The November No-Buy is over!
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about our No Buy for the month, declaring the things we would not spend money on. I talked about spending money only on necessities, some pre-planned purchases, and possibly on Christmas presents.
It was the perfect time to cut out unnecessary spending. November falls smack between the fall expenses of October and the Christmas expenses of December. It seemed like a great opportunity for us to try out a No-Buy for the first time ever to limit our spending.
So how did we do?
- No eating out. We were successful at this. I had allowed myself one lunch out at Chick fil A with the kids, which happened on November 1. Since then, almost every meal has been served at home, cooked by me. I’m tired.
- No shopping at Target. I did have to go to Target to buy a few necessities and gifts for the Angel Tree (Christmas gifts for local families in need) at my daughter’s school. I avoided buying a sparkly skirt for my 4 year old, didn’t set foot in the dollar spot, and didn’t so much as glance at the Christmas decor.
- No clothes. Success. I stayed away from my online fashion haunts, didn’t look at any clothing online, and didn’t check the ThredUp app.
- No non-necessity grocery items. I didn’t keep a very strict track of this, since I do almost all the shopping and don’t pick up much that’s outside of my regular meal plan anyway. My husband bought his one six pack for the month, and we kept our Costco bill down.
What did we buy?
- Planned purchases. I did make my bi-yearly sojurn to Ulta when I was in the area and purchased my Bare Minerals Mineral Veil. They did not have the round brush I needed to replace, so I decided to make do with the broken one for now. Instead, I purchased an eyeliner, which I would have bought at some point anyway.
- Christmas presents. I bought gifts for the Angel Tree I mentioned above, but I consider charity as outside the realm of the no-buy. I took advantage of a sale and ordered some gifts online. Also I ordered a butt load of candy from The Candy Drawer Confectionary before they went on hiatus. Gotta get my black salt caramel fix.
- A book. Yes, I broke the no-buy to purchase a book. After reading Sunshine I wanted to read something in a similar genre, so I brought out a series I read years ago that had been sitting in the declutter box waiting to be donated to the library. I’m glad I did, because I’m enjoying it much more now than when I first read it. I checked online, and in the years following me finishing the fourth book, several more had been published. I ordered a used paperback copy of the fifth book ’cause I gotta know what happens. (It was cheaper than the Kindle version!) Waiting until the month ended to start the new book seemed silly since I would have purchased the book anyway, so I don’t really care.
What did we learn?
- Going on a Costco run directly after eating lunch helped a lot, because we saved $20-30 that we would have spent eating out after shopping. We usually do our Costco runs as a family on the weekend and go out to lunch afterward. We were also less likely to impulse purchase something because the samples were really good, which sometimes happens when we’re shopping hungry.
- Our biggest non-necessity expense is eating out. Even though I love to cook, I also love to eat out, especially for the kind of foods I can’t make (or can’t make well) at home. We saved at least $30 this month just by mindfully eating in. (Thank goodness for frozen pizza.)
- Doing the no-buy made my life easier. The purchasing decisions were already made. Therefore I didn’t have to waste any of my precious willpower on little purchasing decisions. Telling myself I wasn’t going to buy non-necessary clothes for the kids meant I wasn’t allowed to browse the kid’s clothes and therefore I didn’t have to worry about making a decision about it. Declaring that I was not allowed to purchase from ThredUp this month meant I didn’t have to make the decision whether or not to browse the app or even so much as think about if I needed something. I just wouldn’t think about it until next month.
- Eating out was an expense we’ve been meaning to cut back on. Writing it down and declaring that we weren’t going to eat out for a month made it easier. We couldn’t wiffle waffle and say, “Oh well let’s get something just tonight,” because we had declared we wouldn’t. Instead we had to be more resourceful.
Doing a no-buy helped change our habits!
Spending a month not eating out helped force some habit changes. We normally eat out 2-4 times a month (sometimes more if we count my husband’s work lunches). This could be because we went shopping, so now we’re hungry, or I’m sick and don’t want to cook so let’s order something, or let’s grab something on the way home from the playground.
Instead of getting something to eat while out and about, we planned outings around meals at home. If I was too tired to cook a dinner from scratch, I made something frozen. If the kids were tired and hungry after playing on the playground, oh well. It takes just as long to bake some chicken nuggets as it does to go out of my way and sit in a drive through.
Will we ever do a no-buy again?
Absolutely! I foresee us doing this again sometime soon after the new year. It will be a good way to save up for some of our home improvement plans.
Have you ever tried a No-Buy? How did it go? Leave a comment below!
Did you enjoy this post? Please subscribe!
You May Also Like:
November No-Buy to Reduce Spending 2018
I’m so glad your no buy experience was a success! Is there anything you would change for next time?
I don’t think I’d change anything. Every month brings something different, so our pre-planned purchases would differ month to month.