HOW TO STOP SHOPPING: RULES TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL LOW BUY

hey you guys welcome back first of all I just want to say thank you so much the response that I got on my how to stop shopping video I had no idea that it would resonate with you guys so much I'm actually really overwhelmed by how how much response that that video received I think I knew I wasn't alone in this decision that I've made to try to stop or minimize the amount of shopping that I do I know I had an over shopping overspending problem and was just really like sick of it rock-bottom and I wanted to share that I'm so glad that that resonated with you guys too the response I've seen in the comments has been absolutely beautiful you guys are like just awesome really helping each other out and lifting each other up in this which i think is amazing I want to apologize for such a long delay between my first video and posting now to be honest I'm straight-up embarrassed and I think that's why it takes me so long to film one video to another if you guys want more kind of real-time updates on that you can follow me here at style apotheca that's my Instagram account I do try to post every day and I do kind of do more real-time check-ins of how my low by is going but I will make a effort and a promise to you guys to kind of upload more consistently on here I think some of these videos can help anytime and it's something that you can reference back to if you need inspiration and I've actually referenced back to my own video where I needed to remind myself why I'm doing this and how to stay on track with this low by year because I really am done with shopping in excess and done with filling any emotional void that I have with stuff as much as you think it will it will not provide the fulfillment that you need or that you're seeking when you're potentially buying all these new things so that's what this low by year is about for me but throughout this I'm still keeping these rules in mind so these are my rules when it comes to my low by sorry my voice is a little bit scratchy I know that's like the youtuber thing to do sorry guys I'm sick so I really am a little bit so if I sound kind of nasally and weird then that's why so these are the rules that I wrote out for myself and the questions that I wrote out to ask myself and that I could refer back to I wrote it in my little low by bullet journal to be honest I haven't really been updating this that much but I really should because I do find when I write things down it just keeps me motivated and on track and it it just like it forces you to dedicate that Pacific time to spend on that self-improvement process so in my first how to stop shopping video I did mention as one of my tips is to write down your problem areas and create rules around those problem areas so that way when that problem item comes up for you again which it will you sort of have a strategy already to approach that temptation and to to continue to succeed in your low by so for me my problem areas they were have my notes here they were clothing for sure makeup and skincare I would always catch myself continuously buying those items over and over again for me it was a constant cycle of looking for something to want finding it wanting it acquiring it and then doing it all over again again and again and again and never finding that fulfillment in that item like there was never an end to those particular bits that I was shopping for so I really had to create some concrete rules to ask myself whenever I felt tempted by clothing makeup or skincare in particular so when I first started my low buy I was actually quite concerned that I really wouldn't be able to stop shopping cold-turkey whatsoever I did create a couple of rules around clothing and I think these are more realistic rules than going straight up cold turkey because that I mean it might work for some people but I think for most of us it's kind of like crash dieting you know you can adhere to it for a short period of time and then and then you know there's no balance with that so it's so easy to just slip and fall and go down this hill you know you could try going cold turkey on your shopping but I think setting some reasonable attainable rules around your shopping behaviors can provide you with more sustainable outcomes and just keep you more consistent than putting yourself at risk to go up and down like this the very first rule that I set for myself in clothing skincare or makeup was that it must be purchased with cash or at the very least debit only if I didn't have the money for it right then and there absolutely not I was not going to buy it credit cards are so easy to spend out of control on that Dave Ramsey talks about it a lot I can link it up here for you but you do tend to spend more when you're using plastic or shopping online the physical action of spending money causes a negative pain response and you just don't get that response when you're using plastic I did allow debit and cash to be in my rules because for me personally I still kind of feel yucky when I see my my checking account go down that much more when I'm spending with debit whereas with credit it was almost like oh yeah I have the money now but I'll just like pay it off later I would use credit and then I would and I would use it to delay that negative response of losing the money then and therefore the purchase and I think by doing that and delaying that negative response of money leaving my bank account I really wanted that instantaneous hit of like acquiring the new thing but I would delay paying for it until later and by the time I had to pay for it on my credit card the thrill of acquiring that new item had already left I was just left over with this gross feeling of like oh how did you rack up that much on your credit card or where did all my money go at the end of the month and it was just on stuff so by creating a rule for myself by spending cash only or