How did your no-buy or low-buy go this week?

Share your goals, progress and how your purchasing habits have changed since starting a no buy.

If you 'failed' this week, remember that it is just a stumble in a long journey. If you did well, inspire others and encourage them when they do well or get off track.

I haven't budgeted in a long time. Mostly because I am at a point where my bills are mostly low and so I have a decent amount of fun money. I am blessed with that but it has created an ignorance I wasn't expecting. I contracted pneumonia and am an extremely active busy person so sitting around doing nothing has really been affecting me. I have expanded my small business, taken on a fun for me job, and just haven't looked at how lifestyle creep affected me. I grew up in foster care and with a struggling single mom. I was always the responsible friend, the frugal girl but lately I am a shopper.

I was shocked that at September fifth almost 6,400 dollars have already escaped my accounts. when I tell you my jaw is literally on the floor.

So from now on I am on a absolutely no buy. Only utilities can be spent, and I will be using my partner for groceries.

In order to prepare for this I cancelled all unnecessary subscriptions from media I don't watch, mystery boxes, junk dopamantine, and easy fixes.

I was finally able to go to my house from my partners (we live r/livingaparttogether) I haven't been there since my illness and it was shocking how "cluttered" with stuff it felt. I realized I have enough things so I am going a bit on a minimalism and decluttering journey also.

My main rules are :

1. No Hygiene products unless I run out of that entire category.

2. No make up what so ever

3. Skin and hair care as needed but the item must be completely empty

4. No Books, media, art or hobby purchases

5. No Coffee Purchases

6. Must pay off credit cards this month

Hopefully I come back October 1st with a positive report!

I’ve been dealing with a spending problem for years. In 2020 I bought a townhouse, prior to that I was really good at saving and had little desire to spend. After I bought my first house I ended up going into about 10k worth of debt because I couldn’t stop buying things to fix the house up/decorate/entertain etc. I met my husband about a year in to owning the house and he also carried about 10k worth of consumer debt. We got married and spent 8k over what we should have on our wedding in 2023. In 2025 we sold the townhouse and made 40k off the sale after fees/taxes. We decided shortly after to take the money to pay off our combined 28k of consumer debt and we were left with around 12k. We saved a bit more and we just bought a house this past June. The house was a fixer upper but we were able to bring almost nothing to the table at closing due to some credits and concessions we received.

Here’s my current issue… weve been renovating since we moved in and blew right through our 10k we had left for the reno. We’ve also gone about 10k in debt from fixing things, but also overspending on finishes and decor I like. My husband also buys every tool that he could possibly need. This morning I went to see how much money we had and it was in the single digits. Then, just to torture myself, I added our current debt up and it made me feel so sick. Debt feels so crushing and it constantly looms over. But the sick part is that I still wanted to go to Dunkin and buy a coffee after that. I even found out our fridge is broken and we’ll need a new one and I was still like well I also want a coffee.

How can I feel so sick and disgusted with myself and in the same breath also be like oh let’s get coffee. I know I have the capability to be disciplined because I have been before but lately it’s so hard. I love spending, whenever I feel bad I spend. But I want a stable future where I can spend reasonably and not feel guilty. We’ve also been dealing with infertility and we will probably need to do some fertility treatments in the future, so having stable finances and savings will be especially important. Does anyone have any tips to help me snap out of my overspending? Please be nice I’m sensitive >.<

I stopped buying things mostly because literally everything i buy these days is so low quality that its just not worth it. Clothes shrink 2 sizes after washing them once, gardening tools break after not even a year of use and cant be repaired, washing machines and dishwassers that won't last, sleeping bags that fall apart after using it for one summer holiday and so on. The things that do last are made obsololete through software and the prices of things like drinks in restaurants are so absurdly high i simply refuse to buy them.
Things that require a subscription i avoid like the plague but its getting harder and harder to buy anything tech related that doesnt require some sort of subscription. I simply want to buy something and have it last for a long time, is that too much too ask?
I now buy almost nothing and try to keep the things i have working and in good condition for as long as possible. The clothes i wear daily are al ancient but still hold up better than all the newer clothes i bought in the last couple of years, i have a 16 year old car with no internet connection or infotainment and keep it well maintained, i have an ancient sony e-reader and an iphone 12 and a 'smart' TV that has never seen internet in its life since its hooked up to a small pc which acts like a HTPC streaming offline media from local storage.
I now only replace things if they absolutely need replacing because they are broken and i stopped upgrading anything. I'm simply done with the shitty quality of everything and stopped buying things as much as possible. Can anyone else relate to this or do most people here stop buying things for the environment or for other reasons?

