I’m starting a 4 month no buy: September 1, 2026-January 1, 2027.

Over the last few years, working in retail, I’ve developed an intense shopping problem. Whenever I save my money, I end up racking up my credit cards and having to empty my savings in order to not be in debt. I’ve bought so many clothes that I don’t even have enough space to store them. I tell myself that I will sell my unused clothes online, but then I procrastinate posting, or things just don’t sell. It’s not just clothes either, I buy collectibles, electronics, delivered food, etc.

I am diagnosed with mental health disorders and currently unmedicated, which does make my shopping worse, but it’s not the sole problem. I just genuinely need something to look forward to and if I order online or plan a mall day, that’s my something. I also didn’t grow up with much, so buying things feels like self care. My boyfriend tends to encourage my spending and if I don’t buy something myself, he buys it for me(IMO he also has a problem spending too much, but not as bad as me). This makes it even harder to tell myself no, but I will be talking to him today about this.

I really need some advice from others. I’ve made a list of my “rules” for the next 4 months and have incorporated a small budget for fun spending, like coffee on the weekends. Other than this, I am attempting to stay strictly to bills, groceries, medical expenses, and toiletries. Is there anything that helped you during your no buy?

No buy August is complete! It went pretty well overall, there were some lessons learned. Updated in bold.

Here were my original rules:

Rules:

• no books purchased 2 from an online outlet for 1/3 the cover price
• no clothing none purchased!
• no puzzles (but swaps/trades allowed, will also focus on the ones I already have) did 2 trades, purchased no new ones
• no thrifting nothing thrifted!
• no home decor none purchased!
• no impulse buys PERIOD (seriously, stop looking at marketplace, just walk away) one impulse buy because I looked at marketplace, oops

Allowed:

• replacement toiletries
• books/dvds from the library (go wild, baby!)
• puzzle swaps
• charitable donations
• anything related to physio/rehab such as more supportive running shoes

So impulse buys got me twice, once was when my partner was making an order for an online book outlet, and I found 2 books I've had on my wishlist for 1/3 of the cover price. A bit of a slip up but I feel like I was snared into that one. The second was I found the first 4 seasons of Adventure Time on dvd for $20 and jumped on it. My partner and I are switching back to dvds/blu ray due to frustration with streaming and these were some I'd been looking for for a while.

All in all $40 spent in the month on non-essentials which is pretty good. Could I have done better? Sure. Does it help to guilt myself about it, no not really. It's all just an exercise, and I still learned plenty. We donated to a few local organizations and utilized the library for books and dvds.

How did August go for you?