..till midnight. Malora and I are frantically looking on amazon.com and other websites checking to see if there are any last minute deals. I need guitar strings but musiciansfriend.com doesn’t ship to Canada…at least I don’t think they do. We only have 2 more hours to buy everything we will need for the next year.
The reality that we are not going to be able to buy anything new for one whole year is beginning to set in.  I tried to consume one last day by going to a movie (I Am Legend) and walking around a bookstore. I even went to an army surplus store called G.I. Jane’s with the hope to find something that I could buy. There were some impressive army boots and duffel bags, but I couldn’t push myself to buy anything.

All day malora and I have been wondering, “Why are we doing this again?” Why are we pulling ourselves off of the consumer grid? Why aren’t we shopping for one year? Do we have everything we need? What about _______ (fill in the blank)?

I know that there are some important things that we are going to learn over the next year and the only way that we can learn them is by experiencing them. And, the only way to experience not shopping for a year is to…not shop…for a year. I think that the experience will be an enriching experience for both Malora and me and I look forward to seeing how we do. Meaning, I am excited to see if we actually do it. There is a chance that sometime around July 9 or September 15 we will crack and head to the store to buy new pants or some other item we can’t live without.

My hope is that we are able to complete this experiencement without “cheating” or changing the rules. That we will gain a better perspective on money, and that we will grow closer as a family. I hope that everyone who reads this blog will be challenged, enlightened, encouraged, or empowered to do something…anything

Have a great year and lets all see what 2008 has in store.

BERKELEY, California (AP) — Ari Derfel leads a trashy life. He just wants to remind everyone else that they do, too.

The 35-year-old Berkeley caterer said he has saved every piece of trash he has generated during the past year to see how much garbage one person creates. In his case, it was about 96 cubic feet.

The experiment began as a way to examine his own consumption habits, Derfel said, but grew into a statement about consumerism and the environment.

“When we throw something away, what does ‘away’ mean?” Derfel said. “There’s no such thing as ‘away.”‘

The refuse — including every tissue, receipt, food wrapper and plastic bottle — lies in bins in the kitchen and living room of Derfel’s apartment. He composts his food scraps.

Derfel said he eventually hopes to donate his accumulated waste to a sculptor

Trash saver’s blog

Tomorrow is the last day that we go to the store and buy stuff new. There is a part of me that wants to head down to the mall and just go wild and buy everything that I might need in the next year. A swim suit, socks, ping pong paddles, bike tire tubes, soccer ball, and a bunch of new clothes. I know that this would defeat the point of what we are doing so I will restrain my self from stocking up on stuff.

One thing that I did buy was a new guitar. I have wanted an electric guitar for about 5 years. I have never had the money or the permission to get one, but recieved some extra money for Christmas with the stipulation that we must spend it. I knew exactly what I wanted and I got it. A midnight wine Fender Telecaster. It is a beautiful guitar and I know that I will put it to some good use.

It is very strange to walk into a guitar store put $500 in cash on the counter and walk out with a guitar. I have never done something like that, and I probably wont do it again anytime soon. I feel unbelievably blessed and thankful to be able to get such a nice guitar. It blows my mind to think that there are many people who spend this much money in a weekend on alcohol or on a video game system with out batting an eye lid. I still feel like I am in a state of shock from spending so much and grateful for recieving such an amazing gift.

I know that it will not be easy, but I am looking forward to the new year when there will be no possibility of blindly consuming. I am scared because I still need those bike tires, but I know that God will provide.

For now I think I will go play my guitar for a while and write and think of a good name for her (every good guitar has a name).

Welcome to Our Compact Life website.

Everyone makes New Years resolutions that most of us never keep. To exercise more, to drink less, or to stop speeding through school zones. Most of us do them for the first week or so and then stop doing them. Well, we have decided to do something in 2008 which will last all year.

We have decided to take a break from shopping for one year.

It all started when we read an article in Good magazine (link to the article) about a group of people in San Fransisco who decided to make a compact to not shop for one year. When we first read it we thought it was an interesting idea, but not for us. However, the more that we thought about it, the more we felt like maybe we should give it a try. So, we started going through all of the possible scenarios:

“What about guitar strings, can we buy those?”
“What about dining out, can we do that?”

We decided to pray about it and get input from friends, and over time we felt more convinced that we needed to do this.

So, we have made a compact not to buy anything new for one year. There are some exceptions to the rule including food (groceries), safety items (light bulb), personal care (deodorant), and other necessary items you don’t want to buy used (underwear). We have a list of “no buys” that we can not buy for the next year. We have invited some friends to join us in this experiencement (experience/experiment), and if you are interested in joining us please email or call or something. This would be way better to do in community.

Here are our goals:
- Bring less “stuff” or clutter into the world and our home
- Break our addiction to consumerism
- To be more creative in the way we live our life
- To be an example for others and share our experiencement
- Spend more time as a family doing fun free things
- As a period of fasting - to remove any hindrances in our walk with Christ
- Save money
- Gain a new and Biblical perspective of money
- Become more generous and instill that in Noah

We are not going to do this forever and we know it is not going to be easy. But, we think that it will be an important year in our lives and we are excited to see what happens. I am going to set up a blog to journal our experiences on (I will have a link soon).

Please comment me and give me any thoughts or feedback.