No Spend Month

A reminder of values

For the month of April I did a No Spend Challenge. No buying above and beyond basic necessities—groceries, gas, bills—and required businesses supplies. I had to buy boxes to pack and ship my ceramics pieces as well as a microSD card for my camera. There was no clothes, no take out, no wandering the aisles of Winners or thrift stores simply because I was out and about and had an hour to spare.

Overall, it was a successful month. I kept track of things I felt tempted to buy and revisited it come the end of the month to assess I still felt I needed or wanted any of them. Some of the items I was tempted by included:
- Stained Glass Art
- Bird iPhone Case
- DJI Pocket Lens Filters
- DJI Pocket Battery Handle
- Koss On-Ear Headphones
- Beechwood Donuts
- All Meg Mason’s Books
- Mid Century Modern Lamp
- Aerobic Stepper
- Pottery Glaze
- Concert tickets
- A New Sketchbook
- and there was more than once I was tempted to just wander around Winners or the thrift store

Things I did end up buying that weren’t necessity included a carbon steel baking pan on April 2nd that I used to make a roll cake for an Easter dessert, a canoe tour on April 14th because those are often sold out within a day, a suction cup holder for my DJI Pocket on April 24th because it was finally on sale, and one Starbucks Iced Coffee when Phil wanted to drive 2 hours away to buy a camera lens—I love a little treat on a road trip.

The pan was worth it, the dessert was incredible

Looking back at the list I do still want the DJI accessories, the on ear headphones, and eventually Meg Mason’s books, but the other things I’m actually not sad I didn’t spend the money. I’ve wanted some beautiful stained glass art for a while, but I don’t need it. I definitely don’t need another notebook and I also probably don’t need any more pottery glaze until I use up the countless half empty pint containers I have on my shelf. I learned my biggest pitfall is the aimless wandering around Winners and thrift stores, and subsequent impulsive purchases, when I have some free time. It’s fun to get new clothes and fancy drinking glasses and fun little trinkets, but I also recently learned I own 47 pairs of ankle length socks (just ankle, this doesn’t include longer socks), 13 hoodies, and 8 unused notebooks. I actually own more than enough of most things.

Back in 2017 I watched The Minimalists documentary and minimalism became an obsession for a while. I immediately went through every single room in our house assessing what I could possibly get rid of to minimize my burden of items. The statistics surrounding our consumerism and overconsumption is shameful at best. There’s been a 400% increase in clothing purchases compared to a few decades ago, over 70% of Americans admit much of their purchases are spontaneous, and most people would admit they add extra items to their cart to qualify for free shipping (I’m so guilty of this). Houses are bigger than they’ve ever been, storage in home and in units is at a historic high, and yet there was 5.7 billion pounds of clothing donations to Goodwill in 2021. We’ve become casually wasteful.

After discovering minimalism I really did fall in love with the concept of only keeping essential items. One major takeaway being ‘the less you own, the less you have to care for and maintain.’ I took a little bit of knowledge from a few different people and distilled it all down to a single question: “Does this add value to my life?” Marie Kondo was a little too abstract with her ‘Does this bring joy’ and ultra minimalist people went a bit too far into essential items only. I love collecting books and having shelves full of them, I love having a variety of mugs and drinking glasses, I love that my house is filled with plants. These are things I don’t mind caring for and maintaining. I learned I’m actually not big on decorative knick knacks unless they held sentimental value—we have a wooden carved elephant from our trip to Thailand, a ceramic pomegranate from Türkiye, a coaster from Scotland, and ceramic art tile from Arizona. But learning about minimalism forced me even become more discerning with my souvenirs. These days I mostly take photos and buy an ornament for the Christmas tree.