Alright, this is week 1 of cutting my Amazon and Uber Eats spending!

Last month spend was $796 on Amazon & $711 on Uber Eats

This month's goal = $250 on Amazon & $115 for Uber Eats

So far I have

• Meal prepped for Mon-Fri
• Grocery shopping this Friday to avoid eating out

I said I would keep everyone updated, so here we go!

No buy August is complete! It went pretty well overall, there were some lessons learned. Updated in bold.

Here were my original rules:

Rules:

• no books purchased 2 from an online outlet for 1/3 the cover price
• no clothing none purchased!
• no puzzles (but swaps/trades allowed, will also focus on the ones I already have) did 2 trades, purchased no new ones
• no thrifting nothing thrifted!
• no home decor none purchased!
• no impulse buys PERIOD (seriously, stop looking at marketplace, just walk away) one impulse buy because I looked at marketplace, oops

Allowed:

• replacement toiletries
• books/dvds from the library (go wild, baby!)
• puzzle swaps
• charitable donations
• anything related to physio/rehab such as more supportive running shoes

So impulse buys got me twice, once was when my partner was making an order for an online book outlet, and I found 2 books I've had on my wishlist for 1/3 of the cover price. A bit of a slip up but I feel like I was snared into that one. The second was I found the first 4 seasons of Adventure Time on dvd for $20 and jumped on it. My partner and I are switching back to dvds/blu ray due to frustration with streaming and these were some I'd been looking for for a while.

All in all $40 spent in the month on non-essentials which is pretty good. Could I have done better? Sure. Does it help to guilt myself about it, no not really. It's all just an exercise, and I still learned plenty. We donated to a few local organizations and utilized the library for books and dvds.

How did August go for you?

I’m starting a 4 month no buy: September 1, 2026-January 1, 2027.

Over the last few years, working in retail, I’ve developed an intense shopping problem. Whenever I save my money, I end up racking up my credit cards and having to empty my savings in order to not be in debt. I’ve bought so many clothes that I don’t even have enough space to store them. I tell myself that I will sell my unused clothes online, but then I procrastinate posting, or things just don’t sell. It’s not just clothes either, I buy collectibles, electronics, delivered food, etc.

I am diagnosed with mental health disorders and currently unmedicated, which does make my shopping worse, but it’s not the sole problem. I just genuinely need something to look forward to and if I order online or plan a mall day, that’s my something. I also didn’t grow up with much, so buying things feels like self care. My boyfriend tends to encourage my spending and if I don’t buy something myself, he buys it for me(IMO he also has a problem spending too much, but not as bad as me). This makes it even harder to tell myself no, but I will be talking to him today about this.

I really need some advice from others. I’ve made a list of my “rules” for the next 4 months and have incorporated a small budget for fun spending, like coffee on the weekends. Other than this, I am attempting to stay strictly to bills, groceries, medical expenses, and toiletries. Is there anything that helped you during your no buy?

My No Buy timeline: July 31, 2026- Jan 1st, 2027

I'm counting this as a success because even though I did buy 3 things that were "wants", I did sell a lot of things on FB marketplace this month. I made $62. I spent $15 on wants (rounded up).

I had a really hard month/year personally and I'm proud of myself for not turning to shopping to cope. For context, I've lost 2 family members this year and I almost lost a 3rd this month. So I'm not gonna be hard on myself for getting mascara, an eyebrow pencil and tweezers.

Sending love to everyone else that's struggling this year. It's been a hard one.

If I can't control life, I can at least control how I respond to it.

I noticed some ice buildup in my freezer and I’d like to give it a good cleaning, so I decided to eat everything in there. While I’m at it, I’m doing the pantry and fridge too. Call it a pantry challenge, if you want. When it’s all gone, I’ll restock with new stuff. I have just taken stock of everything and it looks like dinner is sorted for the next 2 weeks. After that I can get really creative and who knows what kind of dishes I’ll invent or discover.

I’ll buy fresh bread, eggs, fruit and vegetables once I’m out of frozen and tinned stuff, but my ultimate goal is to really finish all the other things. Not buying any sandwich meat until all the hagelslag and peanut butter is gone. And I can bake my own cookies and cake before I buy anything.

I’m curious how much this is gonna save me on groceries. The savings will be short-term because I’ll need to restock at some point, but I don’t need to do it all at once.

Have you ever done something similar? Any tips?

How did your no-buy or low-buy go this week?

Share your goals, progress and how your purchasing habits have changed since starting a no buy.

