The Year Of No Shopping

[MIS997]

Saw this in the NYT, and I can definitely relate...I’m going to give it a go in 2018. Hopefully I’ll save up some money, reevaluate what I need, and maybe make some awesome purchases in 2019.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/12/1....html?referer=

[Raakish]

Thought-provoking article and idea. Thanks. I'll give this some real consideration.

If I give it a go, I might start off more modestly, say 1/3 of the year, or max. of 1-2 items per month. A full 12 months cold turkey is intimidating.

[julius12]

I'm at the point where I've really narrowed down my ideal wardrobe and just have to get a few items to complete it, so 2018 for me is gonna be wardrobe completion year (finally), then I'm done with shopping (aside from the occasional replacement). Too much stuff and clutter sometimes irritate me, but I wanna be stylish too, so having my wardrobe list really helps. After this I'm moving on to increasing my savings and investments.

[idvsego]

Thought-provoking article and idea. Thanks. I'll give this some real consideration.

If I give it a go, I might start off more modestly, say 1/3 of the year, or max. of 1-2 items per month. A full 12 months cold turkey is intimidating.

A year is hard to do. I do the monthly or quarterly goals. I am in this boat myself because I piled up credit card debt I didnt want and am going to halt spending for 3 months completely plus route whatever merit increase I get straight to cards. I will evaluate again at the end of 3 months to see if I paid it down enough to meet my goal. I am sure I will see some encouraging progress and keep going. I have done this before and it has worked well. If I far surpass the goal I might treat myself to a small expenditure but nothing that exceeds 20% of my overage. Say my goal was to reduce the balance by $1,000. If I reduced it by $1,500 then I might allow myself to spend $100 on myself (20% of the extra $500). Last time i did this I got so encouraged I just skipped the treat.

[JBarwick]

A year is hard to do. I do the monthly or quarterly goals. I am in this boat myself because I piled up credit card debt I didnt want and am going to halt spending for 3 months completely plus route whatever merit increase I get straight to cards. I will evaluate again at the end of 3 months to see if I paid it down enough to meet my goal. I am sure I will see some encouraging progress and keep going. I have done this before and it has worked well. If I far surpass the goal I might treat myself to a small expenditure but nothing that exceeds 20% of my overage. Say my goal was to reduce the balance by $1,000. If I reduced it by $1,500 then I might allow myself to spend $100 on myself (20% of the extra $500). Last time i did this I got so encouraged I just skipped the treat.

I used to set little goals with my student loans and when the time came to splurge, I would usually just splurge by paying off more.

I am having another son in 2018 so it will be the year of budgeting. I pre-ordered a Spier & Mackay sport coat but the rest of the year will be a delicate balance as child care is expensive. My relief purchases will probably be new under shirts or something which I greatly appreciate and will satisfy other purchasing behaviors.

[Vicious49]

This part of the article is so true:

The trick of no shopping isn’t just that you don’t buy things. You don’t shop. That means no trawling the sale section of the J. Crew website in idle moments. It means the catalogs go into the recycle bin unopened on the theory that if I don’t see it, I don’t want it.

I've been doing this basically for the past year or so (as it applies to clothes). Not because of any goal but just because I thought I had too many clothes and wanted to cut down on the spending. I think I may have spent $60 at JCrew during a recent sale but besides that I haven't randomly searched a site for sales. That's what seems to get you in trouble. You click on one of Joes articles on the front page and see the deals. Then you start browsing and find something that 'is too good to pass up at that price'.

I now tell myself I will only shop the MrPorter sales and watches. In the year I've been doing it, I haven't missed shopping at all. I still have plenty of clothes and shoes - probably still way more than any person needs. It's helped cut down on my spending tremendously and freed up time I'd normally spend sifting through sales online. Now if I could only give u my affinity for watches and constantly wanting to try so many different ones . . .

[proteus]

Interesting idea... I might give it a go this year but probably divide the year into quarters where I will treat myself to something at the end of the quarter.

[idvsego]

This part of the article is so true:

The trick of no shopping isn’t just that you don’t buy things. You don’t shop. That means no trawling the sale section of the J. Crew website in idle moments. It means the catalogs go into the recycle bin unopened on the theory that if I don’t see it, I don’t want it.

I've been doing this basically for the past year or so (as it applies to clothes). Not because of any goal but just because I thought I had too many clothes and wanted to cut down on the spending. I think I may have spent $60 at JCrew during a recent sale but besides that I haven't randomly searched a site for sales. That's what seems to get you in trouble. You click on one of Joes articles on the front page and see the deals. Then you start browsing and find something that 'is too good to pass up at that price'.

I now tell myself I will only shop the MrPorter sales and watches. In the year I've been doing it, I haven't missed shopping at all. I still have plenty of clothes and shoes - probably still way more than any person needs. It's helped cut down on my spending tremendously and freed up time I'd normally spend sifting through sales online. Now if I could only give u my affinity for watches and constantly wanting to try so many different ones . . .

yeah, I spend a lot more money when I have watchrecon app on my phone. Hard to be tempted when you dont see the things.

[nuggetzor]

I had alerts set for r/frugalmalefashion which got me a bunch of really good deals this season, but now that I've gotten what I wanted and shouldn't do any more spending I just turn it off and avoid browsing. That helps a lot.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

[hornsup84]

yeah, I spend a lot more money when I have watchrecon app on my phone. Hard to be tempted when you dont see the things.

After I stopped going to WUS forums daily, cut out a few shops I frequented to see their used stock, etc., my watch purchase frequency (and my overall want for watches) went down drastically. I still really enjoy watches, but I'm not in a constant state of yearning for a new one anymore. Which is nice, since I have other stuff where that money should go this year and next.