Forum challenge: Buy Nothing Year
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jacob
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Re: Forum challenge: Buy Nothing Year
There are also people who swear to "no shampoo". Once the scalp goes through the adjustment period and starts secreting less oil, it should make for better hair. Never attempted it myself though. A deliberate strategy would be to cut it all mostly off with a #1 (my standard summer haircut) and use regular soap on the scalp for the first couple of weeks and then gradually taper off as the hair grows out again. Maybe I'll try that in the fall when I start letting the hair grow longer again.
Re: Forum challenge: Buy Nothing Year
@jacob, I've done "no shampoo" for about 10 years now, aside from the occasional dandruff treatment (a problem I sometimes had pre-"no shampoo" as well). It took me about 2 months to move from disgustingly oily to "just right." In my personal experience, the soap stripped the oil just as well as shampoo if you leave it in for much time, so there was no getting around the dumpster man phase. Perhaps having less hair as you are thinking would have helped. I use regular soap about once every 1-2 weeks, and I wash it out almost as soon as I lathered it in. Any longer, and I get very dry hair.
Re: Forum challenge: Buy Nothing Year
+1 on "no poo" (as the Internets call it). My hair look better without shampooing, it has more volume. Shampoo made my hair look thin.
Re: Forum challenge: Buy Nothing Year
Success for no restaurants/eating out in March... Alternatives included:
- Inviting people over for a meal, a classic. Lured them with a foreign speciality that doesn't really exist here
- Meeting in a public building that allows visitors and has a large protected section with tables. I think it was intended as a food court but there aren't many restaurants nearby. So it's pretty chill, students play board games, people eat their own packed lunches on weekdays. I brought homemade cake to share and my own tea, friend treated herself to barista coffee from one of the shops and enjoyed the cake
- City dwelling friends in need of nature came over for a forest walk near where I live. It drizzled most of the time but was lovely anyway, and followed by homemade cake and tea at my place
Re: Forum challenge: Buy Nothing Year
My 2 cents as someone who should be doing a no-buy but isn't, even though according to his catastrophizing brain, he can't hold a job, he is a failure, unemployable, this could be the last income he ever earns in his life, etcetera. Instead, I observe myself buying cake, coffee...
The conclusion I'm arriving at, relevant here and at that other thread where we discussed why people are consumerists and wasteful even though it is not the rational thing to do: I am now pretty sure it's not signaling to one's parents or to oneself, it's denial fair and square. Denial of what one fears is the bare-naked, terrifying reality of one's situation. (I've never been an alcoholic, but I believe this is what is going on for them, too).
The conclusion I'm arriving at, relevant here and at that other thread where we discussed why people are consumerists and wasteful even though it is not the rational thing to do: I am now pretty sure it's not signaling to one's parents or to oneself, it's denial fair and square. Denial of what one fears is the bare-naked, terrifying reality of one's situation. (I've never been an alcoholic, but I believe this is what is going on for them, too).
Re: Forum challenge: Buy Nothing Year
@Mousse:
Good on you for creative effort! It can be difficult to create all the spaces we need to conduct our complex 21st century relationships. For example, one of my primary restaurant expenses is renting a table/booth where I can have 1-on-1 conversations with my adult kids, because there are other humans living in all of our domiciles. My DD33 and I are more likely to mix it up quite a bit in terms of our interactions, but my DS36 and I have settled into a routine of hanging out together at one particular diner.
However, I would also like to insert for the record here that, for instance, it may be less expensive to take your entire extended family out for traditional meal at a certain restaurant than it is to pay mortgage/head-tax on an only very occasionally used dining room in your primary residence. And the non-inclusion of residential expense in this challenge also tends towards rendering it a bit elitist in the current environment, because there is much facility rolled into a residency bundle beyond bare shelter. As in, I spent the entire month of July at my $750,000 beach house and only bought groceries at the Farmer's Market (rendered profitable only by local conglomeration of other shoppers like me) and rode my bike everywhere on the publicly well-maintained infrastructure and borrowed a wide variety of media and tools from the large, lovely, thoughtfully stocked public library. And, trust me, I am knocking myself for this sort of thing as much as anyone.
