Hello there and welcome to episode 126. On today's show we are talking about what it really looks like,

so what it's really like in real life to not buy new stuff.

My guest and I specifically discussed today the most common roadblocks that people face

as they attempt to take a step back from consumerism, including how to navigate holidays and

birthdays, what exactly to say to friends and family who may be less than supportive and why it is

important to be loud and proud as opposed to quiet and timid when advocating for yourself as well as for your choices.

My guest today is Alia Mohammed. You will hear Allea say in our discussion today about how she had an aha moment as she was

taking out the garbage. Alya's aha moment led her to ask herself some tough questions and ultimately to make

some big changes to the way she lived her life. Enjoy the interview.

Alia, thank you so much for coming on the podcast to discuss your one whole year of no new spending. Oh my gosh I can't wait to pick your brain. How are you doing? I'm doing awesome. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited and blessed to be here. I'm really pumped to share my little story and my adventurous year.

Well, I was just saying to you before recording that I love talking to real people who are doing real things that listeners can perhaps potentially take a little nugget of wisdom for,

perhaps potentially do a little bit themselves and I really try to make this

podcast practical and actionable and I feel like you're the perfect guest to come on

and inspire us all. But before we even get there, tell us who you are and what on earth you are doing.

Yeah, so my name is a Leah Mohammed.

I live outside of Baltimore, Maryland.

I recently graduated with a bachelor's

and I'm working on my master's and marketing and as I

was going through my education I felt like really lost on what direction I

wanted to I mean most people probably feel this way at one point or another but I knew I wanted to do

Something and I just didn't know what it was and I I eventually found my current, which is for a company called Life Straw, and they're a company that provides safe drinking water to low resource communities.

And we do that by selling really cool water purifying bottles and if you've seen

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