In my daily bid to Penny Pinch and make my wages stretch as far as possible each month I have been trying out the relatively unknown concept of 'Compacting' an idea which has recently hit our shores from America (Where else!).
It all started in 2006 when a group of individuals in San Francisco (obviously with more money than sense) decided to commit themselves to a 12-month challenge to compact their lives and go beyond recycling to counteract the negative consumer culture and resist global corporatism.
About 50 teachers, engineers, executives and other professionals had made the vow to not buy anything that year, except food, health and safety items and underwear. They called themselves 'The Compact'. And even set up an on-line group on Yahoo.

The Compact group has several aims, including:
• To go beyond recycling in trying to counteract the negative global environmental and socioeconomic impacts of disposable consumer culture and to support local businesses, farms, etc.
• To reduce clutter and waste in the home (as in trash compact-er)
• To simplify our lives (as in Calm-pact)
In other words don't buy new products of any kind (from stores, web sites, etc)
Wow! That's quite a commitment and one I admire but am all too aware would be an unhappy existence for me to follow to the letter and almost impossible to achieve living with someone who has no intention of missing out on the luxuries in life, (ie the *loml) like the next Xbox game, DVD or motorbike accessory.
But it did give me the idea of de-cluttering my life, my make-up, clothes, accessories and house-hold stuff and stop the unnecessary spending- I'm a sucker for stocking up and double buying products I like. So this weekend I will be mostly making lists of all my boxes, draws, wardrobes and cupboards full of stuff so I don’t go shopping for any replacements until they are completely finished.

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