vitamin water

Today I learned a valulable lesson about making purchases. I spent 2$ ona  vitamin water because people seem to like them and I wanted to try them, plus I was really thirsty. It was really disappointing. This just goes to show that things are never as good as you'd expect them to be, which is something that I have learned to keep in mind when I want to buy something.
And vitamin water is bad.

?

Now I've been not buying anything for over 3 weeks I think. It really hasn't been that hard and I don't even need to go out and buy things now thatthe three weeks is over. I feel I have learned a lot about self control and really how unnecessary so many things are that we buy on a daily basis. The money I have saved from not buying anything from stores now can go towards things that actually are meaningful to me and not something you just eat and forget about, or some shitty thing that breaks a week after you get it. I've really grown to appriciate the things that I do have because the little things don't depriciate from the important things I have. I am really glad that I chose to do this to help the environment, because I know that over three weeks is not going to really make a difference, but this is something I know that I willl continue to do for the rest of my life, and hopefully inspire some of the people around me to do the same, and this over time, might do something to conserve the environment.

day ?

The other day I was at the store and it was like 30 degrees outside, I was boiling and I was really thirsty. Even though I was trying hard not to buy anything I had to buy a drink, I was dehydrated. I figured that I would just drink something that had been purchased when I got home anyways. Sometimes it's really hard to not buy something when it's right there and only like 3$. I understand that marketing is designed to make you want to buy something andsometimes it's harder to overcome than others. This assignmenthas made me more aware of marketing and how it just targets people. Now that I'm aware of it and aknowledging it eveyry time I look at an add or a product it's way easier to not be pulled into it.

day 20

I'm really glad that my money is not going towards these corrupt corporations, and then being spend on child labour in some sweatshop in Ethiopia. Not to say that I don't want to give my money to the children working in sweatshops, just that I do not in any way want to support them making my shoes.
This assignment has really opened up my perspective on where MY money really goes. I never really thought of it that specifically before, or even at all. I just knew that I was buying a shirt or whatever, not where my money would go. I never considered that the people who buy these things are actually paying the sweatshop workers. Because obviously the money is not coming from the corporation itself, it's coming from the profit being made from the murchandise.
After I thought about this I realised that there is nothing that I can buy that is worth this. I would rather buy all my clothes from salvation army and donate the money I would have spent on them to some people that need it in a developing country rather than support these industries.
I always understood that they were negatively affecting the environment, and that something needed to be done to stop it, but I was never motivated as I thought that just me doing something could never matter. Now that I have more money, the things I have been buying have made me change and realise that there is no tangeble thing that is worth dehumanising people and destroying the one thing that we have.
I cannot for my life understand how consumerism has become such a problem in the world: how having something nice is worth all the shit everyone and everything involved in making it and getting it there has to go through.
Now when I look at these things, or when I walk through the mall all I see is the actual price of these things. Because what people don't realise is that the price tag has nothing to do with the cost.

Day 1-20

It took me twenty days to choose what I should do to reduce the impact I have on the environment. After a lot of thought I decided that I should not buy anything for three weeks. At first I thought this would be really diffcult as usually I spend most of my money on food. It has now been twenty days since I bought anything, and even though this is only my first post, the next few posts will be more frequent and describing the experience and the difficulties I had not contributing to the economy or the industries supplying these things. Pretty much so far the only situations I have encountered leading to an exception is food, obviously, and one time I ran out of toothpaste so I had to buy more.
I feel like so far I'm doing a pretty good job, way better than I expected at least. I thought that I wouldn't be able to go even a week without making one purchase, but actually it hasn't been that hard. I have to admit that there were times I was struggling; I really like KFC. But other than food there hasn't been much else I even really wanted to buy.
I feel like the experience has opened my eyes to how little I actually need to buy things. I used to buy food whenever I was out, now it doesn't even really cross my mind. I know that just me not buying anything for like three weeks is probably not going to do anything for the environment, but doing this has showed me that I really really don't need to, and it's probably something I'll continue to do for the rest of my life, well at least hugely reduce the ammount I was consuming before.
I'm really glad I decided to take this on because now I have more money for other things that are more important to me, and I feel like I have learned to do something that I never would have had the will to do before.