Tips to Survive A No Buy or Low Buy | How To Stop Shopping

many of you recently saw my video on my no by year and i was really surprised at how many of you got in touch and said that you'd like to give it a go too with that in mind i'd like to share with you my top tips for surviving a no buy or a low buy number one have a financial goal now for me i think this was without question the number one thing that kept me going i actually only intended to do a no buy for a much shorter period of time maybe three to six months just to bolster my savings in case the worst happened but by having a financial goal that was important to me in my case saving a deposit for a house i kept going so much longer than i ever anticipated it really doesn't matter what the goal is whether it's large or small only that it's important to you so it could be something as simple as having enough money in savings to cover the cost of a boiler breakdown or a washing machine breakdown to something as large as maybe clearing all your student debt or paying off a mortgage it only matters that it's important to you i found that every time i was tempted to buy something i didn't truly need i would think about my financial goal and think about how much more valuable that money would be to me in terms of additional funds for a house deposit and then i just found it really easy to walk away number two see it as an opportunity now it's likely if you've been a regular shopper in the past that you already have plenty of things one of the side benefits of not buying anything has been the opportunity to just appreciate what i already own by buying no new clothing i found new enjoyment in items i'd kind of forgotten about in embracing creativity to put outfits together in new ways i also learnt an awful lot about what fabrics i like what cuts i like what i actually wear and i think this will probably guide me in the long term to only purchase things that i know i will truly get value out of so that i won't waste money in the future either by not buying cosmetics and skincare it was a great opportunity to use up what i already have and begin to declutter the cupboards it also again taught me a great deal about what i actually use day to day and will probably help me not waste money in the future by buying things that i just don't use in general by not bringing new things into the home it was a great opportunity to learn to appreciate what i already have and we truly need very little although that's not to say that having things that we want is a bad thing but it really taught me an awful lot about my values about my shopping habits and i think this will serve me in the long run and it will probably serve you in the long run to learn a little bit more about those triggers and why we want to buy things so see it as a great opportunity not only to save more money but to learn a lot more about yourself about what you value what matters to you and potentially this will help you maximize the value that you get from your purchases long after your no buy or low buy has ended it's also a great opportunity to start to declutter your home if that's something that's important to you one of the surest ways to reduce clutter is to stop bringing more stuff into the home number three change your internal dialogue one of the simplest and most effective things you can do when on a no buy or a low buy is to change your internal dialogue most of us are having conversations with ourselves all day every day and our internal voice can pretty much justify any purchase i'm sure you'll be familiar with these conversations you deserve it i've had a really tough time at work this will cheer me up oh well it's only x pounds like why not yet if you simply ask yourself do i need this do i really want this have i got anything similar at home already or you know could this money be better utilized towards my financial goal for example you will find it is so much easier to just walk away number four remove temptation sometimes we are our own worst enemies and we make our goals hard for ourselves certainly when you're on a no buy or a low buy we need to kind of help ourselves by removing the temptation to buy things now this can come in a few different forms but the first thing i would recommend is to unsubscribe from kind of email newsletters of brands that you like you can always resubscribe at a later date but what i would find is that when i would get an email sort of saying there's a sale on or a discount code etc even though i didn't need anything or had even been thinking about buying anything from that particular brand i would find myself logging onto the website and scrolling looking for something to buy so i definitely recommend unsubscribing from newsletters secondly if you can i would recommend to stay out of stores so often we can tell ourselves that we're just going to window shop we're not going to buy anything and then you get into the store and you see something that's a great deal or it's on sale or just see something that you really like and it's so hard to walk away from it but if you've not seen it well you don't know you're missing out thirdly i've raised this before in other videos but i would recommend considering limiting social media when we scroll through maybe instagram for example you might see a influencer that you like or maybe just a friend that's wearing a new outfit and you think oh gosh i really like that where can i buy it now this isn't necessarily a bad thing i found some great brands great outfits through kind of seeing what other people are wearing but if you've committed to a no buy or a low buy you're just tempting yourself and even if you say well i'm not going to buy it you're going to bring up those feelings that you are missing out and then it makes the no buy miserable number five sleep on it now if you happen to see something that you really really want be it in store or online i would recommend to just sleep on it even now way after my no buy it has ended i still use this tactic if i see something maybe i'm shopping online i will leave the product in the basket sleep on it and more often than not the following day i've either forgotten about it or i've decided that i don't really need it number six have an unrelated goal so one last thing that you might find helpful is to have something that you're working towards that is absolutely nothing to do with shopping as it happens shopping actually takes quite a lot of time traveling to stores it kind of perusing the stores looking online scrolling through different websites reading reviews waiting around for deliveries it really takes a lot of time and yet i used to tell myself all the time that i didn't have time to work out even though you know i wanted to be in better shape i would tell myself that you know i'd really like to read more than i do but i was just too busy and yet i would regularly find myself you know an hour scrolling through websites looking for something to buy so by kind of moving that energy because i've had a few people say to me what on earth did you do with your time when you were not shopping you know it's a kind of a an enjoyable pastime of mine and i just kind of worked on other things that were important to me things i'd always told myself that i didn't have time and actually by working towards something um you know a goal that is unrelated to shopping actually can really improve your self-esteem which is of great great value so that is it for my top tips for a no buy or low buy now i actually don't believe in saving money at all costs but i highly recommend the experience because it taught me an awful lot about not just saving money but to understand my shopping habits to really understand what i value for example now i would much rather have less items but have really good quality items maybe even luxury items even if that means per item they're more expensive rather than kind of just wasting my money on things that don't really matter to me i'd rather just have a few things that really give me value anyway i hope this video was helpful to you in some way as always thank you so much for watching thank you for supporting my channel and i look forward to seeing you in the next one bye-bye

Channel: Kirsty Kirby

Views: 169,347

Keywords: no buy year uk, no buy year, year long no buy, minimalism, extreme saving money, saving money, no shopping for a year, I quit shopping, no spend year, personal finance, saving money tips, how to stop shopping, low buy, no buy, no buy tips, How to no buy, how to low buy

Id: YbNgJ-4QbyE

Length: 7min 54sec (474 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 03 2022