This year, instead of giving up the usual things like chocolate or potato chips for Lent, I decided to do something I had been thinking about for a while—a Buy Nothing Challenge. How hard would it be to avoid all non-essential purchases for six weeks? In today’s post, I’ll recap my experience and share what I learned from the Buy Nothing Challenge.
If you’re not familiar with a Buy Nothing Challenge, you can read the rules and benefits of the challenge in Buy Nothing Challenge for Lent.
This post was originally published in April 2021 and updated in January 2024.
How did it go?
To be honest, the challenge was a lot easier than I expected. Maybe it was the pandemic effect, but I really didn’t feel the urge to shop. For the last year, I’ve been limiting shopping trips to a weekly trip to the supermarket. The biggest challenge was resisting the urge to shop online.
Overall, I’m happy with how things went. I came very close to avoiding all non-essential purchases. I even made a trip to Costco and bought only things on the list of allowed items. But, I did make a couple of small purchases that weren’t on the list of items excluded from the challenge:
- A Sleep massage bar from Lush. Essential personal care items are permitted, but I don’t think this qualifies.
- Easter chocolate for my family. Gifts are on the list of allowed items, although I did say I would try to buy from local small business. But it just wouldn’t be Easter without Cadbury Mini Eggs and Cream Eggs.
Many people are in need in our community. I decided to make a donation to our local food bank equal to the amount I spent on these non-essential items.
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What did I learn?
Although the challenge turned out to be easier than I expected, it did give me an opportunity to identify areas where I could rethink my spending habits. Here are some learnings and observations.
- Being in a mindful shopping habit made the challenge easier. Over the last couple of years, I had already drastically reduced my shopping and consumption.
- My current focus on decluttering and simplifying makes it easier to resist the urge to buy. When I’m tempted, I remind myself of the effort I’m putting into decluttering. That reduces the appeal of whatever item I wanted to buy.
- Online shopping makes it way too easy to mindlessly buy things. The massage bar I bought from Lush is a good example of that. I was placing an order to replace my facial moisturizer bar and, before I knew it, I had added the Sleep bar to my cart and checked out.
- The FOMO (fear of missing out) factor is real. When I saw some friends showing off their new Queen pop vinyls online, I wanted one. Again, without thinking, I found myself searching where I could buy one. This time around, I realized what I was doing and stopped before checking out.
- It’s hard to resist the constant barrage of sales and marketing messages. As part of the 31-Day Declutter Challenge in October, I unsubscribed from most of the store emails I was getting. During Lent, a friend from church invited me to a virtual Pampered Chef party. I wanted to support her as she launched her business, but I told her up-front I was doing a Buy Nothing Challenge and wouldn’t be buying. I joined the group and participated in the discussions, but I resisted the temptation to buy.
For me, this challenge turned out to be a natural extension of some of the things I’ve already been doing.
Now what?
Lent might be over, but I have no desire for a shopping spree. I’ll continue to focus on decluttering, simplifying and practicing mindful shopping.
But I might order those Queen pop vinyls…
Have you ever done a Buy Nothing Challenge? Tell me about your experience below.
Thank you for modeling and writing about these changes in your habits of consumption, Michelle. Although it is more obvious when we are very young, I think we continue to operate a lot of the time on a “monkey see, monkey do” basis as adults. You are showing a lot of us what is possible.
“Monkey see, Monkey do” is a great way of putting it Will. You might expect we outgrow this as we get older, but when you look at the high levels of consumption and waste, that doesn’t appear to be the case.
This sounds like an interesting challenge! I try to do this everyday by not buying anything unless it is absolutely needed.
You are right that the temptation to shop is real due to the desire to stay up to date with trends or fear of missing out. WE must overcome this and do what is best for us.
Thanks Helen. My desire to declutter has definitely helped curb my urge to shop. I really think long and hard before bringing anything new into my home. Even though the challenge is over, I think that habit will continue.
Those are the best kind of challenges!
I’ve never officially done a buy nothing challenge, but have had forced periods in my life where I’ve not been able to buy things other than essentials. I feel like the challenge is a great practice to be able to examine our motivations behind shopping. It really is so easy these days to mindlessly shop online!
This challenge definitely opened my eyes to how much easier it is to overspend in the online world. It’s one of the reasons I unsubscribed from most of the store emails I was receiving. Too much temptation! If I need something, I will go and look for it.
Very interesting. When the pandemic started, I think I was trying to be “normal “ and just kept buying things. As time has gone on, I have moved to simplifying and decluttering. Essentials only. I guess I’ve been in a buy nothing challenge without knowing it. But seriously, it’s a great mindset to have especially right now. Thanks for the post,
Thanks for reading and commenting, Mark. I think a buy nothing mindset starts subconsciously. I was definitely in mindful shopping mode for a while before trying the challenge.
This is a great challenge 👏👏👏
Thank you!
I do a no expense challenge some days. Haven’t gotten to a week yet! But it sure is an interesting challenge. It will help me save more money in the long run.
Thanks Liz. Yes, it is an interesting challenge to try. I am glad I did it!
I’d love to take this challenge on sometime! I’m terrible with buying things on a whim – online shopping especially – and adding extra things to my shopping cart that I don’t need so I think if I could manage it I’d definitely be able to save a bundle. Thanks for sharing! x
It is surprising how much you can save by being more thoughtful about your spending. Once you get into the habit, spending actually starts to lose its appeal. Thanks for reading!
A Buy Nothing Challenge sounds fun! Like you, I am already really selective when making a purchase, but it would be interesting to track and see if there is anything that slips by.
I think you could rationalize the Queen pop vinyl as an earlier Mothers Day gift to yourself.😀😀
Ha ha. An early Mothers Day Gift. I like the way you think!
Lovely post Michelle!! I have never done a buy nothing challenge but knowing myself I would fail on the first second! 👏 well done 👏
Thanks so much Maya! I’m surprised it was a lot easier than I thought. I think I’ve gotten myself into the right mindset over the last couple of years.
Your welcome Michelle!! The right mindset is the best mindset to have. Also, thank you so much for the follow it means a lot coming from you
Thanks
Maya
Also, thank you so much for the follow on the blog, it means a lot coming from you 💕