Good on you for creative effort! It can be difficult to create all the spaces we need to conduct our complex 21st century relationships. For example, one of my primary restaurant expenses is renting a table/booth where I can have 1-on-1 conversations with my adult kids, because there are other humans living in all of our domiciles. My DD33 and I are more likely to mix it up quite a bit in terms of our interactions, but my DS36 and I have settled into a routine of hanging out together at one particular diner.
However, I would also like to insert for the record here that, for instance, it may be less expensive to take your entire extended family out for traditional meal at a certain restaurant than it is to pay mortgage/head-tax on an only very occasionally used dining room in your primary residence. And the non-inclusion of residential expense in this challenge also tends towards rendering it a bit elitist in the current environment, because there is much facility rolled into a residency bundle beyond bare shelter. As in, I spent the entire month of July at my $750,000 beach house and only bought groceries at the Farmer's Market (rendered profitable only by local conglomeration of other shoppers like me) and rode my bike everywhere on the publicly well-maintained infrastructure and borrowed a wide variety of media and tools from the large, lovely, thoughtfully stocked public library. And, trust me, I am knocking myself for this sort of thing as much as anyone.
Re: Forum challenge: Buy Nothing Year
My bad, I didn't mean for the list to sound self-congratulatory! More to share ideas I'm coming across and trying out, especially after folks here kindly offered suggestions. It's probably too basic. I feel like I'm navigating how to fight mindset ("people like us and our age go out and have fancy food when we meet") and habit ("we've always done things this way") more than the privilege and difficulty of sourcing a form of accommodation where you can cook/bake/hang out with people. I also pivoted to baking because it turns out that "hey let's meet for a picnic in town" isn't quite as appealing to folks who already pack their lunches 5 days a week, and the park doesn't even have a microwave... 
Re: Forum challenge: Buy Nothing Year
@Mousse:
No, your creativity does warrant congratulation. I’m just annoyed with the original creator of the challenge who was already spending $2000/month for domicile around 10 years ago. So, who cares if she didn’t spend $9.99 on coffee out and underwear?
No, your creativity does warrant congratulation. I’m just annoyed with the original creator of the challenge who was already spending $2000/month for domicile around 10 years ago. So, who cares if she didn’t spend $9.99 on coffee out and underwear?
Re: Forum challenge: Buy Nothing Year
What's so wrong with feeling good about things one has objectively accomplished? Self-congratulate away, imo
Re: Forum challenge: Buy Nothing Year
It's the downside of feeling like a newbie in the midst of experts who've been at this forever 
I finished reading Not Buying It. I first read Kelly's "How I Lived a Year on Just a Pound a Day" mentioned earlier in this thread, and it may be because she starts closer to me (both geographically/culturally and in terms of taking the bus to work and going walking/cycling/hitchhiking instead for the challenge) but I found Kelly's book more practical and more enjoyable to read, probably because the author didn't sound like she hated her life while doing it. (I realise this is at least partially a narrative choice, of course.)
Meanwhile, Levine starts (and ends) with 3 cars for two people and with rules that were more confusing. Like, professional haircuts are okay but q-tips are not allowed? She also let other people pay for her and called it the "year of receiving" by the end, while Kelly didn't. This could be because Levine was the first to try a challenge like that. Rather than practical advice, she did raise interesting larger points (like the risk of anticonsumerism becoming its own religious fervour for followers, with too much preaching and sense of moral superiority) (at the same time, she looks down on frugal actions like "self-inflicted haircuts"
), but some points were belaboured in a way that really ages the book... e.g. politicians packaged as products is interesting food for thought, but then there was a lot, a looot about the US elections of 2006 and fighting against cell phone towers. And lots about how boring life is and how boring you are as a person when you don't spend on entertainment. Maybe I would feel the same way if I lived in New York. I also don't understand the local culture as well since she mentioned hitchhiking when younger and how a motorist stopped just to yell at her "get your own damn car" which is an incomprehensible thing for me to imagine telling a hitchhiker.
At least for my corner of the world, I'll be recommending Kelly's book first.
