The Compact - Can you go a year without buying anything new?

After my recent post where I was musing about a year of buying nothing (or nothing new), a friend sent me information about a movement called The Compact. This international movement started in San Francisco in 2004 when a group of friends was sitting at a dinner party discussing the frustrations of recycling and consumer culture. They set up the "experiment" to live a year without buying anything new (other than a few necessities like medication, underwear and foodl). The movement now consists of thousands of participants, and numerous websites and blogs, where people look at how:

1) to go beyond recycling in trying to counteract the negative global environmental and socioeconomic impacts of U.S. consumer culture, to resist global corporatism, and to support local businesses, farms, etc;
2) to reduce clutter and waste in our homes (as in trash Compact-er);
3) to simplify our lives (as in Calm-pact)

Resources: www.groups.yahoo.com/group/thecompact/