I'm rereading this excellent book by Charles Long that I read many years ago. It's all about the conserver lifestyle and how limiting consumption and using up what we already have is better for individuals financially as well as being a whole hell of a lot better for the planet in general.
A quote from the book:
"The tragedy of the industrial age has been the overwhelming dominance of consumption as the measure of humanity. Even work - each person's art, creation, and contribution to the world - has come to be measured not by its quality or human worth, but in its commercial value. I am what I am paid. I am what I consume. I spend, therefore I am. Like so many swine, we've allowed the economists to define us and rank us by our most basest animal instincts - our appetites."