I don’t think I’ve talked too much about this (or have I? my days blur together so I can never be too sure haha) but I am trying out a low-buy challenge for Q1 of 2021!

If you know me at all, then you know that this is … very out of character for me LOL. I love to shop. I don’t think minimalism would be a way that anyone would describe my style and if anything, I have a problem with owning and purchasing TOO MUCH.

So then why? Why the sudden jump into a low-buy challenge this quarter? Well, it started because my podcast cohost asked me if I wanted to consider a low-buy YEAR in 2021. And my immediate reaction was – oh heck no. No ma’am. No thank you.

But then she said ok… well if not the whole year, how about just for the first quarter? Jan-Mar of 2021?

I thought about it some more and felt like that might be something that I could get on board with. The truth is, I’ve been feeling frustrated with my shopping habits for the last few years. It seemed like the impulse to BUY stuff was owning me instead of the other way around. If I remotely liked something at all, I wouldn’t give it much thought and would just “add to cart” and purchase it. This bothered me not so much because of the money but just because of what it was revealing to me about the state of my heart. Clearly, I was chasing some kind of high or satisfaction from all the shopping … and clearly it wasn’t working.

At the same time, jumping cold-turkey into a no-spend or minimalist lifestyle didn’t seem to be the right step for me. I’ve tried different versions of “a month of no shopping” or what not over the past few years and it just felt a lot like dieting. As soon as the specific time period was over, I’d just revert back to old habits which … is obviously defeating the purpose of even trying a low/no-buy system to begin with 🤦🏻‍♀️

But I really did want to try and succeed at low-buy this time around … I don’t want my things to rule my life, you know? It’s just stuff. Plus … the Bible calls that an idol so LOL. That needs to be taken care of. Anyway, I thought long & hard about some concrete but SMALL baby steps I could take to help set myself up for success if I were to do a low-buy challenge. And this is what I came up with back in January:

• This is not a no-buy, it’s a low-buy. I like to shop, that’s not a problem. The problem is I buy things that I don’t need or don’t even truly like after a little bit of time has passed. The shopping isn’t serving me, I’m serving it. So I settled on FIVE – I can purchase FIVE items during my low-buy period.
• The 5-item limit is ONLY applicable to my closet – things that I’d wear such as clothes, shoes, accessories. It doesn’t include things for my hobbies, things for my home, things for my kids…. I think one day I’d like to build up to a general low-buy lifestyle for ALL things shopping, but the main area I struggle with right now is my own personal wardrobe so that’s where I’ll start. As I’m writing this, I’m wondering if this is somehow a leftover occupational hazard from my years as a stylist HAH.
• There’s no money limit that I need to keep my 5 items to – they can cost however much but I cannot go over 5 things.
• This is only for Q1 of 2021 – the months of Jan to March. At the end of March I’ll reevaluate and see what worked/what didn’t and create next steps from there.

I am SO happy to say that it’s been a full 6 weeks since I’ve embarked on this “challenge” and .. I’ve only purchased ONE thing. I bought this matching sweatsuit so that A and I could have mommy & me outfits LOL. A kind of dumb reason but if I’m honest, any reason to buy clothes for myself right now is a dumb reason. I DON’T GO ANYWHERE 😂

You know what else I’ve noticed in the last 6 weeks of doing this is that somehow my appetite for shopping has decreased too. I find it easier to say no to pretty things that pop up in my IG feed or social media to tempt me haha. I think it’s kind of akin to cutting out sugar … it’s hard at first but once you don’t have it for awhile, you actually find that you don’t miss it. Like, at all.

Of course, I still notice cute clothes and maybe once the weather shifts from winter to spring, I’ll feel more a pull to shop again but just the fact that right now I don’t have much interest is a big change for me personally.

So anyway, that’s what my Q1 Low Buy Challenge is about and it’s going well so far. I’ll write another update at the end of Q1 recapping what I learned and if/how I’ll carry it into the rest of the year!