I finished reading Not Buying It. I first read Kelly's "How I Lived a Year on Just a Pound a Day" mentioned earlier in this thread, and it may be because she starts closer to me (both geographically/culturally and in terms of taking the bus to work and going walking/cycling/hitchhiking instead for the challenge) but I found Kelly's book more practical and more enjoyable to read, probably because the author didn't sound like she hated her life while doing it. (I realise this is at least partially a narrative choice, of course.)
Meanwhile, Levine starts (and ends) with 3 cars for two people and with rules that were more confusing. Like, professional haircuts are okay but q-tips are not allowed? She also let other people pay for her and called it the "year of receiving" by the end, while Kelly didn't. This could be because Levine was the first to try a challenge like that. Rather than practical advice, she did raise interesting larger points (like the risk of anticonsumerism becoming its own religious fervour for followers, with too much preaching and sense of moral superiority) (at the same time, she looks down on frugal actions like "self-inflicted haircuts"
), but some points were belaboured in a way that really ages the book... e.g. politicians packaged as products is interesting food for thought, but then there was a lot, a looot about the US elections of 2006 and fighting against cell phone towers. And lots about how boring life is and how boring you are as a person when you don't spend on entertainment. Maybe I would feel the same way if I lived in New York. I also don't understand the local culture as well since she mentioned hitchhiking when younger and how a motorist stopped just to yell at her "get your own damn car" which is an incomprehensible thing for me to imagine telling a hitchhiker.At least for my corner of the world, I'll be recommending Kelly's book first.
Re: Forum challenge: Buy Nothing Year
@Mousse
You did better than me. I mostly failed March.
I'm similiar to @ertyu in this regard but not as deep emotionally? Like I don't think its denial or anything like that. More like the source for me is underlying cope with stress and/or boredom mixed with some habit.
But rather than cake and coffee its energy drinks and 7/11 trips... I made it 10 days on the no energy drinks but was grocery shopping and saw the rare buy 2 get 1 free on the C4s and couldn't resist (didn't help I had a slight headache from the caffeine withdrawal). Consumption of this product immediately solved my problems and felt awesome. I tried to replace energy drinks with coffee but instead what happened was now I have energy drink in the morning and coffee for lunch lmfao.
Its very very easy to rationalize this spending at my income and current networth level to not give a crap about a spend that is so tiny in comparison to the rest of my spending. Maybe crowbar does not work for me on this one.
Is interesting there is no FOMO when it comes to entertainment like I don't need to see the latest movies, games, or anything and I'm perfectly content with free hobbies. But I like food...
The one win I did have is eating rolled oats + bananna every morning for breakfast like clockwork. Very cheap and healthy way start to the day. I'd like to automate lunch consumption this way and let dinner be closer to a free meal (whatever my Spouse or I feel like cooking).
You did better than me. I mostly failed March.
I'm similiar to @ertyu in this regard but not as deep emotionally? Like I don't think its denial or anything like that. More like the source for me is underlying cope with stress and/or boredom mixed with some habit.
But rather than cake and coffee its energy drinks and 7/11 trips... I made it 10 days on the no energy drinks but was grocery shopping and saw the rare buy 2 get 1 free on the C4s and couldn't resist (didn't help I had a slight headache from the caffeine withdrawal). Consumption of this product immediately solved my problems and felt awesome. I tried to replace energy drinks with coffee but instead what happened was now I have energy drink in the morning and coffee for lunch lmfao.
Its very very easy to rationalize this spending at my income and current networth level to not give a crap about a spend that is so tiny in comparison to the rest of my spending. Maybe crowbar does not work for me on this one.
Is interesting there is no FOMO when it comes to entertainment like I don't need to see the latest movies, games, or anything and I'm perfectly content with free hobbies. But I like food...
The one win I did have is eating rolled oats + bananna every morning for breakfast like clockwork. Very cheap and healthy way start to the day. I'd like to automate lunch consumption this way and let dinner be closer to a free meal (whatever my Spouse or I feel like cooking).
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WingsOnFire
- Posts: 112
- Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2020 4:24 pm
- Location: Finland
Re: Forum challenge: Buy Nothing Year
I'm jumping in here too (as well as the minimalism game).
