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A few years ago, illustrator and editorial cartoonist Sarah Lazarovic felt like she was buying too much 鈥渃rap.鈥� So she stopped shopping for a year, then documented her withdrawals and, eventually, all the lessons and tips and tricks she learned about not buying things.

Instead of buying the items she coveted, she made paintings of them.

During that time, instead of buying the items she coveted, she made paintings of them. That led to the illustrated book called A Bunch of Pretty Things I Did Not Buy. It also led to doing that same 鈥渃ovet counseling鈥� for others. She calls her project the 鈥淥ffice of Divestment.鈥� She will draw the thing you want to buy. You get the painting, and you won鈥檛 have to buy the thing. A deal.

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Tracy Loeffelholz Dunn:听Tell us about how that works.

Lazarovic: Anyone who is having trouble restraining from buying something is welcome to come for a session. It鈥檚 a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it also really works. We draw the item in question, talk about why the individual wants said item and whether or not it would be a good purchase. Sometimes we also eat cookies. By creating a little painting of the coveted item, the desire to own said item often floats away. You鈥檇 be surprised!

Loeffelholz Dunn:听What happened when you didn鈥檛 buy things?

Lazarovic:听For me, not buying things is about time more than anything else. I started my not-shopping vow when I realized I was frittering away my time browsing stuff on the internet. I鈥檇 read a blog, and somehow the writer would link to a product or store, and I鈥檇 suddenly find I鈥檇 wasted 45 minutes browsing an online shop full of beautiful stuff I didn鈥檛 need. It was worse when I actually bought stuff. So what happened for me was that I reclaimed some of that most valued entity鈥攖ime. Beyond that, I don鈥檛 burn with longing; I use what I have. And when I do make a rare purchase or get an awesome clothing-swap giveaway, I really appreciate the piece.

Loeffelholz Dunn:听鈥淐ovet counseling鈥� has a mental health piece to it. When you studied consumer behavior in the business school at University of Toronto, what did you learn about the emotional aspect of shopping?

The way we shop has deep social justice implications.

Lazarovic: The gist is that we are not rational actors. Economic theory was upended in the 20th century when academics proposed concepts like 鈥渂ounded rationality鈥� and 鈥減rospect theory.鈥� Bounded rationality is the idea that in decision-making we鈥檙e bounded by many factors that impede us from making the most rational decision, things like the information available to us, cognitive load, time. Later Daniel Kahneman proposed the idea of 鈥淭hinking Fast and Slow,鈥� or that we have two systems of thinking when it comes to how we process things: Very, very loosely, we have an impulsive, emotional response to shopping, and to get away from that we often need to switch off System 1 (emotions) and use System 2 (which is slower and more logical).

Loeffelholz Dunn:听What are some of your favorite stories from your covet counseling experiences?

Lazarovic: I did it at a boutique hotel here in Toronto called The Drake, and whenever it slowed down for a bit, servers from the restaurant would come over and ask me to paint stuff. Toward the end of shift change, I painted a lot of food: cheeseburgers! In general, I love the energy people have when they describe things they want. A friend of my grandmother鈥檚 came to my book launch in Montreal and sweetly described her dream coat. I love these stories because people tend to feel guilty about wanting stuff, and I hate that. It鈥檚 human to want things, and marketers do a brilliant job of trying to make us want stuff. In telling these stories, people often seem to lose the guilt and embarrassment they feel about wanting, which is nice.

Loeffelholz Dunn:听Where鈥檚 the social justice in not-buying?

Lazarovic: For a long time we viewed shopping too much as merely a personal thing鈥攂ad for one鈥檚 own pocketbook and mental health, but fairly contained. In recent years, we鈥檝e learned that the way we shop has deep social justice implications鈥攆rom sweatshop fast fashion to environmental degradation and climate change.

Loeffelholz Dunn:听You have in the past made fun of minimalism. Why?

The internet is brilliant at convincing us that we must purchase immediately or risk losing an item.

Lazarovic: I鈥檓 joking, but I鈥檓 also a little bit serious. Being able to get rid of stuff is a luxury that not all of us can afford, because you have to know that, should you need something, you can go out and buy it at any time. A lot of us have drawers crammed with things we may someday need because we just don鈥檛 know. I joke because the people who preach minimalism are often hilariously out of touch with how difficult and time-consuming it can be to have that perfectly curated, minimally appointed apartment. Of course, truly minimalist people don鈥檛 fetishize minimalism. They just only buy what they need and live lightly. That鈥檚 great, and I strive, with great difficulty, to get there.

Loeffelholz Dunn: Buying has become so easy with online shopping. We can squeeze it in throughout our day. What鈥檚 the one piece of advice you would give to the Pinterest addicts out there?

Lazarovic: Never let yourself buy anything right away. If you walk away from your computer for even a few minutes that impulsiveness often dissipates. You can also write down or draw what you want on a piece of paper. Basically, any action that allows you a pause to let emotion fall aside and logic take over. The internet is brilliant at convincing us that we must purchase immediately or risk losing an item. They do this in a million ways (鈥�Only 7 of these sparkly things remaining!鈥�). The key is to remember that this is rarely the case.