How to ROCK Your No Buy

The No Buy Challenge

So you’ve decided to tackle a No Buy or No Spend month, season, or year. Congrats! You’ve officially taken the first step towards managing your spending habits, and setting yourself on the path to financial freedom.

You might be a little scared or apprehensive of a No Buy challenge. After all, you LOVE to shop! And I totally get it. I used to be in your shoes!

But you don’t have to be anxious. You have the desire to change; that’s why you’re here! Now, all you need are tips and tricks to make it to the finish line.

Click Here to Get Your FREE No Buy Workbook

This article will discuss exactly how to ROCK your No Buy, and why you need to do it.

First, we will discuss WHY you need a No Buy, so you can better understand your motivations, and thus stay inspired during your No Buy. Second, we will discuss HOW to have a successful No Buy, by understanding your triggers and motivations, as well as common pitfalls.

1. Diagnosing Your Need For a No Buy: The WHY

When I completed my first No Buy challenge, it was after years of reckless spending and impulse shopping. I knew I needed to pull it together if I ever wanted to make a dent in my six-figure student loan debt, or save any money from my job.

I realized I was working hard, making good money, and paying all my bills…but didn’t have much else to show for it.

The embarrassing truth? I was hurtling into my thirties with measly savings and a ton of student-loan debt. I had a great job, paid my credit card balance in full every month, but didn’t understand where my money was going.

The culprit was my emotional and impulsive spending habits. I was stressed, overwhelmed, and took solace in the latest makeup release at Sephora or the semi-annual sale at Nordstrom. Sound familiar?

To complete a successful No Buy, you need to first understand why you need a No Buy. This is so even if you’re already 100% sold on the idea. Why? Because you will need to refer back to your WHY whenever you’re feeling weak, tempted, or unsure.

So let’s first diagnose your need for a No Buy.

a. Do You Need a No Buy?

First, if you answer YES to any of the following questions, you need a No Buy.

Do you shop impulsively?
Are you an emotional shopper?
Do your spending habits make you anxious?
Have you tried to stop shopping before, with little success?
Are you hiding your purchases from a partner, spouse, or family member?
Are you in any kind of debt?
- And yes, this includes: credit cards, student loans, and auto loans.
- (My approach to debt is very similar to Dave Ramsey’s. It’s bad news, and it should be your top financial priority.)

b. What is Your WHY?

Second, complete the following questions and prompts. When you are finished, any of the following reasons will serve as a strong motivator for your No Buy—aka, your WHY.

Spend a few minutes reflecting on your life right now.
- What are you happy with?
- What would you like to change?
Next, think about your goals.
- What are your smaller, discrete, more “immediate” goals?
  - i.e., to take a vacation, to pay off a credit card, etc.
- What are your bigger, broader, more “impossible” goals?
  - Financial, i.e., to pay off your student loans, to create a 3-6 month emergency fund, etc.
  - Personal, i.e., to move cities, to switch careers, to write a novel, etc.
  - Let your mind run wild. Don’t edit yourself.
Now, be honest with yourself about your compulsive shopping—even if it hurts.
- Are your shopping habits hindering your progress toward your goals?
- If so, how are your shopping habits hurting you?
  - Financially? (Think: dollars spent and lost over shopping.)
  - Personally? (Think: time, brainpower, and stress devoted to shopping.)
Finally, I want you to turn your optimism up to Level 10. If you completed a successful No Buy:
- What could you achieve?
- How much money could you save?
- By not shopping, how much closer will you be to your goals (big and small)?

Truthfully, these are the things that will keep you going when you feel weak. Your WHY is what you must always refer to when you are staring down the barrel of your next purchase, or are feeling insanely tempted by a sale. It’s something you must keep in front of you at all times, and close to your heart.

So, understanding your WHY, let’s next dig into HOW you will rock your No Buy.

2. Rocking Your No Buy: The HOW

Now that you have a solid handle on WHY you need your No Buy, let’s move on to HOW to make it a success!

