Exploring Buying Less This Year
Have you ever heard of or attempted a No Buy Challenge? Social media is buzzing with people taking on No Buy Challenges. If you’re not familiar, a No Buy Challenge encourages people to cut back on or eliminate non-essential spending on daily items, clothing, and home goods. People have different reasons for limiting spending. Some are trying to curb spending due to economic or environmental factors. Others are responding to overconsumption, something that has become easier with online shopping, free returns, and next day delivery. Others describe feeling overwhelmed by ads and products directed at them through social media. No matter what your goal is, today we’re exploring ways to buy less this year and how your Golden Coil planner can help you along the way!
Evaluate What You Own
If you are hoping to cut back on shopping, it helps to begin by reviewing what you already own.
You can pledge to use what you have before buying more essential items. This is helpful with the half empty bottles of shampoo, soap, or the pantry full of random boxes, cans, and half empty bags of pasta and beans. Work through the items that have been lingering in your house before buying more.
When it comes to clothing, we recommend going through everything category by category (sweaters, shirts, jeans, pants, dresses, shoes, etc). Donate any items you do not wear or love or don’t fit anymore. Once you’ve weeded these pieces out, evaluate what is left and make sure your closet only includes the items you absolutely love. If you’d like to go even further in your process, you can utilize a cataloging app like Indyx to track everything in your closet. This makes getting dressed a fun game of putting together new outfits and helps you shop the items you already own.
Keep a List of Favorites
As you get dressed day to day, outfits you love to wear will begin to emerge. We love to utilize the Project layout to track our go-to favorite outfits. If you’re lacking inspiration to get dressed, you can turn to your Project layout and recall your trusted favorites.
Set Your Rules & Track Your Spending
It’s important to set your intention with your No Buy Challenge. How long will you avoid unnecessary spending? One month? Three? A full year? Write down your rules and once you set them, do your best to stick to them. Our Budget layout is an excellent tool for tracking any purchases you do end up making. Jot down your categories such as Home Goods, Clothing, and Accessories. Hold yourself accountable for writing down any non-essential purchases you make and list them under the categories.
Create a Wishlist
As you embark on your No Buy journey, you will ultimately find things you want to buy. Choose a place to keep track of these items. You can make a “Do I Need That?” Pinterest board. You can also use the Fillable List layout in your planner. Chances are when you revisit this list at a later date, you will have forgotten about many of the items and ultimately won’t want them anymore!
Wait it Out
Are you constantly tempted to buy things? Do you scroll social media and see an ad or a post from an influencer and find yourself buying instantly? It’s easy to feel the overwhelming need to buy. But instead of purchasing immediately, note the item you want to buy and make yourself wait at least 48 hours to purchase. If 48 hours later you’re still thinking about the item, evaluate if you need it and consider how it will fit into your future life.
Consider Local
When you decide to make a purchase or you are buying essential items, consider supporting the businesses in your local community or town. If you love idyllic downtowns with cozy, specialty shops, consider a shop local only pledge and reduce your dependency on the big box stores and online retailers. Those cute downtowns will not stay afloat if we only order from big companies!
We’d love to hear from you if you’re trying a No Buy challenge this year or if you’ve completed one in the past! Tell us about your experience in the comments and please share any tips that helped you along the way!