In 2022 I did a No Buy Year. It was a fun and at the same time tricky experience. Buying nothing but the essentials, e.g. groceries or toothpaste you run out of can be quite daunting. At the same time it was a big mental relief for me. Not having to think about what to buy next or where to get the best deal on an item frees up a lot of mental space.
For 2024, I’m attempting a Low Buy Year. The concept here is to buy much less or as little as you can without being restricted to absolutely nothing.
Needs vs Wants
The first step to a successful Low Buy/No Buy Year is to determine what’s a need and what’s a want. Sometimes this can be a little bit of a challenge. Take these two scenarios as examples: You started university and the printers on campus are inconvenient and hard to access? Buying a printer sounds like it would make your life a lot easier. Is this now a need or a want? Your phone is slowing down but still taking calls and receiving text messages. The camera on it broke the other day. Repairing it would cost only a little less than a new phone. Is the new phone a need or a want?
As you can see, the lines between needs and wants can be blurry. This is why it’s important to come up with a game plan before you start.
Making a Game Plan
No Buy/Low Buy Years are personal. Only you know if you have certain areas you’d like to improve on, what those are, what might trigger you into a certain shopping behaviour etc. This is why following someone else’s plan might not work out for everybody.
I recommend sitting down with a pen and paper and asking yourself the following questions:
- What category of my spending am I unhappy with?
- What trigger me to buy things in this category?
- How does it make me feel after the initial purchase?
- Can I live without any new things in this category for a year?
After you’ve written down the answers to these questions, you have a better understanding on where to focus your attention on and why. Next, allocate a set sum to each category that you# be comfortable spending it on. If you’re doing a No Buy Year, skip this step.
Congrats, you made your first Low/No Buy Plan!
My Game Plan
For my Low Buy Year in 2024 I came up with the following game plan:
Categories that I might tend to splurge on I simply put a yearly budget on. This way I can still spend on them but avoid regrets or impulse purchases. My categories are:
- Books 100$
- Clothes 50$
- Stationary 50$
This brings me to 200$ in ‘spending money’. For my annual budget I put 500$ as spending money though which leaves me with 300$ wiggle room if something breaks, I need something specific for work etc.
Conclusion
A Now Low/No Buy Year can really help you fix certain spending habits, save for the future and make room for more meaningful things in your life than shopping. I hope that this post gave you some insight into a possible Low Spend Year for yourself. I am looking forward to taking you along on my Low Buy journey in 2024!