(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Gracia Livie is a mother of four. She's also an active member of the Buy Nothing Naperville Central Facebook group, an online forum where community members can offer and request items.
Livie said the group is both a way to save money and recycle items that are still in good shape.
“It's been an easy way for me to say, ‘Here, who needs this, we're ready to pass it on,’” she said. “Or if I have needed something just quickly asked about it on the Facebook group. And usually someone in that, you know, within an hour or within a day would be able to say, ‘Yeah, I have that, that I think I can find one of those.’”
She said the group has been especially helpful during the holiday season.
"I kind of went into the holiday season as I started looking at the shopping list,” Livie said. “And I just had this idea as I bet I could get all of my son's Christmas gifts through our Buy Nothing group this year."
She said she's been able to find various toys and figurines on Buy Nothing that she probably wouldn't have found in stores.
Buy Nothing networks now include several countries, and the Chicago network covers about 20 different neighborhoods. The Buy Nothing Naperville Central group, though, was started by Meghan Cafarella in 2014 after she heard about a group in California.
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Cafarella said after looking into the Illinois Buy Nothing Network, she saw that options were limited.
"And at the time, I think there was only one in, like, Elk Grove Village,” she said. “It wasn't close. So I was like, I'm gonna look into starting one in Naperville. Like I think this could be very good."
Cafarella said the group is especially useful during the holidays, when she said people might not always feel that it's necessary to buy gifts brand new.
"Like, why are we like throwing away things we don't want or buying things brand new when you can reach out to your neighbors, and they might have something that you, you know, don't know if you need or not,” Cafarella said.
Now, Naperville’s Buy Nothing community comprises over 1,000 members.
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