I recently joined the "Buy Nothing" Facebook group in El Paso in hopes of finding a decent desk where I could do some work from home. Of course I went down a rabbit hole looking through everything that was being offered, and then I ran into a problem.

But first, what the heck is a "buy nothing group"?

At first, I didn't know what a buy nothing group was either until I vented my frustrations of buying a desk to a friend. I had already tried looking online, thrift stores and even Facebook Marketplace when a friend suggested I look into a "buy nothing" group.

The Buy Nothing Project is a nationwide project; locally- it's an online community where people trade, or sometimes even just give away, gently used stuff among themselves. This includes clothes, furniture, tools and various items that you just need to get rid of.

In the Facebook groups, people post their gently used items that they don't want to throw away- and maybe see if someone else in the community needs it. The point is to "buy nothing".

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In one of the El Paso buy nothing groups, the admin posted the rules that state the whole point is to save money.

While scrolling through some of the items listed I noticed some people were posting things they wanted to sell. Then I noticed another. And another!

People have begun posting things they're selling on the Buy Nothing group, which defeats the purpose of buying nothing! I wasn't the only one who noticed, some of the other group members noticed it too!

The whole point of the buy nothing project was to save money. But as you can see from the comment above, there are other groups to choose from.

I'm not trying to sound like a cheap person, but all the posts of people selling stuff in the group really rubs me the wrong way. I'll have to look at other groups now because I'm still looking for that desk.