08 No New Things
Today is all about silencing marketing and advertising.
Action 1: UnsubscribeI have found and followed this advice before. It felt so good, so purposeful, the first time I went through my email and unsubscribed to marketing emails. And then, oh, another one pop up - forgot about that one. Another would sneak in. How'd that get there? And now, years later, I am just so fed up with how often I have to re-unsubscribe to the same companies. How is that happening? How do they keep "getting my permission" to email me things again? How many times do they change their email policy or frequency that inevitably floods my inbox again? It's annoying. I'm annoyed.
As I said, the first few times I've done this felt great. Now it's just another onerous chore I have to deal with every time I check my email. I want a better solution to this. And honestly it doesn't seem like Ashlee Piper has any good answers for me on this.
Action Item 2: Delete retailer apps that are sending me push notifications
What's a retailer app? Why would anyone download one? People use push notifications for things that aren't direct messages? I'm flummoxed.
Action Item 3: Take inventory of streaming services
I did this around December/January when I was starting my Low Buy Year. I canceled Apple Music because I realized a much better value for me would be to buy song singles or albums when I wanted them as opposed to a monthly subscription. Over the year I had it, I paid $15 per month. I'm not sure I listened to enough new music to make that price worth it. And after I canceled, I didn't get to keep any of the albums I downloaded and enjoyed anyway! I wished I had just bought the digital albums outright from the start.
As for streaming services, we have Disney+ and Netflix, the cheapest versions of each. I am not being influeced by the ads enough to go out and spend more than the difference in cost to pay to have ads removed. Does that make sense? For us and our family, it is cheaper across the board to deal with the ads because they are not causing us to spend more elsewhere.
Action Item 4: Get off junk mail lists
Luckily, we don't get much junk mail. (I'm comparing myself to my parents who get a RIDICULOUS amount.) It mostly goes straight into the recycle bin. Sometimes I'll open it - mostly to see if there is a return envelope inside that I can reuse for a different purpose.
Action Item 5: Curate social media
I feel like this is something I also dove into years ago when I first started practicing minimalism. I have been off most social media for at least 5 years because it felt toxic to me. My weakness is YouTube. I don't really buy a lot of stuff from there, but I'm CERTAINLY tempted. I'm mostly unhappy with how much of a time-suck I let it be, when I really should be using the streaming services I PAY for to watch the thoughtfully produced visual stories that I really enjoy.
Thought-provoking stuff for sure today, but I don't think any of it will be life-changing for me. Good to keep up the practice though!
Things I didn't buy today:
- <nothing>....$0
TOTAL....$78
Success.