Why are we writing a book called The Buy Nothing, Get Everything Plan and asking people to buy a copy? 

 

Yes, we get the irony. 

 

More than anything, we want you to READ our book! And we’ll be thrilled if you find a copy to read using any of our favorite Buy Nothing, Get Everything methods:
 

• If you borrow the book from your local public library, we’ll be tickled pink. 

• If you receive the book from a neighbor in your Buy Nothing Project group, as part of a Buy Nothing, Get Everything Round Robin, we’ll give you a high-five. 

• If you walk to your Little Free Library every day jonesing on the off chance someone threw theirs in it, we’ll be on cloud nine.

• If you ask for the book in your local gift economy, we’ll be proud.

• If you ask your Aunt Eunice to buy you one for your birthday, we’ll be full of glee.

• If you ask your Uncle Albert to read it to you over the phone, we’ll be over the moon.

• If you join our Buy Nothing, Get Everything forum in hopes to glean what’s in the book from people’s comments, without buying it, we’ll get it.

• If you dumpster dive outside one of our critic’s houses in hopes they’ve thrown it out, we’ll be electrified.

• If you preorder the book for yourself, we’ll send you a personalized autographed bookplate to express our gratitude

• If you buy another one to share with others, we’ll be elated (and we’ll send you an autographed bookplate and a special sharing bookplate!)
   

You can also support these ideas by sharing to empower others to Buy Nothing and Get Everything. We’ve got some ideas to get you started:
 

•  Leave a copy on a park bench.

•  Tuck it into a Little Free Library.

•  Sneak a copy into the magazine stack at your favorite dentist’s office.

•  Read it while waiting in the checkout line at your nearby big box store, then hand it off to someone as they walk in. 

•  Gift a copy to your in-laws before the plastic toy years begin for your baby. 

•  Hang it from your teen’s mirror before they head out to the mall.

•  Celebrate Black Friday by passing out copies to people waiting in store lines for more new stuff. 

 

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But seriously...We get plenty of comments about the irony of our book’s title, The Buy Nothing, Get Everything Plan. We’ve heard all the jokes and have come up with plenty of our own. 

We are the founders of the Buy Nothing Project, and this book represents what we’ve learned through 12+ years of our freely-given, unpaid, volunteer labor to, among other things: 

 

• Document and spread awareness about plastic pollution in our local environment; 

• Develop and share a host of reduce-reuse-rethink solutions and tutorials; 

• Experiment with and understand how to inspire a lasting shift from a scarcity mindset to one that trusts in our collective abundance and innate generosity; 

• Experiment with and understand how to foster a gift economy mindset and the development of an international network of free, local gift economy groups that welcome all people. 

• Start an international person-to-person gift economy disaster aid program. 

• Create an international Travelers’ Network, where travelers ask for what they need, without buying, and share what they have in excess before they return home.

• Launch a 15,000-member movement asking people to take a 7-day challenge to buy less, and share more. 

• Start a weekly, local free pop-up potluck to share garden and kitchen bounty. 

• Study the impact sharing can have on building community. 

• Launch a collaborative community project to hide poetry and found objects in freely-given reused jars.

• Develop and share a school curriculum combining citizen science on local beaches and classroom waste audits.

• Experiment with plastic-free living and help build a web app to provide plastic-free options for most things in life.

• Develop an innovative local lending library model that requires no building or staff 

• Create and share free a zero waste household guide. 

• Create and share a free community roadmap to zero waste to link people to accessible next-life options for their stuff.

• Build a social media platform with a purpose.

• Conduct waste audits in remote villages in Nepal.

• Start Garden Glove Love, a free protective gear program for people who make their living sorting waste in Kathmandu. 

• Establish 6 Magic Yeti children’s libraries in remote villages in the high Himalaya, all  supplied with books freely given by children all over the world. 

• Set up a local Garden Share group where everyone shares their perennial plants and edibles, too. 

• Record and share all of these experiences through film, writing, and finished art pieces.  

 

This book isn’t just in line with the philosophy behind the Buy Nothing Project, it IS this philosophy, and it’s about a whole lot more than the groups that make up the Buy Nothing Project.

We have poured our hearts and souls into this book because we want the lessons we’ve learned to outlast us, to outlast social media, and to be more accessible to as many people around the world as possible, starting as soon as possible. Not all people have Buy Nothing groups in their communities, and some do not want to be on Facebook, so this is a way to reach them. In addition to being the founders of the Buy Nothing Project, we are also writers and creators of content, and this book, like all books, is a creative product. We believe that creative work is important to society, that books have power to inspire positive social change, and that people who produce creative work deserve support. When it comes to books, many hands are necessary, including authors, editors, copy editors, typesetters, booksellers, and finally, readers. 

 

We hope you read our book.