Ha, yes, I could consider them groceries, but we’re talking weird flavors of Oreos and chips. Not exactly necessary and sufficient nutrients 
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Haha still groceries in my mind! 
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Still groceries. If nothing else, you’ll eat them instead of, um, caviar or something!
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I’m starting a monthly list to try to keep track of one in/one out. With two adults, two fast-growing kids, and dog, I’m really feeling the inventory management load that Minimal Mom talks about. Hoping this also helps with my no-buy goals!
2024 so far. The “In” items were purchased during the holiday break and opened on 1/1.
ETA: Yesterday I biked around a bunch dropping off things from the out list for BN. That took up almost half my day. It reminded me that I should probably spend a least as much care bringing things into my life as it will take to get them out.
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I am going to attempt a low buy January. Any shopping/Amazon purchases besides groceries and absolute needs may only occur from the 24th onward.
January will be a good month to try this out as I am feeling overwhelmed by stuff and don’t usually buy much in January anyway. Except for my one weakness in winter - seed catalogs and plants! But it will be good to sit on those purchases until the end of the month and make sure I don’t impulse buy (too much at least)
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I’m in. A year of $$$ surprise medical bills after the previous year of planned $$$$ house maintenance, and I’m squeezed a bit this year.
I’m guessing I’ll need some sort of rules for exceptions so I don’t reject the whole plan 
but I haven’t solidified them yet.
I did the Frugalwoods’ Uber Frugal.January years ago and it was super helpful to get a baseline idea of my needs vs wants, so that may be where I’ll start.
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Trying again in the new year. I did buy more clothes but now I really have everything I need so I should stop. Allowed to buy some weightlifting accessories but that’s it.
@katscratch welcome back! Hope you’ve been doing ok, surprise medical bills are not good 
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I’m alright! Just seeing the effects of my company switching to a lower tier insurance plan lol
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Booooo to that!
(Also it is so good to see you)
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i’m doing a no-buy january. we’ll see how it goes, then recalibrate! for me no-buy means i buy nothing in my craving categories – clothes, makeup, shoes, skincare, cute things for my house. so far, so good! i was gonna place a sephora order just to get my birthday gift but do i really need more tiny bottles of shampoo and other stuff i may or may not like? i do not. so i shut it down.
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I am dipping my toes in the most half assed way possible. Any online purchasing that is not time sensitive, I am going to postpone until after the 20th and try to sort of batch it.
I cannot afford to miss good deals on things that I need because I’m waiting until an arbitrary time, and I do my in-person shopping when I have a chance. I’m a busy lady. And the thing about kids is, they often generate needs that cannot wait until the end of the month.
But even though I have already spent like $200 at the Hanna Andersson clearance and I need to go out this weekend to take my son shopping for jeans, I do still have quite a list of things that I am waiting to purchase. (Ex.: bras for myself, upgraded toilet seats that you can sit on and have the little training seat.)
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No buy going strong, four days in, largely because I’ve taken it as an excuse to remove myself from mailing lists and following clothing brands on instagram, and delete all my clothing resell apps from my phone.
Also doing a stationery no buy which should be easier somehow
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Have fully committed to the craft & tea no-buy. Let’s see how it goes!!
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I’m in. Just bought a house and doing work on it and moving in next month (!), so only spending on groceries, gas, necessary health expenses, and necessary house/moving stuff. No clothes (dear self: I have enough socks for the next 4 decades), no random shit, no hobby stuff. Also no tea/coffee, as I have enough for the royal family right now lol.
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Clothes are my weak spot and I just fell for a few new years sales… I truly do not need anymore clothes until the next season change!
I am very susceptible to how marketing clothing online goes… selling a lifestyle etc… how the clothes are styled and posed… in person folded on a shelf the magic falls away for me!!! I generally have to go online for sizing… wait actually no I don’t have to because I have enough for now!
I am going to no buy clothes until the end of February
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Here are the no-buy rules DH and I set for ourselves this year.
- Consumables are ok, meaning food, drinks, etc.
- We can replace things that run out, ie. we can buy new toothpaste when we run out, new toothbrush heads, etc.
- We can replace clothing/shoe/etc items that need to be replaced (doesn’t fit anymore, got a hole, got a stain, etc). However, whenever possible we are going to try and find the item second-hand.
- We can replace household items that we run out of, but if it is something that breaks we will see if we can fix it or just do without it before buying new. We will also ask on buy nothing for items instead of just buying it new.
- When we do replace things, we will try to replace them with reusable items whenever possible instead of single-use items (even if this is more expensive at the time)
- For things like toys, new things coming into the house means old things need to leave the house. New toys will only be purchased for birthdays and Holidays
- We can spend the money that is in our free spending accounts ($25 per month allocation). However, I plan to be more scrupulous in spending mine.
- We can continue our subscriptions, but any new ones in means an old one has to be cancelled.
I will fully acknowledge that if we succeed this year, it is only because over the past few years we were not frugal at all and we bought all the things. We gave ourselves permission to buy pretty much anything we wanted, so our house is full of all of the things and all of the gadgets.
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Focusing on hobbies and home improvement for this since I have some upcoming travel that will require clothing purchases (and also tickets), and also will focus on the first third of the year and reevaluate afterwards since vacation will make a good breakpoint.
Hobbies:
- Focus on craft stuff I already have
- All books from library
- Puzzles from buy nothing (local equivalent)
Home Improvement:
- Finish projects I already have supplies for
- Ask friends/neighbors to borrow tools I don’t have
- Completely broken-down pieces (ex. paintbrushes) can be replaced, but start with buy nothing
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Yeah, I feel like no-buy is almost always a corrective and that’s part of why I’ve never done it for clothes- I’ve never had a huge wardrobe. I mean, for people to have clothes, purchasing needs to be happening somewhere, y’know?
I think I have a tendency to over-purchase home goods though, especially since I am home more, so I’m trying to rein that in a bit more by limiting the online shopping. It takes (my own valuable) time to choose, unpackage and put away everything I buy, too, so l want to respect my time better!
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I really like this framing. I hadn’t considered this aspect of No Buy.
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Yes! I also think this is where our loop-hole for buying used comes in. Theoretically this year we should have more free time since the girls are getting a little less hands-on, so hopefully I can spend a little time looking for used things instead of hitting the easy button and buying new.
I also don’t want to discount the happiness that can come from buying something that I truly like, especially for clothing. Two years ago when I started buying myself full priced clothing, there was just a freeing feeling about it. For the first time in my entire life I was buying clothes that I liked and ignoring the cost, instead of just settling for whatever fit me that was on the clearance rack or at goodwill.
However, I have spent 2 years building up a wardrobe that I like and that fits, so I don’t need to do that for awhile at least.
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