buy nothing

i was recently reminded that there is another tradition the day after Thanksgiving that we don't hear as much about:  buy nothing friday.

the idea is, you have what you need and you are content without necessarily needing to purchase anything. 

even as much as i love this, i did make a couple of small purchases in which case it was a "buy as little as possible" or "buy not much" day for me.

when i do shop, i'm all for supporting small, locally owned businesses as much as possible, plus it's fun to walk to the stores and catch up in person with the shop owners.

it's a good mental exercise for me to stop and think, "do i really need x, y, or z?" and if the answer is yes, then "do i really need it now or can it wait?  and where would be the most helpful to my community to purchase it?"