How I Learned About the Used Economy

I’m going to tell you a story that my Mom doesn’t remember and denies it to this day. I remember vividly and wrote it down because it’s so ridiculous. This is how I learned about the used economy. I love reading. I’ve mentioned that before. Before the age of easily accessible internet the other outlet I had for this was books – from bookstores (because my mom and grama think library books are “dirty”, but we’ll talk about that and my love of libraries as an adult at another time).

I would usually read about a book a day in middle school – not long ass books, like 200-300 pages each. I didn’t have homework (go Montessori!) so I had time for this type of exploration. I don’t know how many years later this was, but one day my mom came into my room and said “You need to stop reading so many books!” I was legit shocked. Who tells their kid to read less? It seems like usually the opposite is the problem. I knew she was actually saying you need to buy less books so I looked for alternate solutions. There was a library right down the street from us. I wasn’t allowed to go there since it’s “dirty” (le sigh), but I insisted since my bookstore allowance was reduced/removed. I got my first library card, checked out a pile of books and haven’t looked back since. Writing this down it sounds like Matilda. That’s amazing. I love Matilda though I don’t think I’m as badass as her. And I definitely don’t have telekinesis…unfortunately.

I also started exploring other, lower cost ways to get my hands on books that weren’t available at the library. I discovered that Amazon sells used books. Sometimes for pennies. Jackpot! I used my small allowance to supplement my library books with used books. My mom thought all of the above were gross at the time, but I didn’t care.

Luckily soon after this time I started school at what would be my last school until college. A school that required a laptop MWAHAHAHA! They had wifi in every part of the school and had us purchase an Apple laptop. I did have internet at home, but slow ethernet that only plugged into the computer in my step-dad’s office. Soon after I got this new laptop and needed easy internet access for school work we got wifi and the world of free reading was opened up to me!

My knowledge of used books helped me save a tremendous amount of money at my new school. They required that we buy BOOKS for classes (I didn’t have that requirement at my lovely, hippie Montessori school. We didn’t even have classes and I mentioned didn’t have homework either). My new school asked us to buy textbooks, very expensive textbooks. Luckily with my knowledge of used books I never bought them new and usual got them for 1/3 or less of the price – hundreds of dollars saved per textbook. When I was done with the books at the end of the year I would sell them back – usually recouping the amount I paid for them and sometimes making a profit…MADNESS!

Since then I have always tried to find a free or cheap option when I need something new. I got my bike in Seattle for free from someone’s garage. It only required a tune up luckily since it is literally from the 70s. I bought my TV through our building’s community sharing program. I sold all electronics I wasn’t using on Craigslist. The used economy is absolutely amazing and these days there are even free sharing economies like Buy Nothing Groups that just give things they don’t want away to people in their community. It’s an awesome world we live in.

The most recent example of how the used economy came to my rescue happened right after we moved to Seattle. We needed a microwave – our last one was included in our fancy, tiny NYC apartment. I started looking on Craigslist. My Mom said buying a used microwave is gross (I’m sensing a pattern here). Unfortunately I listened to her and bought a new one from Walmart. It was delivered and….DIDN’T WORK! It wouldn’t even turn on. I then had to fight with the company to return it (we don’t have a car and Walmart isn’t allowed within Seattle’s city lines since they know it’s evil so returning it myself would take a lot of time, money or both). I fought for a while and got some of my money back. Then I went on craigslist and bought a microwave for a portion of the price I had paid before. That microwave is still going strong. The used economy has saved my ass so many times. I don’t understand my family’s obsession with “new” things or why they think something someone else has touched is “gross.” I guess they don’t realize someone else has touched basically everything. My parents even live in a “used” house…oooh I should tell them that! Used things are a great solution in a society were things, especially technological things lose their value so quickly. I’m going to keep being a strong member of the used economy.