It’s Friday night, you’re sitting at home on the couch with a  sparkling water and green salad glass of wine and bag of chips, and you receive an email from your favourite activewear brand: they’re on 40% off.

You feel the excitement rise in your chest as that familiar rush of adrenalin surges through your body. 

You’re going shopping.

You excitedly scroll through their website, and find your size is sold out in most things. Who cares, right? These leggings are so cheap, it doesn’t matter if you have to squeeze your body into them. It’s worth it.

That two piece you had your eye on is sold out in black and you wouldn’t usually wear red, but you could get a little more adventurous and how could you not when it’s so much cheaper. Add to cart.

You wander over to the checkout and the site suggests you add a new drink bottle to your cart. You already have 3 but this one is pink and it’s only $10. Done.

You check out with your pretty new things, and all up you’ve only spent $100. You feel energised and on a total buyer’s high, and you pour yourself another glass of water wine to celebrate. 

By the time Wednesday rolls around and your package arrives, you’ve almost forgotten what you ordered. You tear open the package and you’re greeted with your new things.

You LOVE those leggings and you rush to pull them on, but you find they don’t quite go up. Damn it, that’s right, in all the excitement you bought a size too small. 

You pull out the two piece, and while red seemed like a good idea at the time, you know somewhere deep inside that you’re never actually going to wear it.

At least the water bottle is cute, you tell yourself, knowing full well you really could’ve gone without it.

You check back in with the brand's website to see what their return policy is: they don’t take returns on a sale.

So now you’re left with a bunch of stuff you know you’re never really gonna wear, you’re out of pocket $100, and those sweet happy hormones that were released at the moment of purchase are long gone.

Sound like a familiar scenario?

While this may have happened to you once, or twice, or okay maybe half a dozen times… it’s also happened to pretty much all of us more times than we’d like to admit.

And while it may seem like a harmless little habit, when it’s happening to everyone, things can really start to add up.

Globally we send 13 billion kgs of clothing to landfill each year, and most of those garments will sit there for over 200 years.

Thirteen billion killograms. 

If you need a visual, that’s like sending half a million trams full of clothing out into the planet each year.

And while there are so many things contributing to this predicament we’re in, there’s one simple change that you can make that is going to make a big difference: don’t buy discount.

Remember that $100 that you parted ways with for a bunch of stuff you didn’t need?

Imagine if you spent it on something that you really wanted, and that you knew was going to last you for years to come.

Imagine if you spent it at vintage stores, giving existing garments a second home.

Imagine if you spent it on sewing materials and second hand fabrics, watching YouTube tutorials to learn how to make your own clothes. 

There are so many small choices we make on a daily basis, that add up to make a massive difference. And so as easy to forget as it is, through every tiny action we make, we as individuals have the power to create real change.  

So next time you’re watching a documentary binging a Netflix series and you get an email from your favourite activewear brand that they’re having a 30% off sale, ask yourself the question… 

What is going to make me happier? A quick buyer’s high, or knowing that through my choices, I’m changing the world.

Jess & Stef, TWOOBS Founders