Buying

Because our entire community exists, in large part, on a bartering and trading system it can be hard to make purchases in the real world. I scoff at the notion of buying a $12 bottle of shampoo because $12 sounds like so much money to me and why wouldn’t I just make my own shampoo and how long will it last me anyway and how often is it responsible to was my hair etc etc etc. Perhaps one reason I left the city to live in a small community is the overwhelming consistency of too many choices – all of them expensive.

So beyond buying from my friends and neighbors, I try to do as little shopping as possible. I don’t shop online, I don’t even have internet at the house. I just have a limited amount of cellular data each month.

A neighbor and I leave the community once a month on what we call a “dry get.” It’s basically just a journey to get dry goods for community share night. This is the task to which we were assigned by the CL (Community Leader) and we take it very seriously.

We stock up on paper goods (toilet paper, paper towels, etc), dried edible goods (beans, flour, etc) and any needs that have been identified by CL. We don’t question the task or the list of items and then we leave them at CL’s so that they may be sorted and rationed.