Why I Loved No-Buy January
If you read my January To-Do List then you will know that something that I was aiming to do was a no-buy month. Essentially I was on a self-imposed spending ban and now we're into February that means that my no-buy month is over and I thought I’d put my thoughts into a post as I actually really enjoyed it which wasn’t something I was expecting. My spending is so much more in control than it once was but I can’t deny that I do still get a lot of joy from shopping and whilst that isn’t a bad thing at all I did want to challenge how I was spending my money and this is what happened.
what is a no buy?
Well, it’s a simple as it sounds really. I know there’s a trend of the no buy or the low buy going around at the moment and essentially you’re not allowed to buy anything apart from your essentials like your bills, food, and petrol, etc. A low buy is a little more flexible as the aim is to purchase as little as possible and the no buy is obviously a little more strict. There were a couple of exceptions I made to my no-buy and they were that I could purchase the following;
A birthday present for my dog Edie.
To repurchase anything that I truly couldn’t do without that I’d run out of.
why do a no buy?
For me, I wanted to challenge the way I spend my money as this year I want to save as much as I can as we’re getting married and at the end of the year we will be looking to buy a new house and those are two big expensive things to do. As well as wanting to save money something else I want to make sure I’m doing is using and appreciating everything I own as I’m so lucky to own some really beautiful things and I don’t want to have such a frivolous attitude toward material items. Over Christmas, I took the time to declutter a lot of what I own and I donated anything I wasn’t using to its full potential whether it was clothing or beauty products. For the first time in a while, I feel like I only own the things that I actually use and I’m trying to get out the habit of keeping things for the best as that is something that I’m very guilty of but it is something I’m actively working on.
was it difficult?
I found challenging myself not to spend any money somewhat addictive which is not how I expected to feel at all, I felt excited to have more of a control over my spending and the more I said no to my impulse to spend money the more I enjoyed it. It felt so good to look through my bank statement at the end of the month and see very few purchases and I don’t feel like I missed out on anything at all. There is denying I love the feeling of buying something new but there is also something really good about saying no when I know deep down I more than likely don't need that item.
did i succeed?
Yes! There were items here and there that I started to lust after like a cute pair of boots in the Tesco sale and a jumper in the Boden sale that had a dog on that looked like a whippet. But I didn’t purchase either of them and looking back to those items now I don’t think they would have stayed in my wardrobe for a long time and when it comes to purchasing clothes I'm striving for longevity. As I mentioned earlier, I had a couple of things that I already knew I was going to buy in the month which is ok and they were;
Cinema ticket to see Little Women with my best friend £11
Two dogs tags that were in the sale which are part of Edie’s birthday present £14
A new jumper for Edie’s birthday £15 (my boyfriend and I split the amount)
Total £40
I’m really happy with that amount of money spent throughout January. It’s at least half the amount I would spend usually as we all know those little odd purchases here and there really add up so cutting them down has certainly helped me save.
will i do it again?
I’m continuing my no buy into February which is a month where unless there is a social occasion I don’t think there is anything that I will be buying at all as I have nothing coming up where I need to spend money. I'm going to keep the rule that if I run out of something and I really can’t do without it then that purchase is allowed but other than that the no buy is still ongoing. I’m not going be doing something as crazy as a no-buy year as I know that something that I won’t be able to achieve and I don’t want to set myself up for failure but I am going to be having a low buy year. Something I think I might do to keep me accountable too is to keep a list of every single thing that I purchase this year that isn’t considered an essential and then at the end of the year share everything that I bought to see how I did as that could be interesting.
