Did you participate in "BUY NOTHING DAY" today?

[DainBramaged]

Poll question: Did you participate in "BUY NOTHING DAY" today?

I know there are a lot of interpretations of buy nothing day. Personally medicine and food shouldn't count, but if some of you think so , meh. I almost bought stuff on EBay but changed my mind when I though about the crassness of today. Black Friday, the annual throwing to the wolves of human reason and falling into the buying trap. My beautiful Daughter asked for one thing for Christmas, and I was amazed at her selflessness as opposed to previous years. My Sweetie and I will probably exchange cards and a few goofy items, but we need nothing and enjoy each other's company more than anything.


So have at it. It will be interesting to see the responses, if you are interested at all.

[qnr]

1. Um, yeah - but I didn't know it was an organized thing, I just didn't feel like

spending any money. I might do something for the Small Business Saturday, but I haven't decided yet.

[MrsCorleone]

36. I like this:

Small Business Saturday

:toast:

[ThatsMyBarack]

2. Like a fool....

I actually *worked* today! ;)

[Demoiselle]

3. I never shop on the day after Thanksgiving.

Or even the weekend after Thanksgiving, except for necessities like groceries.
Shopping is enough of a pain in the ass without being submerged in a mob.
And yes, my head just exploded.

[soleiri]

4. I voted Kitteh

I will always vote Kitteh.


I didn't buy anything. No statement, I just don't have money right now.

We're not giving or getting a lot of stuff for Christmas this year, I'm tired of the crassness of the season, too.
Instead I'm taking my sons to a couple of shows next year, since they've both developed an appreciation for the theater.

[Chipper Chat]

5. I didn't buy anything today.

But I had no idea I was "participating" in something. I'm just frugal by nature.

[Mimosa]

6. I never participate in the post T-Day consumerist mania

Great topic as usual, Dain! :D

Even if I had young children, I wouldn't be manipulated by business into forgetting what Thanksgiving, Hanuka or Christmas is about. I feel sorry for overworked retail employees who are forced to work ridiculous hours on national holidays.

*oh, I voted ' Kitteh, the solution...*

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

7. Just a little food. In my town of 1200 I know where the money goes.

I voted other.

[Edweird]

8. I bought nothing. I returned a rented tool to an auto parts store and got $170.00 back. Do I win?

[Saturday]

9. Our mall parking lot was jammed with cars.

I've never seen it so full. I bought 2 packages of LED Christmas lights for $1.98 each. Sorry but today was the only day they were so cheap.

[Sanity Claws]

10. Bought nothing

Absolutely nothing.
I wish I could say that I did it out principle. I bought nothing because I lack cash.

[Blue_In_AK]

11. We're going to Costa Rica in January

so nobody's getting Christmas presents except the grandkids. Our whole family has agreed to seriously scale back the past two Christmases, and it's been WONDERFUL. My daughters our old enough that they don't really care if they get presents or not, and they all appreciate not having to buy two more gifts for me and my husband. Christmas gifts are for children, anyway, in my opinion.

[onehandle]

12. I bought a loaf of French bread. $1.29 nt

[SharonRB]

13. I stayed in my bathrobe all day

Didn't go out for anything, but didn't know there was something organized going on.

[etherealtruth]

14. Stayed in sweats (my equivalent of a bathrobe)

:)

[Duer 157099]

55. I went out in my sweats and BOUGHT a bathrobe!

Seriously, I really did. Half price, needed it.

Now I am lounging in sweatpants and a bathrobe, lol (it's freezing here).

[TheCowsCameHome]

15. Bought 0 - Sold 0

I'm even for the day.

[taterguy]

16. I had an inexplicable craving to buy a Chevy but since it's Buy Nothing Day I didn't

And now the craving is gone.

[Terra Alta]

17. I had to work today

I had to be a good ol' Wally World at 4:45 this morning.. lots of people getting in on the deals but I was not among them; if I didn't have to work I wouldn't have been in the middle of that mess.

[femmocrat]

18. I'm not leaving the house until Monday!

I didn't even do any online shopping today. :hi:

[ZombieHorde]

19. I voted, "Other, for those who just need to explain"

I did not buy anything today, but I did not know today was Buy Nothing Day. I don't buy things everyday.

[greytdemocrat]

20. I had to work today...

So there was no shopping for me. My better half did do some but not much.
We have to watch the $$$.

[CoffeeCat]

21. I shopped like a crazy fool and had a great time!

A local department store had a "$10 off any $10 purchase" coupons in our local paper. I bought 30 papers
to get 30 of these coupons.

I purchased clothes for my two children, and some other stuff that we needed.

