Several Oregonians hope for less materialistic 2007

COTTAGE GROVE — A Portland nurse, a Cottage Grove math teacher and a Sweet Home bookkeeper are starting the New Year by leaving the consumer world behind.

They plan to avoid shopping, joining an anti-consumer compact started a little more than a year ago by 10 people in San Francisco.

The anti-consumers from San Francisco wrote of their experience on a blog and some newspapers wrote articles about the group. In the months that followed, dozens of similar groups sprouted — some as far away as Jerusalem and Tokyo.

The compact challenges participants to avoid buying new products and to get what they need by borrowing, bartering or buying used.

Alla Blanca, 43, of Cottage Grove said two recent events led to her take the plunge. Her parents wanted to buy her a Christmas present but she couldn't think of anything she needed. Then she was inspired by her 14-year-old nephew, Ricky, who gave up chocolate for all of 2006.

"I'm going to try and keep my nephew in mind, and his two-pronged approach: Is there an alternative? And, if there isn't, can I do without it?" she said.

Katy Wolk-Stanley of Portland said she'll follow the compact for a month and see how it goes.

"It struck a chord with me as I was madly scrambling to pull Christmas together," Wolk-Stanley said. "I'm actually Jewish, and here I am working so hard to make a nice Christmas for everybody and not feeling really positive about the whole thing."

Wolk-Stanley's been an avid thrift shop buyer since she was pregnant with her second son, who is now 8. She realized that if she could curtail her spending, she could work half time and be home with her boys.

"People make their own lives too difficult," she said. "You're having to work more because you end up eating in restaurants too often, but the reason why you're eating in restaurants is you're working all the time. You're getting this cycle that's hard to break."

In Sweet Home, meanwhile, Bonnie Thayer, 60, has joined with her son and his girlfriend to live the compact, beginning Monday.

Thayer said she fills her house with things, then gives them away. But with more shopping, the space fills again. "The more stuff you get in the house, the more suffocated you begin to feel," she said. "You have to stop. It's not good."

There are exceptions to the rule of not buying new — such as food, medicine, underwear and brake fluid. Some compactors also exempt services such as dance lessons, art classes and charitable donations.

Also, many will buy new items made by a local artist or crafts person.

Some compactors face skeptical family members. Blanca's husband and three children, for example, aren't joining. Compactors also face a societal backlash. Radio talk shows have suggested that retail abstinence is un-American.

Thayer disagrees with that argument, noting that — as a bookkeeper — she has seen people get their wages docked to cover unsatisfied credit.

"Everybody has tons of debt," she said. "You wouldn't call that the American Way either — or the way America used to be."