debit only at the very least and avoiding credit it really makes me think about do I really want to spend that money now on that thing so the next rule I have for myself is that I could only acquire the new thing if I needed to replace an old item I was absolutely notorious for this with skincare and makeup I would buy a new lipstick and then I would see another blogger or whatever do a makeup tutorial and I'm like ah I need that shade right then and there so that was my mindset quite a lot of the time and that rationale would fuel my spending and my seeking in my shopping behavior so I set a hard stop rule that I cannot buy a new item until that old thing is used up somebody commented in my other video I've never ran out of lipstick yeah girl neither have I but I just kept buying them over and over and over again I really feel strongly about the rule of replacements only and then the next thing is setting your rules around what's low Buy and what is no buy for the first couple of months of my low buy year I made a zero clothing rule regardless of whether or not it was a replacement just because I know I have way too much stuff if I needed to replace the pair of jeans I'm pretty sure I had five other pairs waiting to be worn you really have to set your rules around what I want and what is an actual need so if there's something that you feel is fairly frivolous and then absolute not need then you can set that into your no Buy and within the compass of your low buy year if that makes sense the bottom line of that is what items are in your low buy and what items are in your know buy something else to think about is gift cards I know Hannah Louise Poston I will link her here she's one of the major in spas in my doing a low buy and a no buy year she did mention to consider these grey areas so what about gift cards you can set these rules for yourself do you feel the need to spend that because it was a gift or do you want to save them and use them for when you need that replacement item I think that's especially useful for example like a Sephora or like an Ulta gift card you do you in those sort of gray area rules and I'm just like reading Milo buy rules and I think this is the value in journaling and writing things down and referencing back to what you've written because I have things like here make up use all existing makeup declutter every three months so I haven't done a makeup declutter a full-on makeup declutter since I posted my first one which I will link here I think periodic decluttering is really helpful and it's something that you can do to reinvigorate yourself in your low by if you need to getting into rules I have around clothing so clothing in my low by and in my shopping habits is definitely my vice it's the thing that it would just take over shopping for new clothes and new shoes and like my exploding closet and that it was my number one issue so the rules I have around my clothing so for the first half of my low buy I was not allowed to buy any new clothes since I've had to replace some like workout leggings and things like that I have had to kind of reassess and re address how I shop for clothing just because even though I mean I still really don't need anything new every once in a while I still kind of feel that temptation these are the rules that ivory addressed for myself so that I'm not in an unreasonable state of going cold turkey because like I said you you can be consistent with that for so long and then you're gonna something is going to come into contact with you and you're gonna hit this wall and you're gonna hit this crossroads and either go completely off the wagon and self-sabotage yourself which I am like so notorious for which is why I've failed so many low buys and no buys up until this point or is there something that you can do to give yourself a little bit of leeway that maybe satisfies a certain craving and I do have questions that I ask myself if I really need to satisfy that craving or not but is there something you can do to give yourself balance so that you're not completely going like this so because I felt like I was really high risk in my clothing category I did write out some rules for myself with clothing should I feel the need to acquire new clothing so the first rule I have for myself I'm allowed to acquire one to two pieces every couple of months if it fits the rules rule number one is it in the budget at all I create a budget for myself at the beginning of every month and Dave Ramsey talks about that you tell your money where to go not the other way around or you don't wonder where it went at the end of each month so at the beginning of every month I'm kind of reflecting oh do I really do like maybe I want to go shopping this month this is something I'm now thinking about in advance instead of just shopping out of boredom and out of something to do so is that clothing piece in the monthly budget the second question I ask myself is have I wanted this forever so a lot of times I would find a clothing item on Instagram I would see it it's like that ariana grande song I see it I like it I want it just bought it like that would be my life like I would just see something and it would trigger me wanting it and I would just get it right then and there and then by the time the items shipped I would even have forgotten what I ordered or I forgot that I did because I didn't really want that item in the first place so now when I see something and it triggers that response of like Oh shiny object ooh I like that then yeah I can save it and I have to wait this is something that actually my friends used to do when we were when we would go to the mall when we were younger we would shop around the mall and then my friend or my sister would see an item and they'd be like oh I really like that and then we would all say okay wait you have to do the test so this is something that we call the test put the item back we would continue around the rest of the mall go get