A successful No Buy challenge is all about preventative measures. It’s almost like a vaccine for your spending habits. By identifying your top shopping triggers, you are inoculating yourself against future temptation.

a. Understanding Your Triggers

Although some No Buy and compulsive shopping advice is universal, it’s important to understand your OWN triggers and weaknesses. This is so you can actually succeed in your attempts to stop shopping.

How do you do this? First, you identify your triggers. Then, you can set up guardrails to protect yourself, and that’s your HOW.

So let’s understand your shopping triggers first. Spend a few moments reflecting on your last shopping binge, or the last time you shopped and regretted it.

Then, answer the following questions:

How were you feeling when you shopped?
- Were you Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired?
- Did your heart-rate increase as you completed your purchase?
- Did you feel your breathing quicken as you shopped?
What, if anything, triggered you to shop?
Had you planned to make the purchase?
Was it an impulsive purchase?
Did you shop because there was a sale?
How did you find out about the sale?
Did you shop online and/or in person?
How did you feel after you made the purchase?

b. Rocking Your No Buy

Now that you’ve identified your past behavior and triggers, you can better understand HOW to rock your No Buy! In addition to that, there are some universal tips to help you along your journey. Here’s how to have a successful No Buy!

First, follow the steps I lay out for a No-Buy, Replacement-Only strategy, which can (and should) be applied to any No Buy:

Take stock. Take stock of what you own. This could mean thoughtfully going through your closet and drawers, or creating a detailed inventory of your makeup and skincare. You need to know what you have in order to determine what you don’t need to buy! Plus, once you see just how much you already own, you may feel even MORE inspired to shop less.
Set your parameters. Create the rules for your No Buy using page 2 of of the No-Buy, Replacement-Only Worksheet, located in the Resource Library and in the Appendix of the No Buy Workbook, which you can get by clicking here. Now that you know what you already have, you can decide what you will absolutely NOT buy, and what you will replace only when necessary. Consider placing more items in the NO-BUY category than the REPLACEMENT-ONLY category.
Eliminate temptation. Proactively any eliminate temptation to break your No-Buy. Know your triggers ahead of time, so you can work to eliminate them, and are better prepared to face them in the future. More on this below.
Stay the course. Once you’ve decided to do a No Buy, you will have moments of weakness and possible failure. Even if you veer off course, pick yourself back up and keep going! Consider joining Facebook groups or subreddits with like-minded individuals on the same path. Stay inspired.

Click Here to Get The No Buy Workbook FREE!

Second, utilize these ADDITIONAL tactics to truly rock your No Buy challenge. Think about the triggers you laid out above, as well as all the reasons why you want to complete a No Buy in the first place. While some of this MIGHT seem duplicative, I am repeating it here to underline its importance:

Unsubscribe from ALL retail emails.
- Check out the Unsubscribe Flowchart in the Resource Library for more inspiration on this.
Unfollow ALL influencers on social media, including (and especially) YouTube.
Take a break from Instagram.
- If you feel you absolutely cannot do this, try to clean out your Explore Feed, at the very least.
Remove any saved credit card information from your computer, individual websites, Apple Pay, PayPal, etc.
- If you mostly shop in person, consider leaving your credit cards at home, and only bringing budgeted cash when you go out.
Whenever you DO feel the urge to shop:
- Ask yourself if you are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired.
  - Complete the H.A.L.T. Worksheet in the Resource Library for more help with this.
- Earmark the amount of money you would have spent for your savings account. So if you wanted to buy a $20 lipstick, transfer $20 to savings.
- Talk yourself out of the items you want to buy, by shooting them down, one by one.
  - Complete the Stop-Shopping Worksheet in the Resource Library for more help with this.
- Remember your WHY!

Conclusion

Having a successful No Buy challenge is all about understanding yourself. Your motivations, inspiration, habits, pitfalls, and temptations. Ultimately, your journey to stop spending and start saving is extremely personal…and it’s a way to get to know yourself.

So often, our shopping habits take us outside of ourselves. A successful No Buy is all about reconnecting with our inner lives, hopes and dreams, and staying true to the goals we set for ourselves. I hope you’ve found these tips and resources helpful. Let me know how it goes. 🙂