Could you buy nothing new for a year and live to tell about it? This group of 10 people acutally went on a year long shopping sabbatical. In fact, they liked it so much that they are going to do it for another year! Some the benefits were paying off credit card bills, getting reaquainted with the library, and appreciating what you have.
They used two online links to find free items-
freecycle.org and
garbagescout.com

There is actually a free cycle group of 3853 members in my little city-really amazing.
I like the garbage scout site-they show awesome items on the curb side destined for the landfill. What a great way to help people get the items they need!