No Buy Year for 2023 – aka Low Buy Year for Minimalism

Have you heard of a no buy challenge before? It’s quite an interesting challenge that people decide to take on for a few reasons usually. To save money, to get out of debt, to learn to live with less, for minimalism or for sustainability reasons.

If you decide to do a no buy challenge first you need to decide how long you want to do it for ie a few weeks, a month or even a year. Once you’ve decided that you can work out how you are going to set yourself some guidelines to do it successfully.

What Is The No Buy Challenge

I heard about this challenge from a friend on Instagram and although I thought it was interesting, I hadn’t considered doing a no buy year before, or even a low buy year – at that point anyway.

The idea of this challenge is to not buy anything, apart from the absolute essentials for example food, toothpaste and that sort of thing. You can read my ultimate guide here, if you want to learn more about how to set yourself rules and do a No Buy year successfully.

However, the more I thought about it the more I felt that I needed to do this for eco-minimalism and to save money in general. I feel that by declaring I’m doing a no buy year on my socials, blog and YouTube channel I am sort of holding myself accountable and more likely to stick to the low buy year.

Essentials

What counts as essentials is generally of course things that we need to live, for example food and water. However, in order to be accepted in society I think that shampoo, conditioner and toothpaste are also pretty essential, therefore I was still be buying those.

Of course the same applies to household cleaners etc, I will still continue to buy things like that for the household. That-being-said I’ve actually bought an Enjo kitchen sponge and cloth which cleans with water only, therefore I may not need to buy many cleaning products at all.

As I like to take care of my skin and wear makeup, I will still be replacing skincare and makeup if and when I run out as well. I’m serious about a no buy year for 2021 though so I will only buy these things if I absolutely have to.

If my children need anything I will still buy it as this is my no buy year for 2021 and shouldn’t apply to them. As I’ve said, this probably means I’m doing more of a low buy year technically, however the principle is still the same. I will still buy what a can for them secondhand like I always do with clothes and anything else that they need.

Borrowing and Renting

In order to really do a low buy year, anything that I really feel that I need, for example if I have an event and need a particular outfit for I will borrow from friends or family. The same applies to anything else that I encounter during the year, I will find a way that I can borrow or rent it rather than buy.

Monthly Updates

I think it’s important for me to leave regular updates on the no buy year for 2021 (low buy year). I will do a monthly update on my channel and socials to just let you all know how I’m doing. I will update if there’s anything that I’ve had to buy, and justify if necessary.

I feel that this will help me to stay on track and ensure that I’m not slipping back into spending on unnecessary things. I’ve always been a bit flaky when it comes to hobbies and tend to get caught up in buying everything that I need for said hobby. This no buy year for 2021 should take me away from these bad habits and hopefully save me some money alongside it.

January

A few things I can declare straight away that I will probably need to buy at some point over the year:

• Firstly as soon as funds allow I would like to buy a filming camera as this will be beneficial for my work. At the moment I use my laptop and external microphone to film but this means that I am limited to sitting and talking. I would like to do more vlog style videos in the future and up my photography to the next level. I have already decided that I will buy secondhand or refurbished when I have the money but for a decent one it will still cost quite a bit of money so not on the cards right now.
• Within my family we all contribute £10 each for each birthday so that we have a larger amount to spend and buy something more substantial that each of us want. My task later on in the year is to buy my sister what she wants so I will need to make an exception to the no buy year for 2021 in August.
• Along these same lines, for birthdays including myself we tend to gave a takeaway as a treat so if this happens I will need to make an exception then as well. I have considered that usually I would buy cards for my siblings birthdays as well, however in line with my no buy year for 2021 – I am have bought some craft supplies so that I can handmake all cards this year.

What Is A Low Buy No Buy

A low buy year is using the same principles of only buying the essential items and exceptions that you’ve agreed in your guidelines, however you have a bit more freedom with a low buy year so if you decide to do a low buy year instead you just need to set yourself different restrictions depending on what you think you might end up buying during the challenge.

If will depend on what you think would be more beneficial for you, I’m generally an all or nothing sort of person so I preferred having the stricter rules of a No Buy year. However, I know that some

Summary

Apart from these foreplaned exceptions I can’t see that I would need to buy much else for myself. I really have everything that I need at the moment, however I’m sure that I may still find this no buy year for 2021 (low buy year) challenging all the same.

I hope you enjoyed my post about my goals for the year, including the no buy year. Let me know in the comments if you think you can do a low buy year or even a no buy year? See my 6 monthly update for more information.

Zero Waste Family are also doing a No Buy year, see my interview with Fredrika from Zero Waste Family to learn more about this inspirational family.

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