Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping is a 12-month chronicle of one couple’s struggle to forgo western culture’s consumer luxuries, shopping malls, catalogs, restaurants and bargain bins. It was an experiment the author jumped into with equal parts enthusiasm and trepidation. What will she do for fun if she can’t meet friends for lunch in a restaurant or at the theater for a movie? Will she miss the thrill of new high heels and good wine?

Levine gears up for the January 1 start of her shopping hiatus, stocking the liquor cabinet, renewing magazine subscriptions and buying the DVD player she’s had her eye on. At 10 p.m. on New Year’s Eve she succumbs to a last-minute shopping spree. But these provisions don’t last long. Favorite socks go missing and can’t be replaced. And how do you have a business lunch when restaurants are off-limits?

These quandaries get Levine thinking. She begins to truly understand the epidemic of “affluenza,” defined as a “painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more.” The second third of Levine’s book is the weakest as she takes a detour into politics. Sarcasm and self-righteousness peek through as she rails against the Republicans. While her point that politics and the consumer culture go hand-in-hand is well taken, this fever-pitched rant isn’t going to win anyone over. Another weakness comes from Levine’s tendency to lapse into too many plays on words and even some gratuitous sexual references. We all know that sex sells, but do you really need to compare yachts to male genitalia?

By December, Levine finds that she spent $8,000 less than she had the year before, and that her 13-year relationship has grown stronger. She’s lost a few pounds and gained a new appreciation for talking, walking and people-watching. Relying on free concerts and the public library for entertainment, Levine and her partner come to realize that art and learning are cruelly under-funded and out of reach for those without money for private school tuition and museum memberships.

Although a bit on the long side (264 pages), Not Buying It may be worth paging through if you find yourself caught up in the more-is-more mindset. Levine is clearly better off after stepping away from the credit cards for 12 months.

This book might inspire you to do the same. Reviewed by Austin Gelder, World Ark Associate Editor This review originally appeared in the January/February 2007 issue of World Ark, the magazine of Heifer International. Used with permission.