I dare you to buy nothing!

Have you scoured the paper this weekend? Did you visit the Black Friday websites? Have you made your list, checked it twice and planned your route for the biggest shopping day?

Or are you celebrating Buy Nothing Day?

Buy Nothing Day is an informal day of protest against consumerism. It's typically promoted for the Friday (a.k.a Black Friday) after Thanksgiving in North America and the next day internationally. The day was founded by Vancouver artist, Ted Dave and has been subsequently promoted by the Canadian Adbusters magazine.

In this year of financial crisis when many high profile retail corporations are counting on Black Friday to start and carry them through the season critics say that all that buying won't help one bit. Instead they claim that consumption is what got us into this mess in the first place. They may be right--too much credit, too much "I want it now" and must haves make us crazy consumer world.

Could you really buy nothing on any day? Set aside mall and big box Black Friday shopping--it's not that hard to refrain from crowded overly glittery stores. But, what about today? Or tomorrow? Could you buy absolutely nothing? That means no coffee, no picking up something for dinner, no Itunes. It means nothing. I dare you to try.