From Deprivation to Opportunity
My BIG, BEAUTIFUL Adventure in Boycotting
The Goal: To Spend Joyfully and with Purpose
By Chalmer Thompson
September 16, 2026
Blogger’s note: Thanks for visiting my blog page. I took several months off to gain traction on a major project and to discover additional ways to take part in the dramatic events unfolding in our current sociopolitical climate. I’ll share more about these experiences in the coming months.
I’m very happy to be back. Please reach out if you’d like.
Several years ago, when I was a low-paid graduate student, I wanted to buy a car because the one I had at the time was old and run down. I was determined to sport a spiffier and more reliable vehicle, even if it meant going into further debt.
Family members and friends tried to convince me otherwise. Still, I was determined to make this move until I spoke to Sam, an upper-level graduate student in another program, who patiently helped me to change my mind about the purchase. He didn’t judge my plan. He merely listened, shared his own experience of living on a grad student’s salary, and recommended that I wait until I was on surer footing financially.
Sam helped me make the better decision. After this talk, I heard my inner voice telling me that the real reason I wanted the car was that I was trying to fit into an image of someone who had it all together. I was both pleased with what I was accomplishing in life yet uncertain about how I fit into my role as a budding professional. I was looking for a car to satisfy a certain image I wanted to project to others, not out of necessity.
Soon after these revelations, I washed my car, which I hadn’t done in a long while. The car wash didn’t improve its appearance greatly, but I felt a little better taking better care of it. I began appreciating the fact that I had been able to cover the costs of some major repairs to the car without bearing major sacrifices. I felt ashamed about neglecting its appearance. After all, my car managed to get me to where I needed to go for over 10 years with few problems.
I held on to my Plymouth Duster for another year until I was in a better position to afford a newer vehicle. During that year, I went from feeling deprived for not having a nice (ish) car to feeling thankful for what I had and living within my means.
Boycotting is a form of deprivation. When we boycott, we do without. Sometimes we do without the things we have relied on, the products or services that we never thought we could live without. What we may not realize is that when we aren’t able to find a particular product, or a service is no longer available, we naturally go to alternatives. We may find that the new product or resource is just as good, or even better than the original, or we “make do” until we can return to our favorites. We are resourceful.
Still, convenience is a big thing to many of us, right? Boycotting takes more time and, in some cases, even more money. Some find that breaking from a habit is akin to punishment, as in, I have access to this product or service because I deserve this convenience. And I get that. It’s beautifully convenient, isn’t it, to place an order online and have it arrive in a day or two? A break from the convenience can seem like going a step backward, from achieving a deserved level of comfort and ease to working harder.
But maybe these breaks from convenience are opportunities for prizes yet to be discovered. It reminds me of how many people who once relished parking as close as possible to their places of destination only to discover later they could get in more walking by parking farther away. It’s like going from feeling cheated to feeling joyous about the small wins.
Going back to my car story, there were many other lessons I learned from prolonging my car purchase beyond remaining afloat financially. For example, it didn’t fully occur to me until many years later that my parents had to scrimp and save to buy this car. Somehow I took this factor for granted.
As a first-time car owner, I also learned how to budget my limited income throughout college and graduate school, and how to live modestly. I picked up a few how-tos about car maintenance and became fairly conversant in talking to a mechanic about my car’s needs.
I pay more for certain items because, in the long run, adjusting my spending has been good for me. I can give up buying books by going to the library more. I can skip taking a trip, pay less for car fuel, and stay home more while enjoying listening to music with my partner.
My gradual lifestyle change has significantly improved my life. I have more gratitude for what’s important, like the sacrifices made by my parents and ancestors, and I embrace my new learning and calm. I also feel at peace. How does all this lead to peace? I get into this more in the story below.
Temu, and “Why Is There a Huge Push for Adding Apps to Your Phone?” Some Recent Lessons
I decided to learn how to bake bread as a way of giving gifts to loved ones. Yes, this is an entirely new venture for me, and a plum opportunity to enjoy doing something I’ve always wanted to do. I bought some high-grade flour from an overseas market after learning that many U.S. brand flours are infused with unneeded chemicals.
(In case you’re interested, check out BrickOvenBaker)
I needed a dough cutter to get started, so I searched on my phone for a market that sold these cutters locally, but discovered that the stores that sold them were the ones I boycott. Then up popped Temu, a Chinese-owned company that sells a wide variety of products at reduced rates. I clicked on the link and discovered that I was eligible to get the cutter at no cost, along with 6 other gifts again at no charge. One challenge in this little journey was that my “product” ended up being a set of baking tools, most of which I didn’t need. The entire set cost less than the prices I saw for the cutter alone at most stores, so at first blush, this seemed to be okay for me.
And then it dawned on me that I was falling into a consumerist wormhole. After the time-consuming task of selecting six gifts to accompany my free product, the next click led me to a page where I was instructed to purchase $200 worth of other products from the company. Clever marketing strategy! Not a bad one either, except, in my case, buying more “stuff” is the last thing I want to do. I do acknowledge that for someone who is at the beginning, or later, of building their household, this strategy could translate into a wonderful opportunity. But it can also trap all of us in an over-consuming cycle.
Another thing: increasingly, companies are trying to get potential customers to add their apps to their mobile phones. Adding these apps allows companies to keep their logos and access to their projects constantly in our horizons. This means that having their app makes it easier for us to shop from them. In many cases, the only “cost” is agreeing to receive notifications. What you may not know is that having these apps also allows the companies to dig deep into your information, thus allowing them and other companies to profile and hound you about other products. If you were to stick only to your PC or laptops instead of an app, these companies may get ad-blocked when you’re conducting searches. Having customers install apps sidesteps the ad-blocking.
I humbly advise that we try our best to resist becoming a target of corporate greed. Yes, do choose apps for the vendors you like and do exercise control over your messaging with all apps. Apps can be advantageous. There is also the possibility that, with healthy spending urges and even spending addictions, retail apps can lure you into spending money that you’d rather have better control over. What does any of this have to do with peace? Peace of mind happens when you have control over your
life rather than having others lead you down the corridors of questioning self-image or low self-esteem. Deprivations become opportunities for inner transformation. A liberation of the soul from the dodgy cues that question our sense of worth and send us, at times, spiraling into bouts of sorrow or depression. And as we feel more confident in ourselves merely because “we are,” we also recognize our connection with others. We engage in our world in ways that show this connection. It’s through caring that we feel inclined to act fully, lovingly, toward others for the sake of creating a better world.
We are enough. We are life itself—no need for extras.