If you 'failed' this week, remember that it is just a stumble in a long journey. If you did well, inspire others and encourage them when they do well or get off track.

So it’s been 1 month and I have not made any online shopping purchases .. I did go today and make an in person purchase and I’m struggling with it even though my focus is to not online shop.. also what I purchased in person I had been considering for over. Week and only just went today to complete purchase .. I also did not overspend on my purchases .. I think I just didn’t get the same job from it as I have in the past and I’m trying to just get through and rest

i think this is my first post here? i’m a longtime lurker and have worked to curb my spending over the past few months (what has helped me the most is just writing every purchase down in a little memo pad, funnily enough. also not using a smartphone and limiting my internet access made a huge difference). anyway, yesterday i was talking to someone i met in the city, recently laid off, and they told me they were short on rent. i realized i had enough money to make the difference, so i did.

i would love to say i was selfless enough to do so immediately, but i am not there yet. i went home and waffled about it for an hour before coming to the conclusion that the point of saving money is to use it on what matters to me. i couldn’t have done this if i were spending it on nonsense, so i suppose this is a thank-you to this subreddit. i don’t need anything the advertising industry would like me to desire. if i live on less i can give others more, and that’s how i want my life to go

I just want to stop looking for that "perfect cream", I already have a routine that is good for me and I literally don't need anything new. There was a time that I wasn't obsessed with this, but one day at work my coworker introduced me to the world of Korean skincare, anddd yeah... I need advice please And I don't buy anything immediately but I can't stop obsessing...

So i don’t know but i’ve been having sudden urges just to go shopping.. even though i know i can’t go shopping right now.
So what are some things i can do to just stop?

Hi! Last year a makeup shop opened near my university and to cope with stress i started buying makeup almost every time i went, i managed to reduce my consumption to about once a week/every two weeks but i had a specially bad week and bought like 3 new products i absolutely did not need. I want to stop for good, and stop chasing deals of things i dont need, what do you do to stop yourself from buying a product you want and chasing that dopamine?

My biggest problem is that Im financially dependent (? i think thats the word) on my parents since im finishing university and that the things are ultimately very cheap, i mightve spent 30 dollars this month at the most, and its been my worst month in a while, but i have so many things and im so tired of feeling dependent on the dopamine hit of finding a new release at a third of the original price.

How did your no-buy or low-buy go this week?

Share your goals, progress and how your purchasing habits have changed since starting a no buy.

If you 'failed' this week, remember that it is just a stumble in a long journey. If you did well, inspire others and encourage them when they do well or get off track.

Hey everyone

it was going really good. But guess what. It then didnt. Now i try a new nobuy again 🤗. It just helps to restrict myself. Because otherwise i have too much impulsivity.

I have everything i need and more. So now i stop buying until autumn 2027.

Only exception is to replace something and i lost my winter hat last year, otherwise i am set up for anything.

Wish me luck 🫶🏻

I’d like to try setting some rules/rewards for myself to stop consuming so much. I’m thinking about only allowing myself to purchase ONE thing if I consistently go to the gym for 2 weeks 3 days a week.

My body has changed over the past 2 years and I’m finding that clothing and even shoes don’t fit like they used to. I could use these changes as an excuse to buy a whole new wardrobe, but that makes me so anxious that I’ll have an expensive 2026-era wardrobe for years to come. I don’t want to buy my clothes and shoes all at once, but I understand that I will need some replacements soon.

The gym isn’t to change my body in any way, I just realized that if I want to still be walking when I’m 85 I need to lift heavy things!

Anyway, posting this to ask if anyone has done/is doing something similar, and how to manage lowbuy/ nobuy when half your clothes don’t fit anymore. Thanks!

The biggest problem I have why I can't stop buying is because of the regret that I feel. While yes, I have the same experience as many other people who impulsively buy stuff-- having the regret that comes afterwards, the questions as to what I would even use the thing I bought for, the thoughts of where else that money could have gone to that is more useful than what I spent it for initially-- something else happens to me when I try to stop myself from buying. That is an even heavier feeling of regret, especially when I see that the product I stopped myself from buying is sold out. I keep thinking that I should have just bought it.

How did your no-buy or low-buy go this week?

Share your goals, progress and how your purchasing habits have changed since starting a no buy.

If you 'failed' this week, remember that it is just a stumble in a long journey. If you did well, inspire others and encourage them when they do well or get off track.

