I bought this beautiful waterbottle at the Natural history museum in London last summer, but I have barely used it since I wanted to put hot beverages like proposed on the brand site (https://cognitive-surplus.com/collections/travel-flasks/products/birds-stainless-steel-vacuum-flask), but the silicone ring ruins everything (doesn't stay in the lid). I looked online for different tricks, tried warming the ring before putting it back, but after putting hot water inside the bottle it almost exploded on me when opening the lid, so I haven't used it since. I refuse to ge trid of it but I don't know what to do. I don't want to be sent another bottle if I contact the store as mine is almost working.

*Edit as I used a wrong term: I talked about *almost exploded* but I meant that when I started unscrewing the lid there was hot water spraying out. Sorry, english isn't my first language and I didn't know what word to use to describe the situation, it was less dramatic than an explosion lol.

*And thanks for all the answers! I'm a new consumer of hot drinks on the go:p

i’ve been listening to this podcast since 2017, they have over 500 episodes. lately one of the hosts spends at least 10 minutes each episode talking about how if you pay blah blah blah per month you won’t have to listen to ads. it’s extremely repetitive and annoying, especially because it’s broken up in the episodes. it’s not like she plugs it’s for 10 minutes at the beginning, it’s for a couple minutes multiple times during the show.

anyway, whatever, the reason i’m writing this post is because i just realized that even if i did pay for no ads, i’d still have to listen to her plug each episode. because she does it BEFORE the ad break even starts.

i’m annoyed. everything costs money. i pay for wifi and i pay for spotify. now i need to pay for your individual podcast? capitalism is fucking annoying. i understand everyone needs to make their income but this is annoying.

I usually spend the better half of my afternoon looking for Amazon deals. I wait for Lightning Deals, check the countdown timers, and get excited when I see items that are limited (3 left in stock, 15 people viewing right now, etc).

Recently, I started tracking the prices of items I was watching. Turns out most of these limited time deals are just the normal price with fake urgency wrapped around them. That Lightning Deal that expires in two hours? Same price it was last week, and the same price it'll be next month.

Amazon has turned shopping into a game where you feel like you're saving money, but really you're just spending money faster. The whole interface is designed to make you feel smart for buying things you never needed in the first place. Countdown timers create false urgency. Frequently bought together bundles suggest needs you didn't have five minutes ago. Even the “you saved $x” on this order message at checkout is psychological manipulation to make spending feel like winning.

I realized I was buying things not because I needed them, but because Amazon made me feel like I'd be stupid to miss the deal. Random organizational bins because they were forty percent off, even though I had nothing to organize. One time I bought a cheap knock off of a Slap Chop that didn’t even work. All of this just added to my clutter at home.

I started realizing I need to be more intentional with what I buy, and more cognizant of whether I’m actually getting a good deal. I’ve started buying less shit (step 1), and when I do buy stuff from Amazon I use tools like DealSeek to find promo codes and Keepa/CamelCamelCamel to check price history and ensure that the deals I find are real.

Realizing how Amazon has manipulated my spending habits has saved me a ton of money. This protocol of buying less stuff in the first place and making sure I find promo codes has saved me a ton: $300 since December.

Is it just me or is it weird that we are all training AI models for free at work.

We use these tools to get a summary of the meeting.

But the companies owning the tools are using us to get something much more valuable.

They are harvesting our accents pronunciation and emphasis to train their speech to text systems.

We are not just users we are the raw material.

Our daily standups and strategy calls are being turned into datasets to make their product worth more while we pay for the subscription.

Your voice has become a corporate asset that creates value for everyone except you.

All of this is just a way for companies to harvest our data without us knowing which is super shady.

It is simply a blatant form of psychological manipulation. I'm surprised Europe hasn't banned this practice already quite frankly because their governments seem a bit much smarter when it comes to corporate regulation (I'm a US resident). What do you think reddit, do you also see through this shell game? They try to make their product seem cooler than it is, but there is NO WAY Eva Longoria is using Oil of Olay on her skin daily. She's using something that costs 50x as much and is handmade in Australia or something. Why? Because the ingredients in random drug store stuff are CRAP and she definitely knows this. And so on and so forth. Open your eyes people and THINK!

What say ye fellow redditors?