I shop the clearance racks, combine the clearance price with the $10 coupons--and I got jeans for my tween
girls, cool shirts and sweaters--and some sweaters for myself. I even bought some nice bed pillows that
we were desperately needing. I'll sleep well tonight. I paid $1.05 for three pillows.

My husband and I added up the retail price of the clothes--before sales discounts and the $10 coupon discounts. I purchased
$600 worth of clothing and other items for under $100. The kids now have 9 new pairs of jeans and 8 new sweaters/glittery t-shirts.
These are all name-brand clothing items too.

Listen, if the stores want us to come out and shop--I'll come out and shop--but I'm getting great deals and taking no prisoners! :)

You can beat them at their own game, you just have to know how to play the game.

[Mimosa]

22. Coffeecat, you helped me understand why people do it.

:D

[Habibi]

48. Dang, woman, you ought to run a webinar.

[coalition_unwilling]

56. Sorry if I seem obtuse, but isn't $10 off a $10 purchase net of $0? So

how could any store make money with that type of offer?

[Initech]

23. I'll probably go out with friends and buy beer later. But that's about it.

Other than that, I couldn't give two shits about Black Friday. Yesterday though I did score all 3 seasons of Mad Men on Blu Ray for $10 each.

[LWolf]

24. Other.

I went nowhere and spent no money. A family member that works in a department store had to work today in the toy section...poor thing. She, before she left work, picked up a space heater that was on sale for me. With the sale plus her employee discount, I'll get it for about 25% of it's normal price. I'll pick it up and pay her next time I'm in town.

[glen123098]

25. I don't understand the concept behind "Buy nothing day"

If you are gonna buy your stuff, you might as well buy it when it is on sale. If you feel like "sticking it to the corporations," what will buying stuff when its retail price prove? You're just giving the corporations more money. SO for the record, I have been saving up for this day and bought several things. An artificial tree from Kmart for 20 bucks, a nook Ereader from overstock for 86 bucks, and a 60 inch DLP big screen for 600 bucks from amazon.

[Posteritatis]

27. I stopped taking it seriously when I saw Buy Nothing Day t-shirts. (nt)

[proud2BlibKansan]

44. I gave it up for good when that WalMart worker was killed a few years ago

Saving money is not worth workers dying.

[glen123098]

51. Yeah thats right.

Anyone who would trample on a WalMart worker to save money is a complete asshole. I did not buy anything at physical store today, everything I got was online. But If I were to go to a store, rule number one is to remain calm. Its not worth going to jail to save 50 bucks.

[coalition_unwilling]

60. I think the idea behind "BND" is that you don't allow yourself to get

sucked into the consumerist mentality of buying shit you don't need just because all the advertising is hyping consumption for consumption's sake.

It's also a way of sticking a finger in the eye of corporate America, at least for me. As in: "Fuck you (corporate America) and your consumerist\materialist bullshit culture that gave us 8 years of George W. Bush, 10% unemployment, torture and war crimes. Take your corporate greed parasitism and shove it up your collective asses."

Whew! Rant over :)

If you know you are going to buy something anyway and it happens to be on sale on Black Friday, I say go for it.

[coalition_unwilling]

61. I think the idea behind "BND" is that you don't allow yourself to get

sucked into the consumerist mentality of buying shit you don't need just because all the advertising is hyping consumption for consumption's sake.

It's also a way of sticking a finger in the eye of corporate America, at least for me. As in: "Fuck you (corporate America) and your consumerist\materialist bullshit culture that gave us 8 years of George W. Bush, 10% unemployment, torture and war crimes. Take your corporate greed parasitism and shove it up your collective asses."

Whew! Rant over :)

If you know you are going to buy something anyway and it happens to be on sale on Black Friday, I say go for it.

[bluestate10]

65. Reason among the din. Thanks. nt

[The_Commonist]

26. Kitteh...

I bought a box of cereal and a carton of soy milk.
Some of my friends were going to Rev. Billy's Opt-Out-athon.
But I opted out, because I would have had to buy a Metrocard.

[quaker bill]

28. parts to fix the toilet

because it needed fixing...

[PDJane]

29. Nope.

Bought a few food items to get me through till my cheque arrives next week, and that's it. Spent some time in conversation with a few neighbours, got my mother to tell me, "Child of mine,you have an odd sense of humour." Did some needlework, read a book. Shopping? Meh. I can live without.

[Moostache]

30. Not one red cent leave my accountrs today.

I am for going further on this - as far as buy nothing for their whole stupid holiday season! Fuck consumeritalism entirely!!!

[roody]

41. +1

[mwooldri]

31. Which timezone?

Had to make a purchase today but I ended up buying it tomorrow, even though tomorrow is not here yet.

