sbhikes

Ok, Roody in his topic on encouraging lurkers to post more here pointed out some potential topics of interest. One of them was along the lines of do car-free people do other xyz-free things?

It was surmised the perhaps more car-free people also don't have TVs. Personally, I love TV and would go car-free and keep my TV but not the other way around and certainly not BOTH.

Some suggested that car-free people like to simplify and avoid acquiring technical gadgets. I have a few technical gadgets (phone, camera, computer) and my work keeps me having to care about new computer technologies despite my somewhat indifference.

Others suggested that car-free people avoid general over-consumption more than most people. Well, I don't buy as many clothes and shoes as other women, and I don't spend much on car-related stuff (my truck is paid off and rots away in the driveway waiting until the day I need to go a'hauling.) But I have a bicycle, a recumbent bicycle and a recumbent trike so the over-consumption issue hasn't been solved in my car-lite life.

Anyway, topic is what else do you do that is similar to car-freeness? Or do you NOT do anything else? Either way is fine by me.

Fillanzea

I live more simply than a lot of people in my demographic group--I have fewer clothes, don't wear makeup, don't spend any money on home decorating. But on the other hand, I have way more books than a person could possibly need.

Part of the good in being car-free is that it frees up more funds to live the good life. Which can be pretty indulgent now and then.

Mtn Mike

This is my credo as well. I don't think I own excessive amounts of useless goods, but I do like to live well. I'd say my biggest weakness is, you guessed it, BIKES. I have a handful of electronic gadgets that I'm fond of, but could probably do without them. I have a modest 25" TV, and pay for cable. I don't have a high quality stereo system. I don't own a lot of clothes, except for you guessed it, bike clothes. I also spend a good deal of my monthly budget on going out to eat and entertainment.

Roody

This might be hard to believe, but I don't have a computer. I use public computers at the library and I use one at work on my breaks. When I'm visiting my dad, I use his. The only reason that I don't have a computer is that I sorta have an addictive personality. I mean I've given up more **** than most of you have ever tried. I get too involved with a computer if I have unlimited access, so I restrict myself this way.

P.S. Thank God I got addicted to exercise and bikes or I'd be dead by now.

Chris L

Sums it up perfectly. For me I have ambitions to travel. I'm setting off for five weeks in New Zealand in 19 days, then hopefully Scotland in 2007. Being car-free helps pay for these things. It also paid for my education when I was living technically below the poverty line a few years ago.

In answer to the original topic, no, I don't feel the need to buy as many trappings as a lot of other people. I do have a TV, but only because it's about 10 years old and I'd get nothing for selling it. There isn't a lot on TV that I actually bother watching, so it largely sits there unused. I do spend a reasonable amount of money on CD's, because I prefer music to most of the "content" on television.

I also have an apartment in a very nice location -- one that I probably couldn't afford otherwise.

attercoppe

I don't have a TV, and I consider that to be a good thing for me. Unfortunately in my case it's really an idiot box - if there's a TV on in the room, even if it's not showing anything particularly interesting, I get sucked in and have trouble carrying on a conversation. I guess it's the same sort of information-gathering urge that makes me read so much, on- and off-line.

My computer is my theater system and stereo - I watch DVD movies sitting right here, and listen to mp3s or CDs through the PC as well.

I mentioned in another thread that I think I live pretty simply, but I do have a fair amount of stuff. I inherited being a pack rat from my mom, and while I've gotten better about it, I still have more stuff in general than I really need. A lot of it I rationalize because I figure I don't want to do X (sew, build bike trailers, tinker with electronics, fish) all the time, but I also don't want to get rid of all the associated equipment and supplies each time I put it down for a while, then reacquire them when I get interested again.

I do tend to overbuy clothes a little bit, but from the thrift store rather than new. I currently have enough tshirts to last me several years, so I don't buy any more of those. But it's the same argument against ridding them out - why give them away, then have to buy more when the ones I have left wear out? Then again, I'm still wearing tshirts that are 10 years old and in good shape, so maybe what I have will last me even longer than I think.

my.ark.4

Ok, well you guys have been nagging us lurkers to say something for a while, I do have TV's in my house, but I watch about an hour of TV a week (British comedy, seriously, its a superhero with a talking, flying baby). I used to watch an obscene amount of TV but after a while it just stopped being interesting, sort of the same mindless stuff over and over again. Now I turn to the internet for slightly diffrent things over and over again

K6-III

I do not have a TV. That does not mean that I do not indulge myself somewhat. I have a fairly high-end sound system to enjoy jazz and crazy euro-techno, a laptop to keep me connected to the world, and 2 road bikes and a cruiser. If something doesn't really make my life better, I tend not to buy.

PVyrus

Car-free = healthier lifestyle!

TV-free = more time to waste on the internet!

Boyfriend-free = no drama!

I like the simple life

2wheeledsoul

I have a somewhat dated PC that I upgraded and souped up out the wazoo; everything except the mobo has been upgraded, and I can easily fit a new mobo if I wanted or needed. I built the printer from two dead ones I got cheap from the goodwil store.
I've a decent 5.1 digital audio sound system; I built the speakers myself rather than buy them. The CD is a 2nd hand Sony carousel deck that I fixed up.
I have a modest 21" TV w/ Dish satelite, simply bc the local TV programming sucks hard. I got the VCR on sale, and the DVD is one of those $30 minteks.
I just bought a new fridge a month ago, only bc the 20 yr old 2nd hand fridge quit working, and parts for it were unavailable.

Some of that I couldn't carry on my bike, but that's what delivery and Rent-A-Wreck is for.

Alekhine

I'm no Jacques Ellul or anything. I don't detest technology, although I think it has in many ways brought us down from certain high-water marks of culture while at the same time improving certain aspects of our lives. At any rate, I buy technology that suits me.

I have no TV and generally loathe modern TV programming and being advertised to. I can use this computer for watching DVD movies on occasion, although using the internet brings back the ads.

My entire line of work is computer-based anymore. I work via the internet as an editor for medical journals, so computers are big in my list of things to own and spend time on. As for gadgetry, I also have an mp3 player, a digital camera, a large and modern sailboat, a computerized travel chess set, stereo with large CD collection, and a GPS.

I don't know whether car-free types avoid overconsumption more than others, but I know a few who are pretty tragic alcoholics, cigarette smokers, and food devourers, so I'd be inclined to skepticism about that. I myself am car-free and I tend to take in more beer than I'd like to.

Clothes are by far the weakest of the material addictions for me. I wear my old ones until they are threadbare, except socks. I'm still wearing mostly things I've had since the 1990s. I also wash them in my bathtub with an old 1940s clothes plunger and a basin, and hang them up to dry in the back yard. Only problem here is the occasional guano bombing.

I'm not vegetarian anymore, but I eat fish and chicken very rarely and no mammals. I guess that's similar to being "[x]-free," or rather "[x]-lite."

I don't know what else to say.

becnal

Life is short. Live it up!

budster

Well, I have a TV, but I've hardly turned it on since I got PC/Internet at home 3.5 years ago. (Kind of like my car, which I've driven 6 miles so far this year). Perhaps needless to say, I don't have cable either. I do have a kick-ass stereo, which now I use mainly for playing PC-based movies and music.

No cell phone. My home phone service is pretty vanilla. No caller ID, call waiting, et cet. Old school answering machine.

I gave up meat except fish and occasional poultry many years ago.

I guess that's about all my "asceticism." Well, there is one other thing: one year, I gave up guilt for Lent and I just never got around to picking it back up again....