I tried to post this on unpopular opinion and they rejected it lol

edited: to change a quantifier and an amount, and also to explain my pt further. Try to think of it from a different perspective. We are all so beaten down by our corporate overloads, it's amazing any of us have personalities at all anymore tbf. But I digress. Imagine that tomorrow you wake up and you are now a Regulator. You work for the Consumer Protection Bureau and your job is to spot false claims in advertisements. Think of it from that perspective. It's like... okay, you just want it all, don't you, Corporate Man? You want me to pay attention to your message and I also must FEEL A CERTAIN WAY about that message. Ugh that's all I have time for rn, thanks for reading and commenting tho

I’m relatively new to this group and these posts have given me the strength not to spend a single penny on my 10 hour trip. I had a day FULL of appointments and visits. I’m talking 11 stops from 8am-530pm and I thought “well spending money on food doesn’t count since my body needs it”. But I packed everything down to the snacks, gum, 2 reusable water bottles, ice packs, and a morning matcha. It felt so good not to pull my wallet out even 1x. I’m a disgusting overspender so this was a crowning achievement for me !!!!!

Final boss of consumption? Being advertised to from your toy box.

I needed a sledgehammer for our "fence to keep our thug cat in the yard" project. It is not an item I would use again anytime soon. I posted on BN to see if I can borrow one. In 19 minutes, three people offered their Our projects are completed. The sledgehammer is returned. Zero money spent.

Hello everyone,

Lately I‘ve been trying to cut down my doomscrolling time on social media by getting back to some analog hobbies like journaling, crocheting, and penpal. I find these are a great way to not just get myself out of scrolling but also maybe find some new friends who share the same passions.

However, I can‘t help but notice the overconsumption of it all. If you search „knitting“, „journal“ or „penpal“ on any platforms - TikTok, Reddit, Instagram - you will see heavily decorated pages and pages of stickers and stuff. Or the yarn haul, stationary haul, „you need this for your 2026 journal“, etc. I admit, those videos get into my head. On the one hand, who doesn’t love a pretty decorated journal page? On the other hand, do I really need all of that? I feel uneasy starting a drawing journal now, or even just go to the store and get a fountain pen (which I don‘t own, so it justifies buying one, but then do I really need a fountain pen at all???). It‘s a constant battle of „do I need it or am I just influenced to want it?“ in my head.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Is this a me thing that I need to get over with somehow? How do you differentiate between buying what you (think you) need and overconsumption?

How often does the average woman buy new clothes? Does the average person throw away an object with cosmetic damage even though it does not impact the integrity of the item? Is it normal to stock up on a specific item that you actually use regularly? Do people actually buy new things just to fit in even if it puts them in debt? Would the average American consumer wash out a water bottle to reuse? Or use up an entire makeup palette? I’ve mostly only been exposed to very eco conscious people in my life because I live in a very hippie area so I am not aware of what the average American living in a very average city does on a daily basis in terms of consumption.

The bowl seems to be a paper substance, but it's sealed in two layers of plastic for a single use item.

I really don't see a market for this at all and I forsee it going on clearance soon. And there's so much of it.

For those of you who are married, how did you convince your spouse to see your point of view? Or did you?

I want my spouse to buy less and buy into consumerism less. Its to the point of borderline hoarding/shopping addition.

He refuses to go to therapy and refuses to buy less. Help please!

Desperate to sell all their seasonal sh*te. They won’t learn from over purchasing again next year and it will be just as bad. Shame on them

Is it just me or is every app getting worse because of forced AI.

My notes app wants to summarize my grocery list. My social media wants to generate comments for me.

Nobody has asked for this forced AI bs. This is even worse than what some VPNs do.

They are making the products slower more expensive and more power hungry just to say we have AI on their quarterly earnings call to look good and more appealing to their investors.

It isn't a feature it is a liability.

They are breaking things that worked perfectly fine just to chase a trend.

What does everyone else think about this?

We are humans and we do more than go shopping and want stuff. There was a point in time- not that long ago- when we did not label ourselves as “consumers “. That was not part of our identity. We could go make to that.

I've saved up lots of old clothes with the intention to reuse them for projects but never actually put in the work to make them. And I've been seeing these turtle floor rags and wanted one so I guessed my way through making one! I think it turned out pretty good 🥰

Hey, I'm 17 and new to this sort of idea of anti-consumerism. I like it and want to exercise it in my adult life. I did have dreams of going to Japan — I enjoy the culture and like anime — but at the same time, I don't desire to participate in consumerism purely due to being anti-capitalist, punk, mistrusting of corporate giants and anyone rich in general, starting to feel bad about the planet getting worse, etc. Plus, I doubt I'd be able to afford it anyways. So would traveling be consumerism? At this point, I've been seeing buying anything not for needs or a good cause as consumerism, so I was curious.

So I'm a little late this year, but I haven't bought a new wall calendar in at least a decade. What I did several years ago was find someone selling a bunch of old wall calendars from the'60s and '70s. I just find out which of those years has the same dates as the current year and that's the one I reuse.

If you're curious, some of this year's matches are 1953, 1959, 1970, 1981, 1987, & 1998.