My second no buy month

The second month of my no-buy year has gone with an interesting set of decisions.

The first was the hardest: Books at the Geneva Writers Conference. In principle I like to support writers, especially ones I know. However, I did jot down the titles of the books I wanted and will order them next year.

This was the month I was going to buy new boots. Well I went through the shops and what was left didn’t fit. That was one of the three planned purchases—a pen (bought) boots (not bought) agenda (not needed yet).

The third was the necklace in the photo. I couldn’t get a clear picture, but it is a bunch of grapes with leaves in three-colour gold. The chain, not the necklace is the problem. My (late and favourite) Uncle Pat gave it to me. When he had cancer, I kept sending him jokes (often with penguins) and the necklace was a thank you. He survived the cancer, but was felled by a heart attack in the middle of a tennis game, the best way he could have possibly died. (Probably a French death notice would read, he returned his last volley).

I thought I’d lost the necklace, which disappeared after I cat sat Taddy, a black sweetheart whom I suspect knocked it off my night stand. I looked all around. I hoovered and went through the dustbag…I even checked the kitty litter in case it passed through her system. Then when I moved two years later and the nightstand was carried out, there it was. I put it on and hadn’t taken it off until it caught on my sweater, which, when I pulled it off, tore the clasp. I could get a new clasp, but that too will wait till next year.

Now to go to the ridiculous, I seriously considered the Mercedes for 11,000 Euros…me who has refused to have a car since 1993…me who feels guilty the few times she does use a car when there were public transportation alternatives feels for every second the engine runs I am killing the planet.

I could picture myself driving up the French autoroute on my way back to Geneva (no matter that gas and tolls cost more than a train ticket, no matter that reading and sleeping in transit can’t or shouldn’t be done when behind the wheel, no matter I would be killing the planet).

In the end I came to the conclusion that the car, although affordable, would need repairs, insurance, gas, and a place to leave it…all costs I don’t want to assume. And if it were like the last car I owned that would be untouched for weeks at a time the money invested didn’t make any sense. To own a Mercedes and maybe drive it 300 Kilometres a year is stupid at best.

I did break down and buy two small gifts, but that was because I was invited to two homes for meals and I needed hostess gifts.

So that was my non-consumer month for February. I wonder what will tempt me in March.