I am an anti-consumerist.
The seeds were planted when I first moved from Pittsburgh to Florida in 2001. We needed an entire tractor trailer to haul our stuff and had to rent a $250/month storage unit on top of our 2000 sq. ft townhome to store it. When we moved back to Pittsburgh 2 years later, more than half of that stuff was discarded. I regreted all the money I had wasted on books, clothes and furniture.
Five years later I discovered the financial independence/early retirement movement via blogs discussing Dave Ramsey’s baby steps, minimalism and early retirement.
I began to question everything I thought I knew.
I started to recognize how pervasive marketing and manipulation was used to promote consumption of everything from healthcare to education to retail goods to government services.
Instead of accepting marketing driven messages as universal truths, I started to push back.
I stopped watching commercials on TV by recording everything on my DVR and fast forwarding to skip them.
I stopped buying magazines, newspapers and subscriptions that sold my information to other “partners”.
I signed up for Do Not Call and Do Not Mail lists.
I opted out from marketing messages aggressively.
I use dummy email addresses for sign up lists when possible and aggressively block/unsubscribe SPAM.
This all helps, but unfortunately, isn’t enough.
I have learned that the Postal Service sells Change of Address information to any company that wants it. Which is why I get women’s clothing catalogs two years after my wife has died, solicitations from charities I haven’t contributed to in decades and 3 weekly junk mailings from AT&T.
90% of the US Mail I receive is junk mail sent to “current occupant”. There is no way to stop this effectively.
Most of the calls to my cell phone are robocallers telling me my care warranty is expiring, I’ve won a free vacation or some other such bullshit.
And SPAM from texts and email keeps coming. After all, it’s free and automated with makes it impossible to stop (at my end).
Here’s how I’ve solved this problem.
- My phone is on permanent Do Not Disturb and all notifications are turned off. I also have all unknown callers go directly to voicemail. My phone never rings. I am never alerted by sounds, banners or red circled numbers for missed emails, calls or messages. I check my call log occasionally to see if anyone I know has reached out. Robocallers and spoofed numbers are easily identified and blocked.
- After getting my mail, I go directly to my trash can. Any occupant mail, unwanted solicitations, marketing stuff etc goes right into the can without being opened. I’d mark it “return to sender” except that I know USPS does not do that for Presorted Bulk mail – they just throw it out.
- I am super aggressive combatting SPAM. I use a “dummy” email address to sign up for one-off services and purchases. I read the privacy and data sharing fine print before agreeing to any “opt ins”. I’ll mark 99% of the marketing I receive as SPAM immediately and block the senders permanently.
Other things I do:
I regularly make use of ad blockers and fast forwarding.
Perhaps the most effective thing is I go without.
- I don’t watch commercial TV
- I rarely listen to the radio because I can’t skip commercials
- If a video or podcast has ads that I cannot skip, I’ll turn it off.
- I won’t use a streaming service that forces ads to be played (Google TV, Pluto, Spotify etc.)
When I don’t see marketing, I want less stuff.
I don’t feel deprived that I don’t have marble countertops, the latest fashions or a luxury car.
I don’t feel I am missing out.
I don’t wonder if I need to do something about restless leg syndrome, erectile dysfunction, hair loss or depression.
Is my way extreme? Perhaps it is. I couldn’t do all of these if I had a job, a wife or a family who needed to reach me asap.
But, with a few tweaks, I could still make this work effectively.
If you are looking for a change, I suggest giving a few of these a try,