Is it just me, or does it seem odd to you, too, that while folk all over the country are being laid off from their jobs, we're being told that the only way out of this mess is to spend like there's no tomorrow? Hurrah, another 20 per cent off at Marks & Spencer! That will make us forget our woes, and give our ailing economy a boost as well! What's not to like?

Plenty. Don't you have all the stuff that you need? I do. Which is why you might join me tomorrow in celebrating Buy Nothing Day. In North America - where this fine tradition began - BND is today, otherwise known as “Black Friday”: the day after Thanksgiving, when retail businesses (supposedly) go into profit. One of the chief activists for BND is the Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping, the evangelistic persona of an actor otherwise known as Bill Talen.

Today he will host a party in Times Square, New York, to “Dance Your Debt Away”; but tomorrow, in London, you can head to Oxford Street for a free clothes swap in Top Shop; in Bristol you will find a Food for Free Freeconomy Feast.

It's strange: even though we know that buying that new skirt/phone/ house won't make us truly happier, somewhere in our souls, particularly if we feel down, we believe it. But do any of us really feel better if we follow that urge? Look around. I don't think so - despite the fact that tomorrow, in the Times Books section, which I edit, you'll find an exhortation to choose tomes for under your tree this Christmas.

There are alternatives. Lately I've become a fan of Freecycle - not only because I can get rid of my junk (look how much I already own that I don't want! Why would I want more?) but because in clearing out my house I also get to meet my neighbours; that's a heartening experience. I like to make things, too: jam, chutney, cards made with stickers and rubber stamps. Yes, I had to buy the stickers and the rubber stamps. Nobody said this would be simple: but these are small steps in the right direction.

Spend time instead of money. Cook dinner instead of going out. But if you do that, as I try to, are you then forced to wonder: am I not Doing My Bit? Am I not supposed to be Shopping for My Country? I wonder about the days of rationing, of “make do and mend”, days I never knew myself. “Don't leave the Bovril sandwiches behind!” exhorts a poster dating from the Second World War, and even I think: Bovril sandwiches? Surely this is a step too far.

Yet there must be more to life than the new iPhone. Go on, it's only a day. Join the Reverend Billy and me, and taste a new kind of freedom.

www.buynothingday.co.uk

www.revbilly.com

Times Recommends

• Treat Africans as part of the human jigsaw
• Too bitter a pill for me to swallow
• This Bill is a panic measure in a tarnished age