The curse of a seemingly never-ending January has finally lifted. I’m pleased to say that, not only did I survive the barrage of catastrophic global events that threatened to wipe out civilisation as we know it (think record breaking wildfires, threat of WW3, Coronavirus sweeping the globe), but I also survived my first no buy month too. Today I’m sharing what I’ve learned about a life without shopping so far in my first no buy year update.
Wondering what a no buy year actually is? I ran through all the ins and outs in a recent blog post that you might want to check out.
No Buy Month Successes
- Other than a liquid drain unblocker (which, let’s be fair, I clearly didn’t want to buy), I didn’t purchase any physical items this month. That means no new, unnecessary junk was brought into my life. I added absolutely nothing to the already ridiculous piles of stuff I have. And that feels amazing!
- I didn’t buy a single takeaway coffee in January even though I gave myself the allowance of one per month when I set out my no buy rules. In fact, I didn’t even buy a sit-in coffee. I didn’t even go to a coffee shop! Who knew that was even possible for me?
- I’ve found a new podcast that I’ve fallen in love with. Minimalism-ish is all about creating a life with less that works for you. It helped me to realise that I can throw the ‘rules’ out the window because every person’s journey is individual (see below).
No Buy Month Not-So-Successes
Originally, I decided that I’d limit myself to one alcoholic drink and one meal out in a restaurant per week during my no buy year. That plan unravelled very quickly. It’s not that I go out for food or drinks often, but I realised I’d put these restrictions on myself for no reason and they weren’t really serving a purpose. My no buy year isn’t financially driven. It’s not a no spend challenge for me; it’s more of a year without shopping. A year without new stuff.
So moving forward I’m not going to limit the amount of experiences I have (meals out, drinks with friends, travel, days out etc) because that’s not what this buy nothing year is about for me. Instead, I’m just going to focus on not shopping and not buying any new products because that’s the real point of this challenge for me.
So yes, I did eat out more than once a week and I did have three glasses of wine one night after work. Don’t judge me.
What I Spent
Here’s where I share what I spent during my first no buy month. It’s in Bahraini Dinar (about 1BD = 2GBP…ish). To give you some context, I give myself a budget of 250BD a month, but this year I’m trying to cut back on that a little bit. Also, this doesn’t include my rent, charitable donations, Ubers or Spotify subscription. That all comes out of a separate pot of money.
The grand total came to just above 201BD (£404, 534USD, 481EUR, 707CAD).
So, not only did I refrain from bringing anything new into my already overcrowded home, but I actually saved some money this month too!
Are you ready to start a no-buy year, but have no idea where to start? Check out my no-buy year ebook that’s designed to guide you through the entire process.
Final Thoughts
Sure, we’re only one month in and everything is still sparkly and exciting at this point, but I can’t help feeling optimistic about this no buy year. I can feel my mindset changing. It’s as if a veil has been lifted and, for the first time, I can really see all the clutter I have lying around. I used to think the aim was to have as much stuff as possible, but now I’m starting to realise that the less I own, the happier I’ll actually be. And I’ll probably never be a true minimalist with an empty white room and nothing but the bare essentials. But I can get to the point where I only have the things that serve a genuine purpose and make me truly happy.
But, y’all…we’re still a long way off.