Oh the joys of shopping online across continents...

[madinmaryland]

32. I bought a case of beer at my locally owned package store, and my

wife bought a prescription for her eye problems.

That was it.

[AlabamaLibrul]

33. I bought postage, but it was because I sold a camera on ebay... Does that count? n/t

[BuelahWitch]

34. I bought 2 textbooks for spring semester on Amazon

It wasn't Christmas stuff, so does that count? I didn't go to the stores at all, I hate crowds.

[Arkansas Granny]

35. I didn't buy anything today, but I didn't know about "Buy Nothing Day" so

I can't really say that I ws participating in anything. I just had other things to do today and most of my shopping is already done.

[kgnu_fan]

37. You know what? I already have everything I need!!!!!! I just went to walk in the forest, beautiful!!

[defendandprotect]

38. L&T had a $20 certificate off $40 purchase if you shopped between 5am and 1pm today....

passed that up but did buy a soup for lunch at King's!

Everything in our stores seems to be pretty much NOT "made in America" -- depressing!!

[earth mom]

39. Does bidding on a couple of vintage items on ebay count? I haven't won any of the items...yet.

:hide:

p.s. I can't stand the Black Friday mentality at all, but I did buy a newspaper to look at the ads to see what the hype was all about.

Verdict: Ugh-more plastic crap that will break and end up in the landfill in a few years.

[Speck Tater]

40. I didn't know it was a "thing". Besides, I usually only buy stuff once a month

when I make my monthly trip into town. I never really have been a "consumer".

[David__77]

42. I had no idea some opposed commerce on this day.

I did buy some things - clothing and shoes. They were reduced in price.

[Kali]

43. oh hell no - no shopping for me

1) broke

2) lazy

3) hate crowds

4) hate shopping

5) exhausted from cooking for two days

6) broke

[Raine]

45. I went to the market

and bought groceries but that's it.

[Habibi]

46. Went out to lunch, got a massage, then went out to dinner

--all local bidnesses, no chains. "Small-business Friday", I guess. It's my birthday, so I had to spend *some* money. :-)

[Telly Savalas]

47. I forgot to protest consumerism by shifting my purchases to the other 364 days of the year

and bought some books.

[DainBramaged]

53. It has to start SOMEWHERE or it won't start at all

:eyes:

[Incitatus]

49. I drove past the mall today

Thank God for Ebay.

[Iggo]

50. Hell no.

I hit the mall, shopped, people-watched, ate lunch, shopped some more, and now I'm done xmas shopping 'til next year.

And I feel great!

[RB TexLa]

52. I bought an energy drink and a pack of cigarettes. I buy as little as possible, other people don't

deserve to have my money.

[Avalux]

54. I didn't go anywhere today and it was WONDERFUL.

The past few days were busy with family and Thanksgiving, all I did today was lounge around in my pjs, watch movies and eat leftovers. I can't think of anything worse than subjecting myself to Black Friday. What I did was for my soul though, not for an organized event.

[Spirochete]

57. Not quite

I had to go pick up a couple prescriptions.
Nothing other than that, though.

[Historic NY]

58. Just food the company ate everything except the beer.....

:donut:

[Individualist]

59. Driving round and round parking lots looking for a space is not my idea of a good time!

I stayed home today and won't go out until Monday.

[EFerrari]

62. I only ever did Black Friday once, when I was about 24.

In a way, it was great. I had fun with my sister in law and got some nice deals on things like shoes that I wouldn't have been able to buy otherwise. But the whole time, I'd have rather been home with my husband and the kids. We had so little free time together, those hours were more important than shoes or whatever the hell I bought that day. lol

[AnnieBW]

63. Nothin' but Noms

Well, noms for hoomans, not for the kittehs. I bought breakfast and lunch, stopped and got some beef cubes for making stroganoff, then hubby bought dinner.

[blondeatlast]

64. Other: I was at the Grand Canyon, bought a few souvenirs, then bought some

stuff at the reservation roadside stands.

No retail, though; I wasn't within 100 miles of a mall!

[TheMightyFavog]

66. All I bought was a cup of coffee at a gas station on the way to work

Hey, it's actually decent joe, and all sizes are only 99 cents, plus I had to work this morning, all day, and the wind chill was fucking cold. BTW you don't want to drink the coffee at my work. No, seriously, you don't want to drink it. Makes the swill they served at my college's dining hall drinkable by comparison. Guys who have been in the service would complain about it.

[petronius]

67. Didn't buy anything today, but I can say that on most days so I wouldn't say that I

participated in anything, particularly. Just had other things to do and places to be today...