Low Buy Journey

[katlowbuynobuy]

2023/01/21

I wrote two years ago when I was working on doing a low buy that I felt a change in me, a change in how I was feeling, a change in what I was thinking about. 

I’m starting to feel a change again. I had broken my no buy 11 days ago but this past week I decided to return all the items I purchased. I want to accomplish a complete 30 day shopping ban but I already know that I will buy something before the end of the month because I have a large reward that’s expiring then. I guess it’s alright if it’s broken that one time since it is part of my rules that I can purchase an item with rewards if the remaining amount I spend on it is less than $20. It just feels like a bad loophole. But not everything can be perfect. The difficult part is being disciplined, intentional, and conscientious about what I do purchase and I feel that I have been for this one item I’m planning on purchasing with rewards.

Whenever I write about how I feel about purchasing an item or returning an item, I feel so dumb. This shouldn’t be something that is worthy about writing about. Now I think that this is a good thing. It makes me not want to buy things and then have to return it. If I’m not proud enough to write about something, I shouldn’t be buying it and bringing it into my life. I think about buying and returning an unhealthy amount of time. It’s disgusting to say that I most likely spend 10-20% of my day thinking about it. Then on the days when I do make a purchase and/or return things that number goes up to sometimes 50% or more. It’s so much time wasted. 

Writing about it like this is a part of the time I think about it but it feels more productive. I don’t write my thoughts down often. I don’t write often except for work things and maybe to do lists. Since one of my to dos this year is to apply to graduate schools, I will need to write a personal statement and other things. I’m so out of practice with writing that I wanted to dedicated the month of February as a writing month where I write personal things or more science things to get me into the writing groove. Writing about my no buy and low buy contributes to my personal writing. This is good. 

Once I start typing out my obsessive thoughts on buying items, returning, and paying off my cards, it feels so insignificant that the thoughts start to go away. 

[katlowbuynobuy]

2023/01/20

It’s been quite a while since I last posted here. I have a draft saved of thoughts from February and March 2021. I most likely stopped writing after that because I broke my low buy. I think I did alright but I started buying more things the second half of 2021. In 2022, I continued my buy and return cycle all throughout the year. I bought way too many unnecessary items. I racked up debt because of it.

I’m disappointed in myself. My hobby is online shopping and returning. I hate it. This is not the person I want to be. Whenever people ask me what I’m doing this weekend, I say running errands but it’s always returning things. I’ve wasted days on this stupid habit. 

I online shop when I feel bored and don’t want to work on myself, work tasks, or personal tasks. It has definitely slowed down my career progression. When I’m focused I do great work, but a lot of the time all I want to do is scroll through instagram and find another item to covet. 

I haven’t yet found an activity I can continuously do whenever I feel like shopping. Instead of browsing online, I obsessively look at my bank accounts and see how much I still owe. It doesn’t change very much, but I still feel like I have to see it. This is probably due to me feeling guilty about not keeping an eye on my spending last year. 

I have things I want to accomplish this year more than ever. It’s a big year for me. I am running at least one marathon this year and hopefully a half marathon as well. I am applying to PhD programs this fall. I want to go on a trip abroad with E. I want to read at least 24 books.

All of my goals for this year require a lot of time out of me. I think the amount of things I need to do overwhelm me. When I feel overwhelmed, I start browsing online. 

I just created my dream closet list. I have most of the items on this list. I want to work on putting in some more wear in the clothes in my closet that aren’t on my dream closet list and then parting ways with them. 

[katlowbuynobuy]

JANUARY 2021 PURCHASES

Supergoop Unseen Sunscreen $4.38

It Cosmetics CC Cream $1.97

Urban Outfitter nail polishes $5.46 for all 3

Total spent January 2021: $11.81

Amount of unused January fun budget: $71.52

I feel pretty proud of myself this month. I stuck to my budget and used rewards that were all expiring this month to pay for a majority of these items. I’m proud of myself for not buying any clothing items and sticking to things that I use regularly.

