picky, but it's decided - I don't like it and we're not friends.

WASTE NOT

The first question people generally ask about Buy Nothing New Month is 'does this include food?' Well, no it doesn't (unless the freegan life is the life for you, ho ho) but it doesn't hide the fact that food waste is a huge problem in our convenience society (think about it, if we had no waste and ate less meat then we could easily feed, house and clothe 9 billion+ people). Collectively, we Westerners throw out anything up to 40% of the food we produce (this includes food that spoils or is discarded before it even makes it into our homes). I grew up in the New Zealand agricultural/horticultural sector and even by the late 80s, when I was still a young teen, I had a disturbingly clear picture of what soil to plate food production looked like, as well as an insight into how free market trade could crush a local industry.

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM (BUY NOTHING NEW MONTH)

I always fancied myself as a professional beachcomber. You know how that daydream goes - tanned, lithe, living on a tropical island (the food magically grows itself, probably), living in a driftwood hut and scouring the shoreline every sunrise and sunset for ocean treasures which are invariably useful and/or beautiful in some existentially meaningful way . I would make wonderful art and decor from it and there was probably a ruggedly handsome Spaniard somewhere in there doing some useful things on a boat. We would have no need for pah!, money, because th..

THE HUMBLE JAR (BUY NOTHING NEW MONTH)

Last month I had the chance to spend a wonderful afternoon in San Francisco's mission district with a couple of old friends. At the end of the day we decided to pop into a funky restaurant and grab a round of cocktails because what did you expect, really? Made and served in the same vessel, our mojitos came prepared in reused jam jars...which I instantly decided was the coolest thing ever and have since added a couple to my meagre home collection of glass tumblers.