Buy Nothing New. Fail.

Oh readers, I am ashamed. I pledged to Buy Nothing New. I have broken my pledge. I have Bought New Things.

This is like eating all of your butterscotch lollies in the first 30 minutes of the 40 Hour Famine and then going through McDonald's drive-through for a Big Mac meal and a box of McDonaldland cookies.

Let me walk you through how we got from the excitement of last Thursday to the shame of today.

Thursday
Things started so well. Miss E and I visited my mum and requested the loan of a cake tin. I explained that I could not buy my own cake tin as I was Buying Nothing New! Mum searched her cupboard. She had to get so far into her cupboard, I thought there was a good chance she could reach Narnia and have a conversation with Mr. Tumnas.

Mum returned from the depths of her cupboard to report that my sister had borrowed her best cake tin. She'd gotten there about six months before me. Apparently, she is buying nothing new either.

However, Mum didn't return from Narnia empty-handed.  She gave me a slightly dented square cake tin. I accepted it happily and returned home feeling very pleased with myself and my commitment to my pledge to Buy Nothing New.

Friday
I used the slightly dented square tin to bake a banana cake.

I thought it was fine but then I removed it from the tin...

It resembled a giant slice of banana toast rather than a banana cake. To give you a sense of scale, the cake is sitting on a dinner plate.

I checked my recipe and realised I had omitted two of the required tablespoons of self-raising flour AND had used a tin that was far bigger than required.

I was slightly troubled by my banana cake's appearance but, overall, I was delighted. I was filled with satisfaction that only comes from taking a black banana, butter, eggs and some flour and producing a cake. This feeling was new to me.

Fuelled by my satisfaction, I became determined to own my own cake tins so that I could continue this lovely baking experience.

Mr. B's mum popped over for a visit so she joined Miss E and I on our quest to own cake tins. We set out on a journey to the local op shops.

I was filled with high op shop hopes. The op shop volunteers were extremely helpful. One kind op shop man embarked on a lengthy "out the back" search but, sadly, returned empty handed.

Our op shop visits were fruitless.

Undeterred, I put a message out to my Freecycle community. I asked the community if anyone had any cake tins they could spare. I love the Freecycle community.

Saturday
Mr. B, Miss E and I left the house - with the banana cake - early on Saturday morning to attend a four-hour Child First Aid course. We discovered that someone had broken into our cars! No! Horrifying. Nothing had been taken but the locks were broken.

While we were aware that this was not the crime of the century, we thought the local police would like to be informed. We were very impressed by their response. The constable was very sympathetic and promised that the Crimes Unit would attend. However, he did laugh when I suggested that we "nail these bastards".

This incident really has nothing to do with my Buy Nothing New pledge but I thought you'd like to know about it.

I did receive word from two members of the Freecycle community. They had cake tins for me. Coincidentally, they were from the same suburb (as each other - not the same suburb as me). It must be a suburb where baking used to take place but no longer. Unfortunately, the suburb was very far away from our suburb. I wanted the cake tins but I didn't want to drive an hour to get them.

Sunday
I left the house on Sunday morning to do the supermarket shopping. This is where things went downhill. I decided to have a quick look in Harris Scarfe. Danger.

It was at Harris Scarfe that my commitment to my Buy Nothing New pledge crumbled.

50% off bakeware.

I couldn't resist it.

I considered hiding the bags in the car until November, but, given recent events, decided that they would be at risk of being stolen.

So, I took my New Things into the house. I could see that Mr. B, as my husband, was fairly concerned, that I could make a public commitment and break it after three days.

The cruel tragedy is that I haven't bought anything new for months. But, that is no excuse. You can't eat a Big Mac during the 40 Hour Famine and say that you skipped dinner last week.

I called my mum to alert her.

Me: Mum, I have a problem. I broke my Buy Nothing New pledge. 50% off bakeware at Harris Scarfe.
Mum: Oh well, I think one cake tin is okay.
Me: I bought a cake tin, a cooling rack, a loaf pan, two mini muffin trays and some wooden spoons.
Mum: Oh.
Me: But it only cost me $30.35.
Mum: Oh! Great! Can you go back and get a cake tin for your sister?

Thanks Mum.

The Buy Nothing New campaign is offering a $5000 prize for the best documentation of the Buy Nothing New experience. I'd say I've disqualified myself. It is a shame. I could have bought some full-size muffin trays with that cash.










My three key points:

1. Be very careful about making a pledge and publicly announcing it.

2. Be very, very careful about entering Harris Scarfe when they have a 30% - 60% off sale.

3. Stay tuned for tales of my first forays into baking.