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I’m not one for New Years resolutions. I don’t think you need to wait for a new year to start something new but I think there is something insanely beautiful about this time of year when everyone is so ambitious to better themselves. In a few months that will lead to the sadness of watching all that ambition fade away when people don’t immediately see results or realize the work it entails to reach their goals.
This year, I am doing a bit of a resolution in terms of a challenge. That is, I’m embarking on a challenge to not spend money on unnecessary items in 2023.
What is a No Spend Year?
A no spend year is exactly how it sounds, kind of. It’s not spending money for a year on anything that isn’t necessary. Mortgage and utility companies don’t honor no spend years, so bills will have to be paid. Grocery stores typically don’t let you walk out with a week’s worth of food without swiping your card either, so money will be spent there too. I’m also allowing myself to replace items that I run out of, break, etc if it’s something I regularly use. Necessary is a big key word here. No purchases will be made that aren’t a need.
The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.” -Elise Boulding, 1920
Why an entire year?
A week is perfectly reasonable and something everyone should do. A month is ambitious and a wonderful reset, especially in January after that holiday spending. A year, is an instance life changing experiment.
I’m choosing a year because I want this to last a lifetime. I want to be able to walk out of a store regularly without any additional items that weren’t on my list. I want to be able to use what I already have instead of jumping to purchase something new. I want this to change how we live forever, not just for a moment.
As a society, we spend a lot of money on, to be blunt, random shit. We buy home decor for every season to decorate our homes with. We buy 3 pairs of the same shoe in different colors so they match all our outfits in our massive wardrobes. We buy clothes for a single occasion to only be worn once, a new coffee machine because it was on sale (our old one worked just fine), and we have a new gadget being delivered by Amazon in 2 hours because we saw it on Instagram during our morning scroll. Personally, I’m over it.
The clutter of all these things we buy on a whim or think that we need is absolutely insane. I’m an anxious person by nature and having clutter in my eyesight automatically heightens it. As we’ve been moving I’ve basically been in a steady state of anxiety. It’s not fun for me or for my family, so this year I want to rid us of the clutter. That starts with no adding to it.. for an entire year.
Am I really going to spend NOTHING this whole year? I have a list of items that I need to purchase this year and will do so (more on that later) and am not oblivious to the fact that there will be a time or two that I will need to make a purchase outside of my list. My purpose with this is to be intentional and stop the pattern on blindly spending money on things just because they’re available.
I’m excited to start and document this journey I’m starting this year! If you’ve ever done a no spend challenge, let me know how it went in the comments!
