Squamish woman gives up shopping for year, pens experience in new book
Posted February 4, 2018 11:16 am.
Last Updated October 18, 2021 12:08 pm.
SQUAMISH (NEWS 1130) – Many of us may be living a lifestyle we can’t afford, but a woman from Squamish found a way to break that cycle. She didn’t buy anything for a year and lived to tell her tale in a new book she wrote called The Year of Less.
Like many people, Cait Flanders was leading a life she couldn’t afford, often making what she describes as aspirational purchases.
“I aspired to use or I thought that in owning them they would kind of just make me like this more interesting or talented or creative version of myself. But the real me didn’t actually want to use that stuff.”
She also discovered she had always turned to shopping, alcohol, and food when faced with hardship, and it was only after that discovery was she able to correct those habits once and for all.
It was only when she decided to give up shopping for a year she realized how often she was doing it. “Anytime I heard of a book or something that sounded interesting, I was like immediately online, adding it to shopping cart.”
Soon, her shopping habits were taking over her finances. “The problem is when you have a lifestyle where you kind of need all of your income, when we want more stuff, we need more money.”
The book isn’t just about giving up shopping. Flanders also talks about consuming less overall, everything from booze to television, and how by the end of her experiment, she felt more fulfilled than ever before.