Background: Traumatic and painful things happening one after another, emotional spending for both highs and lows, and because of boredom / procrastinating.
Paid off my CC last fall and have been contemplating on a no-buy or low-buy year. My main issue is that I have previously easily done a no-buy month and then spent thrice as much the next month. So it seems that super hard rules are like a challenge for me to break them!
Anyway, I just got sicker and sicker of the way I had been spending money, and I was overwhelmed with too much stuff again, despite always having tended toward minimalism (albeit often a "soft" version).
We moved last weekend, and I'm still going through my stuff as per the minimalism game, despite having already sold and donated a bunch prior. I'm trying super hard to not buy anything for the new place. My daughter wants a rug in her room, and I asked if the one still at the house entrance hall would work, and she said yes. So I will just have to wash it and we are good there!
She needed a longer extension cord for her room, and we asked if her dad had an extra one and he gave her one.
I have bought one thing since the start of the challenge here, a dress for a relative's June wedding. I ordered it online and don't have it yet. I'm hoping it is as great as it seems and will be a part of my wardrobe forever.
My aim is to buy nothing except for
1 The basics:
-rent and utilities, + mandatory insurance
-food
-phone and internet
-gas, public transit
I don't want to (at this point anyway) completely cut off any activities I can do with DD, or that are a hobby which give me joy, and keep me from boredom-shopping.
So I'm allowing
2 Activities/hobbies:
-Netflix and Crunchyroll (mainly for watching anime, subscription cancelled when there is nothing DD wants to watch. AS I got new cheaper and faster internet for the new place they really tried hard to sell me other streamlining services and I just said, no thanks, we have no use for any of that)
- some flower bulbs and seedlings for our tiny patio
-Yarn for ONE project at a time, which needs to be finished before starting anything new.
-DD's music classes, and if she wants to sew something we will get her fabric for that.
-Gifts. For DD(she rarely wants anything so this is not a problem. In a year it's a few manga books, a notebook or two, one or two pieces of clothing, something like that.) Also for the wedding and any such occasion.
-Eating out - we rarely do anyways, maybe we will do it a bit more in our new place. When we go with DD's dad he always pays, but I'm allowing myself to have lunch with a friend occasionally. When we lived in this area before, we used to go to this tiny Thai food place, and the same place is still here and she just said she'd love to start going there again with me. But that would be like once a month or so.
3 Replacements:
- Replacements are allowed for true needs, which I don't expect there to be many. If something gets broken or ruined that we really need and buying is the only option (ie someone I know doesn't have an extra lying around or we can't repurpose something else) it's okay to buy.
NO BUYING:
-Home decor
-Kitchen stuff, dishes or gadgets or weird pantry ingredients
-Clothes
-Cosmetics to try (only allowed to replace if a product I regularly use runs out)
-ANY hobby stuff, materials for some "future projects" -it needs to be something I have a plan for and will do in the immediate future.
-Books (use library - if it is not available then an e-book is okay but VERY intentionally).
So this is where I have landed with my rules.
I'm thinking of giving myself a 100 € monthly allowance that can be rolled over, to be spent on the hobbies, eating out and such.
Background: Traumatic and painful things happening one after another, emotional spending for both highs and lows, and because of boredom / procrastinating.
Paid off my CC last fall and have been contemplating on a no-buy or low-buy year. My main issue is that I have previously easily done a no-buy month and then spent thrice as much the next month. So it seems that super hard rules are like a challenge for me to break them!
Anyway, I just got sicker and sicker of the way I had been spending money, and I was overwhelmed with too much stuff again, despite always having tended toward minimalism (albeit often a "soft" version).
We moved last weekend, and I'm still going through my stuff as per the minimalism game, despite having already sold and donated a bunch prior. I'm trying super hard to not buy anything for the new place. My daughter wants a rug in her room, and I asked if the one still at the house entrance hall would work, and she said yes. So I will just have to wash it and we are good there!
She needed a longer extension cord for her room, and we asked if her dad had an extra one and he gave her one.
