No-Buy Curious

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My intention is that my 2024 will be a year of not buying new. My focus will be on buying used items only.

I will have exceptions:

  • I can replace anything that wears out/ breaks or any clothing item that gets so permanently stained that I won’t wear it. However, I will attempt to buy used first unless there is a time constraint (or items such as bras/underwear for which used items have an ick factor for me).

  • Food and consumables don’t count.

  • Gifts don’t count.

  • If I don’t need to pay for it, it doesn’t count but I will try to minimize how much clutter comes into the house.

So far, I am doing great! But I’m being a snowbird this month (first time) so I’m really out of my typical routine.

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Just finished up a tea sampler that I’m not wild about. Progress on getting through the black teas!

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I was about a millimeter away from hitting buy on a fleece this morning.
Credit card info entered and everything but I remembered the no buy resolution the last second!

One of the other things that has been getting me about clothes lately, is that stuff sells out a lot more quickly than I ever noticed in the past. So it’s a way for me to not feel very encouraged to sit on a clothing decision and feel the pressure to purchase. Either way I didn’t buy the jacket so it’s a win today.

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I had to take a drop-everything trip to visit the PNW a couple weeks ago, and used money that had been budgeted for two work trips coming up.

I’m REALLY in now because this pinches a bit!

I won’t need to purchase anything consumable for these next trips, but plane tickets, hospital fees, hotel in one country, restaurants in one country, and required travel insurance for one trip will likely be around $3200 total. The unknown variable is how many checked bags of supplies I’ll be given, but I should get reimbursed for those.

I tend to rebel against hard limits but also find them easiest to maintain due to the simplicity. Personality vs productivity haha

The biggest thing I know I want to go as zero buy as possible for the year is beverages. The kids and I leaned hard into NA cocktail craftery over the year and I need to kill the habit of a nightcap. For now coffee and one variety of non-caf tea to replace current will be ok, but nothing else for my normal consumption. If my budget can handle it I’ll have an exception for the Miami airport in March and May :laughing:

My goal is zero buy on anything aside from bills, at-home nourishment/hygiene needs, pet/vet needs, and house/garden projects. The latter because I have such a short window of time on weekends, I need to keep plugging away at things.

Categories I’ve been spending $$$$ in: clothing, hair funsies, makeup (it will be ok to replace ELF mascara in six months but nothing else), holiday decor, plants instead of seeds, and liquid - ginger ale, seltzers, egg nog with $$$ NA rum/brandy equivalent , Abstinence NA liquors, various other NA liquors - did I mention we have a full NA liquor store in my part of town?! - tart cherry juice after my homemade ran out, Kraken rum Seattle edition, Pellegrinos, V8, Aldi’s Red Thunder, and more. Sheesh.

I think my best chance of success will be to focus on a different area each month, while overall trying for a ZERO but really honing in on that one category.

January is obviously beverages :wink:

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Welcome! The monthly focus is neat. How do you feel about DIY mixers? My friend got into making her own shrubs a couple of summers ago and it was super easy and delicious.

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Man you really spoke to me with this!

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I absolutely love that these are popping up more and more!

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Oooh great idea! That’s going to be a treat in summer for sure - I love shrubs! When I’ve been on a kick, I like to experiment with different fruit/herb combos. So good! I also have water kefir grains that are currently dormant, and ginger bug/turmeric bug (ginger hibiscus soda, and turmeric lime soda are my go to combos). I apparently really really like experimenting with beverages :laughing: but went a little too far this past year accumulating too many purchased drinks and habit of sipping something all day instead of letting digestion rest.

Me too! It also seems like label design is top of the top in this space; it’s fun just to browse!

I wouldn’t know this without having started and then resented many challenges here :joy: I don’t tend to “give up” and go full rebel very often, but If I give myself wiggle room I’ll immediately wiggle like a sleeping cat shoving their person to the edge of the bed without them ever realizing.

Hard stop limits/rules also start to feel boring. Even though that’s the very thing that makes them easier to follow! I’ve noticed I feel that earlier than I do resentment or restriction, so it’s a good signal to prompt re-evaluation.

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Wow, now I definitely want to drink at the Katscratch NA speakeasy!

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Craft no-buy win: I have a small amount of a fine natural linen and some lovely black crewel that are going to become blackwork cup covers as my “I’m going to be sitting in Medieval Re-enactment Court for five hours this weekend, I need a project” project. (The cup covers were the intended use for this stuff, but I’m just really happy to have finally nailed down a time to work on them!)

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OK. One no buy item for 2024. NO PERFUME SAMPLES DEAR GOD

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Hahaha I take it this is a vice for you?

(I have like 8 in the cabinet)

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They’re so small and they’re $5 and they multiply in the darkness

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Even though I’ve realized a No Buy isn’t right for me at this time, my YouTube algorithm hasn’t caught up and it’s serving me a lot of people who are doing them, which I think is helping keep my unnecessary spending down :person_shrugging:

It recently dropped this gem in my lap.

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i’m still going strong, though my wishlist is growing by the day. i am just adding shit to it instead of buying.

this week i have been hibernating and i don’t have to go anywhere which inevitably leads to eyeshadow youtube … but i have just been watching, not buying.

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I’m also wishlisting instead of buying! I’ve got 14 things on it right now.

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I’ve been doing this too! It’s so funny - I’ve known intellectually about the concept of wishlisting stuff and having a waiting period before buying FOR YEARS (like from the Frugalwoods Uber-Frugal January stuff) but it JUST now clicked for me.

Like I’m glad it has finally clicked, but would’ve been nice if it clicked earlier :joy:

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I just bought new yarn for contrast toes because I have finally used up the last of the yarn I bought march/apr 2020. Obviously I have plenty of yarn, but I don’t want to open up something that might be a sweater or scarf for toes.

it is one of those things that for any other category I would really be rethinking those 25 dollars. I mean, that is half the amount for a new lid for the corningware. idk.

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My patience in waiting to buy a new phone paid off (previously the cheapest I saw it was $650 but I got it for $300 by switching to Google FI since they’re releasing the new version today)! It’s an ugly color but hopefully the case covers it up.

But I am failing No Buy when it comes to continuing to buy clothes… there’s a really good sale on some dresses and I just bought Prana shorts for less than $20! If I don’t buy them now, I’ll miss the sale. And I needed new bras after finding out that I’ve been wearing the wrong size for two decades, but I think that’s a valid purchase.

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I don’t know if you’re posting here for help, so ignore this if not. The false sense of urgency manufactured by a sale is an overspending trigger for me. It’s helpful for me to think, “would I buy this item full price?” If the answer is no, I probably don’t actually need it. YMMV.

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