I have observed Buy Nothing day(s) since the early 2000s. My personal philosophy is, this is a day set aside to meditate on the difference between want and need.

Do you need to queue up at 4pm on Thanksgiving night to fill your car with cut-rate b-stock imported consumer goods made specifically for $10 door buster sales? No. Fucking nobody does. Your family hates receiving gifts from you, because it's all bound for the landfill in a few months.

Do you need food? Yeah. And maybe the produce is all on sale today.

Think of the labor and the plastic and the waste before you participate in conspicuous consumption. Think of the fuel it takes to get from the factory to the port, across the seas, into a warehouse or a plane, just to be purchased and discarded after a day or a month or a year. This is one of the ways we're dooming ourselves as a species.

Like everything else, just do the best you can. If you need groceries or gas or medicine, go buy them. Meet your needs. If you want the big TV, and the price is right, do it. But think a bit about second hand goods, or working with what you have, or going without. Refurbishment sites exist, and a two year old item is functionally the same as a new one. Not much changes year over year. They just make you think it changes.

What are your needs today?