I have bought one thing since the start of the challenge here, a dress for a relative's June wedding. I ordered it online and don't have it yet. I'm hoping it is as great as it seems and will be a part of my wardrobe forever.
My aim is to buy nothing except for
1 The basics:
-rent and utilities, + mandatory insurance
-food
-phone and internet
-gas, public transit
I don't want to (at this point anyway) completely cut off any activities I can do with DD, or that are a hobby which give me joy, and keep me from boredom-shopping.
So I'm allowing
2 Activities/hobbies:
-Netflix and Crunchyroll (mainly for watching anime, subscription cancelled when there is nothing DD wants to watch. AS I got new cheaper and faster internet for the new place they really tried hard to sell me other streamlining services and I just said, no thanks, we have no use for any of that)
- some flower bulbs and seedlings for our tiny patio
-Yarn for ONE project at a time, which needs to be finished before starting anything new.
-DD's music classes, and if she wants to sew something we will get her fabric for that.
-Gifts. For DD(she rarely wants anything so this is not a problem. In a year it's a few manga books, a notebook or two, one or two pieces of clothing, something like that.) Also for the wedding and any such occasion.
-Eating out - we rarely do anyways, maybe we will do it a bit more in our new place. When we go with DD's dad he always pays, but I'm allowing myself to have lunch with a friend occasionally. When we lived in this area before, we used to go to this tiny Thai food place, and the same place is still here and she just said she'd love to start going there again with me. But that would be like once a month or so.
3 Replacements:
- Replacements are allowed for true needs, which I don't expect there to be many. If something gets broken or ruined that we really need and buying is the only option (ie someone I know doesn't have an extra lying around or we can't repurpose something else) it's okay to buy.
NO BUYING:
-Home decor
-Kitchen stuff, dishes or gadgets or weird pantry ingredients
-Clothes
-Cosmetics to try (only allowed to replace if a product I regularly use runs out)
-ANY hobby stuff, materials for some "future projects" -it needs to be something I have a plan for and will do in the immediate future.
-Books (use library - if it is not available then an e-book is okay but VERY intentionally).
So this is where I have landed with my rules.
I'm thinking of giving myself a 100 € monthly allowance that can be rolled over, to be spent on the hobbies, eating out and such.
Re: Forum challenge: Buy Nothing Year
How come?WingsOnFire wrote: ↑Tue Apr 15, 2025 1:33 amMy main issue is that I have previously easily done a no-buy month and then spent thrice as much the next month.
Serious question. With things like food and undereating, there's a biological process that will make it very hard for you not to overeat after a period of undereating, but there's no biological process around spending. So what's the psychology here? In what sort of situations did you find yourself spending more that you'd have rationally liked to? What was your inner thought process? What needs were you meeting? Or were you? If you were, how will you meet them instead? What have you learned about yourself that will allow you to stick to your rules for longer this time around? How are you already incorporating it into the rules, and can you think of new ways to incorporate it? And finally, what is your plan for when you find yourself breaking your rules? How will you get back on the wagon? Spending some time reflecting/journaling along these lines might help.
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WingsOnFire
- Posts: 112
- Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2020 4:24 pm
- Location: Finland
Re: Forum challenge: Buy Nothing Year
I'm fully aware that I've used shopping as a coping mechanism and a form of escapism from traumatic and extremely difficult situations and depressed mood. But also I guess for a kind of fantasy life when I was feeling optimistic about the future.
I've actually been on a non-official no-buy for a few months now. I didn't want to start out with strict rules and advertising that I'm on a no-buy, because of my former lack of success. But I just found that I didn't want to buy anything. I used to be so minimalist, and I was happier and more content. I could do it then, I can do it now. Things may not be ideal, but buying more things is not going to change any of that for the better.
I have learned that people won't love me more or treat me better if I have more and better stuff. Maybe it sounds a bit woo-woo, but I think I was trying to not feel like a reject, to feel worthy and beautiful and accepted and loved.
I have learned that I'm not happier, but buying more (beyond my reasonable needs) has the opposite effect on me - I end up feeling worse about myself and utterly overwhelmed with managing the excess things. And a messy home is for me like constant annoying noise is to others. It's like each and every little thing is screaming for attention. I can't deal with so much.
