How to Spend Less Money With a Minimalist Low Buy or No Buy Period

With 2022 underway, you may feel pressure to create a New Year’s resolution: Maybe you ate out too often last year and you’re still late on paying your credit card bills. its use. For many people, a new calendar year can be a time to save more, reassess spending habits, and cut back on over-shopping.

If you’re concerned about your finances being stable this year, you can try the so-called “no buy or buy low” period. During periods of low buying or now buying, people limit their spending to a certain period of time. Don’t buy and buy low are common in the minimalist movement, a lifestyle movement that focuses on buying less, saving, and only buying and keeping items that bring you personal value.

Below, Select looks at how people can make financial decisions they can actually stick to, and how to successfully cut spending and overbuying using no-buy or low-buy time. .

New Year’s resolutions help us identify what we want to improve in our lives. However, failing to achieve those resolutions can sometimes make us feel as though we’ve failed ourselves. Even taking small steps towards a goal can still make us feel inadequate if we don’t complete our goal – like when we go to the gym twice a week instead of a regular schedule. Plan to go four times a week.

While you may be fed up with promises to yourself that you can’t keep, there is a way to tackle the New Year with no buy or buy low that you can actually follow.

If you’re making New Year’s resolutions with an external goal – possibly related to looks, materialism and power – you’re less likely to keep those resolutions, Dr. Ryan, professor at the Institute of Positive Psychology and Education at the Australian Catholic University, told Cut. However, if you are making decisions that focus on your intrinsic motivation for personal growth, community, and fulfilling relationships, you may be more likely to stick with it.

So if you’re struggling with your student loan debt or have accumulated more ‘things’ than you really need, consider what motivates you to pay off your debt or cut back on shopping. his excess.

Don’t have enough space in your apartment to store your belongings? Do you want to start investing in your child’s education?

Once you’ve identified why you’re buying low or not buying, you’ll want to set clear, realistic and achievable goals for yourself, says Christina Mychas, a Youtuber who participated in the low buy period. between 2019 said and 2020 and still practice minimalism. You will want to find out if you want to do a no buy phase or a low buy phase.

The no-buy period is more restrictive than the low-buy period. With a no-buy period, you’re only allowed to spend money on essential expenses like food, rent, travel, and healthcare. With a low buy window, you can also spend money on discretionary expenditures, but you place restrictions on certain areas of spending.

For example, your low-buy rule might be that you’re allowed to eat out no more than twice a week, you can buy replacement toiletries, and you can buy one piece of used clothing every day. month.

You will then want to set a time frame for your no-buy or buy-low period. You’ll want to think about what’s realistic for you. Can you refuse to buy new clothes for a whole year or three months is it possible for you?

Mychas emphasizes that the goal of a low or no buy period is not only to achieve your financial goals, but also to change your mind about shopping. After a period of no-buying or low-buying, you can be more intentional about your purchases and can delay immediate gratification by waiting to make new purchases.

She also recommends that people treat themselves with compassion and empathy when buying low or not buying. If you find yourself spending money you don’t deserve, don’t see failure as a reflection of your personality. Instead, people should go back to their intentions and reframe their rules so that those guidelines are more moderate and less restrictive, Mychas said.

Whenever you end up making a purchase, it’s a good idea to track how you’re spending using a budgeting tool. By tracking the purchases you make, you’ll foster a more intentional attitude in spending.

If you’d like to see all of your expenses and purchase dates in one spreadsheet, you can choose Google Sheets, which offers budget templates with third-party plug-ins that populate details about your expenses. your financial transactions. Or, consider Mint, a free app that lets you sync your bank accounts and credit cards, so you can get the full picture of your finances in one app.

Finally, you can find a community of people who take up this challenge to hold themselves accountable. Mychas demonstrates how to maintain low buy times on her Youtube channel, and she drew inspiration from YouTuber Hannah Louise Poston and Use Less. There are also Facebook groups and subreddits where people share their own failures and successes with buying low and not buying.

New Year’s resolutions can be a troubling topic for those who feel like they can’t stick to their goals. However, if you’re looking to save some money or cultivate a more purposeful mindset about shopping and spending, engaging in a no-buy or low-buy period can be a good choice. for you, you just have to be kind to yourself in the process.

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