How to give up shopping and become happy?

“Black Friday”, seasonal sales, discounts on holidays, bright window displays, mesmerizing advertisements, great deals. The whole world sells and buys, produces and consumes. We unconsciously feel uncomfortable if at least one day goes by without shopping. Going to shopping malls has become the easiest way for us to dispel the blues and from our very birth a causal relationship is structured in our head: shop means purchase which equals joy.

Amid all this riot of miraculous goods and mega discounts, surprisingly enough, there are adherents of conscious consumption, urging customers to completely abandon purchases for at least one day and not to visit hypermarkets or online stores.

Well, let us see what happens if we can arrange a weekend without shopping? Imagine two days of completely abandoning purchases and trying to enjoy something other than a new lipstick, earrings, a dress, a delicious cake and a chocolate bar. These are several hours of your life, free from the traps of supermarkets. Now how to choose the best entertainment that can make one not hang about store shelves next weekend?

Here we have some interesting ideas for you

1. Museum instead of a hypermarket

For many of us shopping is a kind of meditation: we walk through a beautifully decorated shopping center, look at the windows until we fall into one of the traps of experienced marketers. Therefore we suggest you choose a museum instead of a store. Imagine how your aesthetic taste and erudition would develop if every time, instead of “shopping” at the sales, you would go to contemplate art or learn history.

2. Prepare dinner

An ordinary situation: You run out of bread and you rush to the nearest market at full speed and spend all the money that you had with you on nuts, sweets, buns, discounted juice, on shampoo that was on sale. Although it was quite possible to have dinner without bread or to quickly bake some cakes, for you definitely have flour, salt, soda, kefir or water at home. Try to cook at home: if you want something sweet make a pie from what is at hand, decorate with homemade meringues, cook compote and enjoy life.

3. Become a researcher

We often do not know the city or even the district in which we live, because we are used to the route “home work home shopping centre”. This weekend we suggest you invite your friends to go on a hike. Perhaps not far from you there is a charming old park. Go and breathe deeply, absorb the sun's rays or catch snowflakes with your eyelashes. Enjoy your life!

4. Get rid of junk

A weekend without shopping is a good time to focus on your living space. Do you want to add a note of freshness and lightness to your everyday life? No, you don’t have to run to the store for a new home fragrance. Instead of filling your home with new things, you’d better remove all the unnecessary things. Sort out your kitchen cabinets or check the accessories in the bathroom and, of course, do not forget the main element in the house your wardrobe.

5. Repair something

The vacuum cleaner has broken down and you immediately plan to buy a new one. Well, why not try to repair it? The heel of a favorite shoe comes off. Do not hurry to the mall, rather visit the shoe repairer. Your child has ripped his jacket? It’s a piece of cake: sew on an applique and the jacket can be worn before your child grows out of it.

6. Exchange items with friends, acquaintances and the whole world

Did you run through all the childrens’ stores in search of a baby cot that suits you in terms of price and quality? Your neighbors are likely to have a cot you dream about, and they desperately need the piano that takes up half your living room and you just don't know where to put it.

Do not hesitate to ask your relatives, friends and acquaintances about the things you need. Thus you can get them at an affordable price or change or receive them as a gift. Use social networks or special exchange sites. Be generous with the world, give the people around you useful things that you no longer use and the world will be generous with you in return.

SAFIA FOKINA

ISLAM.RU WEBSITE CORRESPONDENT