lunch go to the movies do whatever like teens do at the mall when it was time to leave you ask yourself do you still want that item if you forgot about it within within those couple hours that you were shopping or hanging with your friends you probably really didn't want it but if you're still thinking about that piece then we would allow ourselves to buy that so I've applied the test to to me and my low by but for a longer period of time for me I'd set a month for myself so you can set a couple of days you can set a week you can set a shopping trip so a couple of hours so I have to wait at least a month and have to catch myself thinking about that item multiple times in that month to see if I still want it or not and to be honest in doing this test I forgot but a lot of things there were things that I would desire most of the time I would forget about it or if I if I saw it again later on I might get reminded that I want it but then you just do that test all over again that just proves to me that anything I was wanting is a short-term compulsive reaction and it's not something that I actually love or actually desire the next question that I ask myself is okay I want to acquire a new thing I've been thinking about acquiring this new thing for a month a week however long so where do I get it the next rule that I've set for myself is can I get this item thrifted so for example I am really into Blazers although I'm pretty much always wearing this leather jacket do I need to buy a brand new oversized blazer from Zara from any of those types of stores or can I thrift this item the one thing I'm actually learning in this low buy is just I'm learning a little bit more about sustainability and where my clothing comes from just because I'm putting a lot of thought now into clothing and it's sort of by proxy just made me think about like okay who's making this clothing is it high quality will it last me this has just been like a natural transition or a natural thing that's come to mind so I think one of the ways to behave sustainably in your consumption is to buy secondhand you don't always necessarily have to buy something new especially when it comes to clothing I think thrifting first of all it's a lot of fun and you can really play with your style and get creative but a lot of the things that I was searching for I'm like okay I can probably get this secondhand and it still be just as amazing the next question I have to ask myself is is this item something that is missing in my current wardrobe is it a unique item if I'm just lusting over I don't know a moto jacket which I have a hundred of them then do I really need the new thing this is where my rule of taking an inventory so you know by decluttering or by taking an inventory of what you already own really comes to mind so if you catch yourself coveting something that you saw do you have something already like it you really need to ask yourself that at some points on with joke about this but it's actually so true and really something to think about I think is that I always tend to gravitate towards the same item so if I'd be walking around a store the style of things that I gravitate towards is very very similar so how different are the new pieces that I'm buying really really think if this item that you want is something unique if it's filling a gap in your wardrobe already especially if it's clothing and if it's not then go back and take an inventory of what you already have and start using that those are some of the rules that I have been following and asking myself and revisiting in my low by year up until this point so just make sure that when you're setting these rules for yourself that you can actually stick to them stopping shopping can be very similar to crash dieting where you can maybe sustain it for a little while but then if you're too hard on yourself if you're too strict then inevitably and you will just you could just go back to your old behavior and that's not what we're trying to do here I think some of these rules as I am reviewing them in this video now I probably will revisit some of them and just make them a little bit more realistic even for myself I am that perfect example of someone who has this tendency of thinking that they can actually go cold turkey or go hardcore and maybe I can do that for a couple of weeks at a time and then it just like falls off create some rules for yourself that you know that you can maintain and that you feel good about okay so I think I'll end the video there thank you guys so much again for watching I'm gonna do my best to continue with coming up with some content on how to stop shopping and just use like check-ins and where I've succeeded and where I failed because like I said this is definitely an ongoing journey it's definitely something that goes like this how many how much have I done this in this video probably love but it adds and flows so there are ups there are downs there are temptations there are successes there are failures and all of that is okay the the key to this is that we are trying to increase our own awareness and trying to do better for ourselves and hopefully you know for each other too as we go through this I will have more consistent coming out for you guys with this and thank you so much for your patience up until now and I'll see you guys next week bye

Channel: Christina Mychas

Views: 243,029

Keywords: stop shopping, how to stop shopping, stop shopping for a year, low buy, no buy, no shopping, how to stop spending money, shopping addiction, minimalism, how to be a minimalist, how to stop spending money on things i dont need, low buy rules, how to save money, budgeting, budgeting tips, dave ramsey, konmari, decluttering, no spend, money tips, saving money, get out of debt, debt free, minimalist, zero waste, sustainable living, budget tips, money saving tips

Id: WQq05ddBzWI

Length: 17min 22sec (1042 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 24 2019