So anyone that has been with me for awhile knows that last August, I embarked on a year of no shopping.
I’m sure you’ve noticed that I quit.
Wah wah.
You’ve also maybe noticed that I’m an idealist and that I have a hard time sticking with things (enter eye roll here) so that definitely was a huge part of why it didn’t work.
But the biggest reason?
Life.
Yup. Life happened.
First of all, I decided to do it in the middle of a move to a bigger house and a pregnancy. Two life events that necessitate purchasing things.
It just ended up being a really bad time to jump into something so extreme.
But you know what? I knew all of that going into it. I should have known it wasn’t a good time to start something like that.
I think what really happened was that I felt like it was the “next step” in my minimalist journey. Like if I didn’t do something like that, then I hadn’t “graduated.”
So silly.
I think exercises like a year of no shopping are so good.
But not if they are done out of a sense of “should.”
I may yet do something like this in the future, but now is not the time.
And you know what? I don’t really feel like I failed.
Why?
Because I allowed myself the grace to be okay with failing and that’s a sign that I’m growing.
No minimalism journey is ever going to perfect and we have to allow ourselves to be okay with that. I have to allow myself to be okay with that.
Well what do you think? Has anyone ever been able to do something like this successfully? Or is it something you’ve ever thought about doing?
Until next time,
Outfit Details:
T-Shirt: Same
Skirt: Old. Pink Version. Cotton Version.
Necklace: Same
I love your attitude of like “who cares, I failed, sh*t happens, moving on”. In my opinion, that’s the best place to be in the minimalist journey. I definitely feel like there is a right and wrong time to do a shopping ban. Mine was only three months long, and I definitely situated it at just the right moment in my life for it to do some good. And if you never find a good time, I promise you’re still allowed in the “minimalists club” ??
I have been very bad of late. I know I need to step away from the computer (where I seem to do all of my shopping), but then I justify it, as always. That riding jacket is on clearance. Those jodhpurs are cheaper in the UK than the US. I DO need a bigger bag.
The only place I seem to be successful (at least the last few weeks) is in not buying books, which was my previous ‘books don’t really count’ item. I further justify it by the fact that before we moved to London, I really didn’t have a shopping problem. A Target problem, yes (I never met a notebook I didn’t like, and honestly, who doesn’t?) but a clothes and book buying problem, no.
I have 35 days left in London. Here’s hoping I leave the bad online shopping habit behind.
I’m just learning about minimalism and the mindset one needs to acquire. I catch on pretty fast, but I’m on the beginning learning curb. So far, I find my purchases more thought out, and less impulsive. It’s very difficult when there are stores everyewhere with easy grab and go. I’m yet to do online ethical brand shopping, because I like to try everything on first. For now though, I plan on shopping my closet, mostly, and trying to create a capsule, minimal mindset and habits. It’s all good for me, but just taking baby steps?
Yes! Your attitude is the way it should be. You didn’t fail per se. You learned things
About yourself you may not have realized if you didn’t at least try. Maybe you’ll try again, maybe you won’t? But you are heading in the right direction. And you really can’t do much about life getting in the way. I mean yikes, pregnant with twins and not buying anything??? Not many people would make it through!
I haven’t bought clothing (or much else really) since February of 2016. I went into it with the idea that I wanted it to be a year, but it was a loose goal and it was really just an undetermined length of time. If it had ended 3 or 4 months in I told myself I would have still been successful. I did almost buy things several times. Held them in online shopping carts, nearly put my card info in….and I was ok with my journey ending. But nope, I just didn’t pull the trigger because I didn’t NEED anything. (Ok, I did buy a pair of .99 gloves when I went on vacation and I was freezing in Seattle with no gloves).
I’m 15 months in and I still haven’t bought anything. I’m done getting rid of things and starting to construct my capsule. But I’ve told myself all along, if I end this by purchasing something, it’s ok. like you said, “life happens”. Maybe if you do try again, having an undetermined length of time or a Really loose goal might help? I feel like that’s what has helped me. Also, as someone mentioned above, I was in a good place to carry this out, timing is important.
I tried to start a blog and failed. I have twins also and I learned that sometime I can’t do it all. I wanted to write about my twins and just trying to stay sane in a tech savvy world. I SHOULD have to solicited help. I was bogged down quickly with the design of the site – that was a sign. WordPress you are a bit tricker that I expected. I SHOULD have hired someone to help design the site but nope I was hard headed. I fa-bu-learned. Failed but learned a lot. LOL!!!
From the sound of this post, you did not fail in all aspects. Yeah maybe you purchased some new things, but I think this challenge has another side to it. To me, a no spend challenge is all about creating a conscious awareness to your life that you may not have had before then. Now, I realize you are definitely conscious of the ethics into the things you purchase, but are you conscious about how much of these things you consume? I may be totally off in my thoughts, but I thought I would share anyways. 🙂 I am currently struggling in my journey of feeling like I have not done enough, and I am not sure how to fix it. Contentment has been few and far between recently, and I need to change that.
I think you’re absolutely right Erin! We definitely aren’t complete over consumers (mostly because our budget doesn’t allow it), but we definitely can work on that area. It’s so easy to find discontent in how we’re doing, but if I can encourage you, I think we’ll never really do “enough”, but I think any effort in the direction of more sustainable living is valuable. I think you’re doing a great job!