So it’s time for an update on our family’s commitment to not purchasing anything new. Or in other words, The Compact.
In some ways it has been hard while in other ways it’s been completely refreshing. We find ourselves without thinking about it wanting to make exceptions in every single situation. Some examples:

• We’ve got a killer wasp problem in our backyard and my thinking was, how in the world are you supposed to find wasp traps or wasp killer used? You can’t, so we should just buy some new. (end result: made a homemade wasp trap out of a used pepsi bottle)
• Jess wants to paint with acrylics. Where do you get used acrylic paint? We looked at SCRAP, the recycled art supply store and didn’t find any. We look on craigslist and found nothing. (end result: Jess was sick for week and I felt really bad ’cause she was miserable…so I bought her $5 worth of new paint)
• We’re learning to use our bikes to commute and travel on now. But the problem was that we didn’t have bikes that were setup for commuting, we didn’t have a helmet for India, and we didn’t have child seats for both kids. If we want to start commuting now is it practical to think in terms of waiting and being patient until we find the stuff used somewhere? (end result: we found a helmet at Play It Again Sports, and we’ve found all other needed items on craigslist)
• I love books. I do. Jess does too. We love books. But sometimes when shipping is factored into your amazon purchase it is actually cheaper to buy new books with free shipping instead of used books with 3.99 shipping. It seems kind of ridiculous to pay more for a used book. (end result: we chose not to compromise in this situation. We figured if we compromised in this respect why would we then not compromise when we found jeans on sale at Old Navy for 4.99 or tee shirts for 1.99. In the end we either bought used or waited until we found it cheaper at Powells Bookstore)

So in the end we’ve stuck to our guns pretty good. The strangest thing now is to walk through Fred Meyers or Walmart. The first few weeks when out of the corner of my eye I’d see a sign that says 50% off the sale price and I’d just avert my eyes. But now I walk through those stores and I’m just bored. It strange. It almost feels dirty walking through there. Strange.
Hey, if you were thinking about joinig in with the compact here are a few places we’ve found good buys at (some are kind of “duh” while others are pretty cool):

• Goodwill, Value Village, and other used clothing type stores
• Garage sales
• craigslist (you can add in here any other online used item website)
• SCRAP
• The ReBuilding Center
• The Community Cycling Center
• The Building Materials Reuse Association
• My inlaws garage, barn, or shop
• There are a few more but I can’t seem to think of them right now!

Between that short list you can find virtually everything you need. I’ve said this before, but just in case for you newbies out there, joining the compact doesn’t mean that you can’t buy medicine, food, underwear, and maybe a couple of other things of that nature. We’re not crazy here and there are exceptions to every rule…except the rule of love.