The no-buy challenge.
The first post in a series about making changes.
I’m going to be honest with you—a part of me really likes trends.
I particularly like the popular content of no-buy and low-buy challenges on YouTube. I find it so inspiring to watch someone change the way that they think and behave over a span of time. I love hearing them process their thoughts out loud as they move from the past version of themselves to the present.
I’ve loved reading books like
’ The Year of Less, The No Spend Year by Michelle McGagh, and The Spender’s Guide to Debt-Free Living by .I’ll be honest with you again, financially things are tight right now. I was recently let go by one of my biggest clients, some unexpected expenses have cropped up, and a few impulse purchases have been tossed on the credit card leaving me feel a bit worried.
When things are alright financially, I feel it. When I’ve spent too much, I feel it. When money is tight, I feel it. When we’ve got a big stash of cash set aside, I feel it. My body has a way of communicating to me in relation to my money, as long as I slow down, listen, and pay attention.
Over the past few days, I’ve been de-cluttering our home. As I cleaned out our front closet, I was surprised to find that my daughter had three pairs of shoes all in the same size. I recently brought her to the thrift store to pick out a pair of shoes, only to find that she already had two pairs that I purchased a few months ago waiting for her to grow into. I realized that I need to slow down.
Last month I met my mom for lunch and afterwards we ended up going to my all-time favourite home goods store. Before we walked through the clear glass doors, I felt the flutter of pre-shopping excitement but I told myself that I didn’t need to buy anything. I was resolute, but then I found myself in the tea towel aisle. We have had the same tea towels for three years, and they’re perfectly fine other than they’re a little tired. As I touched and looked at the beautiful tea towels in the store, my body felt tense but I started rationalizing. “They’re only $14.” “They’re made with organic cotton.” “Ours are so old.” I knew that I didn’t need to buy the towels, and needed to spend that money on other things. But, $65 later, I walked out of the store with four sets of tea towels. As I was cutting off the tags on the towels later that evening, I thought to myself, “My body was telling me not to buy the tea towels, but I overrode the message. I didn’t listen.”
Lately, I haven’t been paying attention. Between taking care of my children, managing a household, working, attempting to pursue hobbies, and doing all the never-ending chores, I haven’t been listening to my body. I’ve ignored the warning signs, and spent too much money. I haven’t been on top of checking my bank balance; I haven’t been doing the math. During the past few months I’ve not been spending thoughtfully, just hastily attempting to solve problems that have popped up.
This afternoon as my family and I walked through the woods, I knew that I needed to do something. Unfortunately, new clients are not always easy to come by and while I would love to put my head down and earn more money, I don’t always have that option. It’s erratic income; it’s not always flowing. So while I wait and look for new clients, I have to decrease my spending.
My first thought was to do a no-buy challenge. I’ve done one before and I enjoyed it, but I resisted the thought because no-spend and low-spend challenges can be all-or-nothing, set-up-to-fail experiments. When I did my first no-buy challenge last summer, while I was surprised at my ability to discipline myself and restrict my spending, my previous spending habits returned and the changes were not long-lasting. It wasn’t long before I was wading through pools of financial shame when I spent too much the very next month, and bought things I later regretted.
I love what
says about awareness, “Discipline has its place. But when we rely on it alone, we miss the deeper patterns; the stories we tell ourselves, the autopilot responses, the unmet needs beneath our habits. When we build awareness, we get choice back. We start to see when we’re stretching ourselves too thin. We catch the harsh inner voice before it spirals. We recognise the decision point as it’s happening, not after.”She goes on to say, “You don’t need a new version of yourself. You don’t need more grit, more goals, or more shame. You just need a new way in. One that honours your humanity. One that works in the middle of messy, real life.”
As I ponder how I should go about giving myself the challenge to reduce my spending in a way that is gentle and kind, I think about
’ post called My advice for anyone doing a shopping ban. In it she says, “If I could only give one piece of advice to readers who are thinking of doing a ban of some kind, I would now say: before you begin, make sure you’re not starting from a place of punishing yourself. You’re not a bad person for shopping, and you’re not a bad person for wanting things. You’re also not a bad person if your spending habits have left you with little savings or gotten you into debt.”I’m not precisely sure on how I should move forward with my challenge, or what it should look like, but I do know that my binge and restrict tendencies haven’t proven efficient in years past as
from speaks about in her book You Don’t Need a Budget, and this post.Over the next while, I’m going to be writing a series of posts discussing no-buy and low-buy challenges as I attempt to reduce my own spending.
I’m curious, dear readers. If you have done a no-spend or low-spend challenge, how do you feel it went? What insights did you bring with you into your future financial decisions? During seasons of light cash flow, how have you navigated them? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
I love that Anna Mathur quote 💗
No browsing is my go to when I want to reduce spending. I don’t miss what I don’t know about.