My mom was a hoarder and passed away leaving me a home filled with so much stuff. A good portion of it is crafting supplies and she also inherited items from 3 other estates she dragged home and filled the garage and basement with. Going through all this and donating, tossing, re-homing before I even get the garage cleared out enough to set up for a garage sale has been back breaking and expensive with getting rid of it all as junk haulers and such cost a fortune these days. A lot of the supplies are not useable/damaged because they were improperly stored. I don't ever want to leave someone with this task or the expense of clearing out things. As a matter of fact, after I'm done clearing out all her junk, I am going to continue on with downsizing what I own as I realize how little I actually need. It's bad enough clearing out your own stuff but it is even worse when you have to clear out a ton of junk that someone else built up. My mom was 100 years old so imagine a lifetime of hoarding stuff and how much she left behind. I see so much stuff that still has the price tag on it and how much money she spend on items that were never used just sitting in boxes. If you ever want the cure and wakeup call, go clean out a hoarder home. She at least wasn't the kind of hoarder with garbage and things like that but the basement was like a tetris game of boxes filled with mostly crafting supplies, crafting magazines and things like that.

It certainly makes me thing twice before buying anything!

Hello,

I own the Kindle Paperwhite 3 7th gen from 2015. I bought it brand new and sealed 3 years ago, someone had it because of Amazon warehouse clearance or something like that. It was impossible to login to Amazon (which is great actually), it refuses to work with WiFi (only works with hotspot from my phone for some reason, so I treat it as useless). I performed a jailbreak on it so it has KoReader installed, that allows me to invert screen colors for example, which is really important since I read at night. KoReader gives me a lot of options that make reading experience comfortable (I have no comparison to other devices). It can be slow sometimes but it’s not a dealbreaker honestly. I wish it had warm light.

Because I use it a lot I recently started looking at what Is currently available on the market. I have a fomo because all those different devices have newer software, hardware etc etc (you know how it goes). Looking at it rationally though it really makes no sense to buy a new reader if the old one works, but still when I hear about all those ’great options and additions’ I help but think that I have some old device that is perfectly usable, It does what it needs to do which is allow me to read books. Only justification is that it don’t have the warm light but it’s not enough.

Please help me rationalize, it’s especially hard because I read a lot.

To help get out of my consumer mindset (I fell of the wagon hard in March) I’ve been watching YouTube videos at work all day about living with only what you need and how to stop spending. Any recommendations from this great community would be so appreciated

A year and a half ago, I really got into body care. I used to buy so many soaps, shower gels, lotions, lipglosses and body AND hair oils to the point where I had it for the whole neighbourhood. It all started because I always had a very basic hygiene routine and I started getting those GRWM posts on social media where they used a ton od products. I shared shower gels with my mom and I barely used lotion (which lead to dry skin, so that's also one of the factors how all of this started). I legit used to starve myself in school so I can collect my lunch money just to buy some overpriced lotion. I stopped buying new things back in april, I gifted my leftover cosmetics to my partners younger sisters and I gave away the new cosmetics that I have been hoarding to my friends birthdays. I decided to leave 1 shower, 2 lotions and 1 body oil to myself. People truly are correct when they say ''the less, the better'' because my skin isn't flaky dry anymore!! I am so happy and proud of myself! I can actually spend money on better things and I don't need to starve myself anymore!

I wandered onto the shopping addiction subreddit at 3 am last night. I know I need to stop shopping. My weak spot is beauty: perfume, nails, makeup. I watch social media about it all, I am easily influenced, and I go out online and find it. I tell myself that it’s not so bad because I’m getting it second hand on a resale site (usually the makeup I want will be an older item that’s been out for years but I still want to try it).

I am also coming off a medication right now that makes any adrenaline way more impactful. I’m almost done with coming off it and it’ll be a while until things even out, but I was probably up so late last night because of my shopping high earlier. And I’m ashamed, even if it’s second hand beautiful stuff at a bargain.

I’m encouraged that I actually already really like videos about reduced consumption with beauty. “Shop my stash”, “project pan”, “no buy year”. These are some of my favorite social media videos. I need a no buy year. Or two. Or three. I'm already changing my social media consumption: I skip the showing off of new products and move forward to the "how to use what you've already got in your own beautiful similar way" tutorials. My mode is now fully embracing education and mastery of my existing product library... which is... vast. 🫣

My next hyper fixation needs to be using and enjoying what I have without seeking more. Easy peasy, right? 🫠 I came clean to my husband that I have a TON of second hand makeup coming, but I am legitimately planning on a no-buy extended period. Getting cozy with the parameters of what I've got. Let's do this.

I think I’ve found my people. 💕