Goodbye to consumerism - hello to buy NOTHING for a year challenge

Sat in bed in my gorgeous rented Paris apartment and totally alone as sis went back to London this evening to get A-Level results tomorrow (lawd I pray she gets the 3As she needs) and newly acquired little sister has gone home after subjecting me to another of her nightly horror movies (kids these days) and I'm well and truly alone and at the very start of creating this blog, promised myself it was not going to be a stream of consciousness - I've got my journal for that and given that my readership is dwindling (probably due to my only two readers doing better things like getting ready for a wedding - seriously excited Rach) its like my normal talking to myself skit anyway, so stream of consciousness away. I haven't blogged for forever - Paris has been great, but not life-changing or soul-touching yet, Ghana was really AMAZING, and deserving of a dedicated post - so not noted anything on the UK riots (go eff yourself, racist prick Starkey - is my astute take on that for the moment), my Paris experience or anything. What I am going to note about my Paris experience apart from slight culture fatigue
(you can't take a fart without it blowing onto some museum or another) is how it has heightened my consumerism and how physically sick I felt visiting a shopping mall. Have decided that shopping malls are my worst nightmare. Went to the Millenaire Shopping Mall last Tuesday to look for brogues for Ghana and true to Thomas' word, not a single tourist in sight, but he hadn't warned me how desolate and sick I would feel and then and there I resolved to really faithfully undertake a buy nothing for a year challenge as a way to clear my debts, find better use for my time and rid myself of my consumer guilt.

I spend money stupidly - I had actually been really good since starting the blog, however the Whistles sale was my downfall and I have no self-control, so it continued, all the way to Paris and the purchase of four sets of gorgeous Princess Tam-Tam lingerie, a Les Petite silk shirt-dress and a cast-iron Japanese tea set - all things I've been lusting over for forever, but as grateful as I am for being able to acquire them, they've not added the much searched for meaning in my life and I end up feeling guilty for the instance gratification.

Anyway, apologies for the above diatribe, this is what I'm mean by buy nothing for a year:

• Absolutely NO clothes of any description for a whole year: only exceptions are running related clothing, was going to say replacement shoes, but as I have over 10 pairs, don't think I'm going to wear them all out by August 2012.

• No buying of expensive 'superfoods' - in fact no visits to any stores that are prefixed or suffixed 'Organic' or 'Whole' - exceptions are herbs from Brixton WholeFoods

• No books or CDs - exception is a £5 monthly allowance for downloads from iTunes

• No beddings or kitchenware, no exceptions unless replacing juicer or a broken utensil

• Maximum of £5 per person on materials for making creative gifts

• A monthly budget not exceeding £120 a month on food and personal hygiene buys

• A monthly spend of £50 max on entertainment and expenditure related to 30before30challenge; obvious exceptions are travelling expenses

• Buy NO food/snacks while out - be sufficiently organised to always have enough to eat; exceptions are birthday dinners etc but must come out of entertainment budget

What the above is going to require is a shit-load of planning and organisation, creativity and determination and will-power, NONE of which come naturally to me, so its really going to be a massive challenge.