Although I was successful this month, I was still tempted by many things. I was running every day and started running out of clean work out clothes before laundry day and so I thought it’d be a wise investment to buy more shorts and tops. I planned to only use my rewards to pay for my workout clothes. I tried shorts and tops that I could use the reward on but found that their quality was not great. Instead of settling for them I decided to hold off on getting them and instead wait for a better quality item to come out. But looking back at this all, I think I will just stick with my current workout wardrobe. If I run out of clean clothes, I’ll instead hand wash them instead of waiting for my partner and I’s laundry day.

I have also been tempted by a pair of shoes I’ve been following on Poshmark. The seller has been decreasing the price but it’s still a bit high for me. They’re offering it at a great discount but I know I still can’t buy them at the price because I know I won’t wear them enough. They’re a fun shoe that I will most likely only wear a few times a year. I know it’s most likey going to be a waste of money if I got them. I think I’m in the middle of breaking up with the idea of those shoes. Hopefully this process will be fully over soon.

[katlowbuynobuy]

feelings are changing

It has only been about 3 weeks since the year started, but this past weekend, I felt a change. When I saw things on Instagram, I didn’t feel a strong want for them. I have been looking around for what to get to use a $30 reward that was set to expire this month. The search for just the right item made me so tired that I no longer felt excited to shop for an item. For weeks, I had planned on getting a sunscreen with the reward since it’s an item that I use daily and I consider it extremely important to my well-being. For some reason I thought that I should find something else to use the reward on. I searched and searched and I got so tired I just finally got the sunscreen. I felt a wave a relief afterwards. I no longer had to look and I knew I’d be satisfied with what I chose. 

After that, I stopped wanting things as much. I started to feel overwhelmed with the amount of clothes in m closet. I had been holding on to clothes for because I thought I would wear them, but I finally accepted that I need to let go of them. I’m now planning on getting my clothes posted to sell this weekend. I have also accepted that I will lose some money selling these items, but it’s better I sell them than have them sitting in my closet unused.

I have also been more into doing things that don’t involve looking at my phone. I found that looking at Instagram started to bore me. I was more keen to read a book than just scroll through social media apps this past weekend. I was actually able to finish a book! I do hope this change in mindset sticks. I love how I’m feeling. I still have a bit to work on, but I feel like I’m on the right path.

[katlowbuynobuy]

I attempted a low buy last year and did pretty well until the second half of the year. I didn’t set very good rules last year. I didn’t have them accessible on my phone to be able to easily see them. I didn’t express to people how much I needed to stop buying so many things. I wasn’t successful to sticking to my low buy rules but I did much better than I did in 2019 and I feel like I learned a lot about my triggers. This year I feel more confident about my ability to stick to my rules. I have stricter rules and more numerical rules.

Items I have a problem with: clothes, books

Items I don’t have a problem with: makeup, skincare

RULES:

If it’s a clothing item that isn’t for working out, for an event, or underwear, it must be on my wishlist for at least a month.

Strict no buy: jeans, plain/basic t shirts, lipsticks, books, vitamin c serums

Allowed to use rewards, gift cards, and codes that work like gift cards.

Must stick to $83.33/ month fun budget ($1000 total for the year). Whatever isn’t used for that month will rollover to the next month allowing me to save up for bigger ticket items.

For clothes, one in, at least 3 items out

For makeup/skincare, only buy things that can be finished/well-used before it expires.

Necessary items such as body wash, body lotion, shampoo, conditioner, cleanser, basic face lotion, and sunscreen do not have to be taken out of the fun budget if they are not expensive and if they are to replace an item and not stock up.

GOALS/ WHY?

I want to be more self-disciplined. I want to be able to control my wants and stick to my monthly and yearly fun budget.

I want to want less things. I want to become less obsessive about items.

I want to be influenced less. I don’t want to feel like this one item will be what makes me look better, feel better.

I need to save up money. I will most likely need to buy a car this year. I also really want to get Invisalign. Both of these need a lot of money and if I hadn’t wasted so much money on clothing, I could’ve probably had one of these already.

I want to have a 3-6 month emergency fund. I have a $1000 emergency fund but I want to feel more stable.

I want to travel. I would like to pay for a trip out of pocket and not on credit.

I feel good about this. I know I’ll be able to do this. I know it’ll be hard, but I think I have a better support system this time.