Last month on Instagram I decided to test my budgetary discipline and go a month without buying anything extraneous.
This started due to the fact that I had noticed I was on the Amazon app more often and had begun to feel anxious about getting my orders delivered to me. Like, to the point where it was starting to affect my mood if things were running late OR if what I wanted wasn’t in stock.
I had a sudden “come to Jesus” when I realized that I was re-starting an unhealthy relationship with buying shit and that I needed a detox ASAP.
So how did I do? Let’s discuss:
The Rules for “No Shit” September
- I could buy things that were meant to replace something broken
- I could buy recurring expenses for my business. (Like shipping needs or recurring app subscriptions)
- I could buy necessities like food, pet stuff, and medication
- I could not buy new things for my business. (Was a slave to Appsumo)
- I could not buy clothing, makeup, or extraneous toiletries
- I could not buy new plants
- No new books (my hoard of unread books is sad)
My overarching rule was: if I regretted buying something from that category the next day, I couldn’t buy it in September
My results:
I’m happy to say that, despite forgetting to update my Stories every day, I actually made it through September sticking to these rules! That’s not to say that every day was easy, though. There were days when I went on Amazon and looked around or added things to my cart. But I never hit the “checkout” button for things that weren’t allowed.
I also was able to successfully avoid the Lowe’s Plant Clearance Section. Which made me sad but had to be done.
Also, to be entirely transparent, I had the benefit of knowing my birthday would be coming up soon. So anything that I couldn’t stop thinking about could go on my wishlist as gift ideas from the family.
Going forward:
“No Shit September” wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. But I won’t say it was “easy.” However, it did make me realize how much I relied on retail therapy gratification to help curb moments of anxiety or depression.
It also made me realize how often I would talk myself into feeling “less than” and in need of something which I felt could make me shift over to whatever I thought I needed to be. This was especially true in my business with new apps or subscriptions. I was perpetually jumping onto new services because I thought they would be the game-changer of getting me to the next level. But in the end they were simply hollow promises (especially since I rarely utilized them).
Can I keep “No Shit” going? I hope so, if only for therapeutic reasons (though the monetary benefits are obviously way awesome). Spending 30 days removed from environments and emails that triggered me to impulse buy has been a really good thing for me and one that has kept up into October. Here’s hoping we can keep it going!