Assessing my physical items has also forced me to look inwards and assess the reality of who I am vs. the idea of who I am. This manifested the most in my wardrobe. Thanks to a friend I was able to take a more realistic look at what I owned vs. what I wore. Her concept was to make a Pinterest board and scroll through and pin all the outfits I loved. After you get a fair amount of pins, go back through and take note of the things each has in common—there will be a few common traits they all share. My most glaring blind spot was skirts and dresses. In real life I was buying beautiful summer dresses, cute skirts, and yet they hung in my closet never to be worn. I love how other people look in a dress, I even don’t mind how I look, but I always opt for pants and shorts before choosing a dress or skirt. I ultimately stopped buying them, and not only saved myself money, but also prevented an inevitable cycle of waste when they don’t get worn.

I’m now able to wander through a store and identify what things I like and what things I’ll wear, because those aren’t always the same thing. I like the look of a small floral print, but I’m never going to be someone who wears it. I like a fitted outfit, but I’m more comfortable in something somewhat loose and flowy. I love the idea of high heels but I’m unwilling to experience any sort of discomfort for the sake of style, so I stick to flats and intentionally invested in a nice pair of loafers. I almost exclusively wear hoodies during the winter so my 13 hoodies get a lot of rotation and are worth keeping around. I love wearing jeans, I love wearing soft pants, I love an oversized shirt—sometimes buying bathing suit covers and utilizing them as a lightweight summer top. I’m so lazy when it comes to ironing, so if an item is already wrinkly in the store, it’s an automatic no. Almost everything in my closet gets regularly worn because I’m realistic about the person I am vs. the person I think I am.

Initially I wasn’t sure if only one month of not spending would make that much of a difference, but it ended up being a fantastic way to highlight the habits I fell into and remind me of the things I truly value. I often try to make the most of a day by doing all my errands at once, but that often led me to randomly popping into stores when I didn’t need to simply because I was in the area. Shopping online has become a little too easy since you don’t immediately feel the hit of the money spent. Alternatively, it emphasized items that could be considered ‘tools’ are almost always worth the purchase, as they feed into my content creation and my passions. Those purchases allow me to continue to run my business and feel well equipped to do so. Most valuable being items that not only help me with content creation, but make for good investments for future travel and personal memory keeping—my Fuji camera has been great for that and my DJI Pocket will likely be the same.

At this point it would be really easy to fall back into old habits. I had some errands to run and allowed myself to wander the aisles of Winners after a month away. This time though, rather than waiting for the universe to tell me what I should pick up, I shopped with intention. During my No Spend Month I went through my closet and made note of items that didn’t have many outfit options—a pair of silky black pants, a pair of yellow flowered pants, an oversized knit vest. I love these items individually but they don’t have a lot of styling options. I spent my time shopping specifically for another shirt I could wear with the black pants. Something light weight, something textured, something not white. I ended up with a striped short sleeve knit top, something that would look fantastic with the pants and with other items in my closet. I left the store feeling excited with the purchase because I was so intentional about it, knowing exactly its purpose. No spontaneous purchases, no subsequent buyers regret.

Flowers are actually my most favourite spontaneous purchase

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to demonize shopping, I’m also not going to shame anyone for spontaneous purchases. I can feel pretty good about myself after not doing any shopping for a month, but I know I won’t be free of an impromptu acquisition for the rest of my life. Sometimes it’s fun to just spend a morning driving around to garage sales or wandering the thrift stores with a friend. Taking advantage of a surprise sale or treating yourself to a little something are the types of things that can add a little spark of joy to the monotony of a day. Admittedly, I am nothing without my little treats.

But going forward I’m going to try and remember that every item requires maintenance. Every item added to a shelf must be dusted, every glass or mug added to the cupboard must be washed, every additional art supply must find a home in the house. When buying a new item of clothing I’m going to try and consider where it fits into my wardrobe. Will this item match multiple other items? Is it worth taking up some of my already minimal closet space? Experiences have never been a disappointing purchase for me—going to the theatre, seeing my favourite bands in concert, attending workshops, splurging on a fine dining meal—these have always felt worth the money spent. Things though, things are a bit of a gamble and require a more discerning mind.

I can mark off my No Spend Month from my Bingo Card, and despite the few non-essential purchases, consider it to be a success. But you know, I might just do it every few months to keep myself in this clarifying headspace.

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Have you ever done a No Spend Month? I’d love to hear how it went!