Should You Quit Shopping?
It could be one of the best things you ever do.
I’m not here to convince you to quit shopping, I’m just here to get you to consider how your life could be different if your relationship with shopping was different.
I did a year-long shopping ban in 2022 (some people might call it a ‘low buy year’).
Here’s why I did it:
I had a lofty financial goal: I wanted to save up for an emergency fund and a used car in the same year. I wasn’t making much at the time, so I had to get realistic.
I learned the true cost of cheapness, and it horrified me.
Depression had me in the neck hug of doom and I’ve always been one to shop recklessly when I’m sad. I knew how vulnerable I was to anything that promised dopamine, so I wanted to go cold turkey.
After living out of a backpack for an entire year in 2020, when I came home to boxes and boxes of my stuff at my parents' house, I had a mental breakdown. I realized just how much of my hard-earned money and wasted time sat there for an entire year. While I was away, I got enough perspective to realize the financial, mental, emotional, spiritual and physical costs of selling my soul working to afford the sh*t in those boxes wasn’t worth it.
Did it help that I started my challenge during the pandemic when malls were closed? Yes.
Does that mean you need the same conditions to start? No.
You just need to know what you want more than instant gratification.
From my experience, you only need one solid reason why to start a challenge like this. Well, a reason why…and some rules.
These were my rules:
I allowed myself to browse but not buy.
I let myself buy things that were inconvenient to go without (like pants that fit and shoes I needed), but I had to buy them secondhand.
I could accept gifts and hand-me-downs.
All gifts had to be handmade, bought second-hand or experiential.
After the year was up, I wasn’t running to the mall. I wasn’t making as many impulse purchases. I wasn’t feeling left out of every “trend.” I had actual hobbies.
It had a lasting, long-term effect on my shopping habits. I’m not saying you need to quit shopping for a year! I’m just saying it’s always good to consider your relationship to shopping and consumption.
Here are a couple of questions for you to consider before you buy something on sale for Black Friday:
Does having more solve your problems, or does it create new problems?
Am I buying this thing from a place of feeling like I am enough, or am I buying it because something or someone made me feel not enough?
Would I still be able to buy this thing if it was full price?
Let’s close out with a list of rules I still try very hard to follow when it comes to shopping:
I don’t buy from the ultra-big and bad fast-fashion retailers (Temu, Zara, H&M, Shein, ASOS, Fashion Nova, GAP, and Old Navy).
I will say I bought my Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader Halloween costume from Fashion Nova this year, which isn’t great…but I’m gonna wear it for at least three more Halloween’s to make it worth it. 😬
I put things on a wish list in my Notes app and I let them sit for at least a couple of months before I buy them.
I shop secondhand first and exhaust those options before I buy new.
In the words of The Minimalists, “love people use things.”
Stay weird,
— Reggie