And now moving twice in the past year, I just feel so done with it. Can't go super austere, because my daughter would hate it, so I'm not getting rid of the floral couch
but it's all the little things that cause the most stress.
I forced myself to go through the hassle of selling a bunch of things to really feel how burdensome it is to get rid of the stuff. It also made me feel less guilty about the wasted money, as I got some of it back. I just sold a vase for 70€ a few minutes after I listed it. Probably what I paid for it on sale. It's cute but I can't use it because my cats will just topple it over. I now have exactly one vase, it was cheap and it is wide at the base so it doesn't flip over if the cats mess with the flowers in it. One vase is enough, and as it's cheap, I don't have to worry about breaking it.
Soooo... I am back living in the area where I spent the happiest years of my life. It's sunny, and as I walked outside, the birds chirping, flowers pushing up from the ground.. I felt almost like I was on vacation somewhere abroad. The beach is half a mile away, I can take my coffee thermos with me and go sit at the beach, the grocery shops are a short walk away, so is the library and other stuff.
What to do to stop myself from buying anything when I feel the urge? I made a list of things to do instead:
-read
-knit
-clean and declutter
-bake or cook
-go to library
-walk to the beach
-paint
-watch minimalist and decluttering content (or other stuff of interest) on YouTube
-call a friend
What will I do if end up breaking my rules anyway? I need to not be so black-and-white, all our nothing. Buying one item with cash when I wasn't supposed to buy anything, is so much better than buying several, on credit
I also think it might be useful to keep a list of things I may really feel like I want, and give myself permission to get one item from the list, say after three months, should I still really want it. That stops all I impulse buying.
I've actually been on a non-official no-buy for a few months now. I didn't want to start out with strict rules and advertising that I'm on a no-buy, because of my former lack of success. But I just found that I didn't want to buy anything. I used to be so minimalist, and I was happier and more content. I could do it then, I can do it now. Things may not be ideal, but buying more things is not going to change any of that for the better.
I have learned that people won't love me more or treat me better if I have more and better stuff. Maybe it sounds a bit woo-woo, but I think I was trying to not feel like a reject, to feel worthy and beautiful and accepted and loved.
I have learned that I'm not happier, but buying more (beyond my reasonable needs) has the opposite effect on me - I end up feeling worse about myself and utterly overwhelmed with managing the excess things. And a messy home is for me like constant annoying noise is to others. It's like each and every little thing is screaming for attention. I can't deal with so much.
And now moving twice in the past year, I just feel so done with it. Can't go super austere, because my daughter would hate it, so I'm not getting rid of the floral couch
but it's all the little things that cause the most stress.I forced myself to go through the hassle of selling a bunch of things to really feel how burdensome it is to get rid of the stuff. It also made me feel less guilty about the wasted money, as I got some of it back. I just sold a vase for 70€ a few minutes after I listed it. Probably what I paid for it on sale. It's cute but I can't use it because my cats will just topple it over. I now have exactly one vase, it was cheap and it is wide at the base so it doesn't flip over if the cats mess with the flowers in it. One vase is enough, and as it's cheap, I don't have to worry about breaking it.
Soooo... I am back living in the area where I spent the happiest years of my life. It's sunny, and as I walked outside, the birds chirping, flowers pushing up from the ground.. I felt almost like I was on vacation somewhere abroad. The beach is half a mile away, I can take my coffee thermos with me and go sit at the beach, the grocery shops are a short walk away, so is the library and other stuff.
What to do to stop myself from buying anything when I feel the urge? I made a list of things to do instead:
-read
-knit
-clean and declutter
-bake or cook
-go to library
-walk to the beach
-paint
-watch minimalist and decluttering content (or other stuff of interest) on YouTube
-call a friend
What will I do if end up breaking my rules anyway? I need to not be so black-and-white, all our nothing. Buying one item with cash when I wasn't supposed to buy anything, is so much better than buying several, on credit
I also think it might be useful to keep a list of things I may really feel like I want, and give myself permission to get one item from the list, say after three months, should I still really want it. That stops all I impulse buying.