how to do a no-buy project
You cannot buy style. Or beauty. Or confidence. You cannot buy health. Or fitness. You cannot buy happiness. Or enoughness, Or worthiness.
Nothing you buy will actualize those things for you. They can support those feelings, sure. But buying yoga pants doesn’t make you a yogi, doing yoga does.
The dopamine rush I get from the wanting, hunting, and buying of things makes me feel like I am achieving something. And often in a much more accessible way than actually working towards those goals. (I don’t know about you but buying yoga pants is much easier for me than practicing actual yoga.)
And the greatest irony of this false pursuit of buying my way to success is that it actually moves me further away from my goals. The time and money I spend shopping could be time and money put towards my goals. Eventually, I realized I didn’t have to live this way and I started putting strategies in place to break the addiction to buying into my fantasy self. One of which I will be discussing here today – the no buy strategy.
Solution
A “no buy” is a specific period of time where you abstain from purchasing. This can be purchases in general, or include/exclude certain categories. For example, you could do a 30 day beauty no buy that includes not buying clothing, makeup, and other beauty products but excludes food, travel, and art supplies.
Targeted no buys that include your “problem” categories can help you break unwanted patterns of behavior. For example, I would often buy articles of clothing that I could not reasonably get good use of in my real life. I was buying for a fantasy self that totally would need a pair of platform leopard heels. A no buy allows you to step away from this escapist behavior.
No buy challenges are positive reminders that you are enough as you are and you have enough to live your life as you are. You can work towards what you want right now, without needing to buy anything new. Even if it is just one baby step at a time, you can make moves towards important goals.
A shallow but awesome result of a no buy is saving money. Because you are temporarily freezing spending on certain categories, you can put that money to different use. A note here – if your no buy feels overly restricted, a real risk of this strategy is “bingeing” after the restriction period. Having a budget in place for different spending categories can be a helpful way to ensure you don’t blow all the money you saved immediately following the no buy.
Action
As briefly mentioned above, there can be risks to a no buy if you don’t create a structure for your success. Constraints are helpful in any creative process as they allow you to flex and explore within defined “safe” boundaries. This structure, if implemented thoughtfully, should support your goals through restriction and flexibility – achieving the positive effects while avoiding the feeling of over-restriction.
Creating clearly defined rules to your no buy will support your success:
1. The first rule you should decide upon is the timeframe of the no buy. My recommendation is to start with shorter time-periods so you can understand the benefits and drawbacks of a no buy to you, personally.
2. Second, choose the categories you want to include in your no buy. Are there certain categories of items you feel you overconsume?
3. For those categories, what level of “no buy” do you want to participate in? While most people could likely go 30 days without buying a new article of clothing, if one of your categories is a consumable good, you may want to allow replacement items to be purchased. For example, if one of your no buy categories is beauty products and you run of of deodorant on day two, can you replace the deodorant you consumed? This may seem like an obvious exception, but clearly defining the rules ahead of time will prevent you from justifying exceptions during the no buy itself when you are less likely to make a rational decision.
Give yourself emotional support, too.
- Many of us participate in coping mechanisms like shopping to relieve some deeper trauma or wound. For me, these no buys have revealed a deep discontentment with my life, a grief about the life I should have/could have/would have had if I had never become sick. A no buy gave me the opportunity to feel these feelings without numbing myself with coping mechanisms. I wish I had understood this potential benefit of a no buy so that I could arrange therapy to help me process the traumas it revealed.
- Community support is another amazing way to give yourself emotional support through your no buy. Join an online forum or share your project on social media – you may be shocked at how many people share your experience. When I started sharing about my addictive shopping behaviors and no buys online, I was embarrassed until people reached out to me to let me know they struggle too – you are not alone!
- Make it fun! One thing I like to do is count down the days of the no buy with little hearts drawn on my calendar for each day of the no buy. You could calculate how much you typically spend on your chosen categories on average per day, and each day you successfully complete your no buy, put that money in a savings account. Figuring out ways to look forward to each day you don’t spend money on your selected categories can help prevent “bingeing” after your project is completed.
Please let me know if you decide to do a no buy. I would love to follow your progress and celebrate your success with you! My year-long no-buy started on September 10th, 2024. If you would like to follow along the 365 day no buy project I am doing, follow me over at www.instagram.com/ladycarnivory