My Year of No Shopping. January 2023.
We started the year on the border of Florida and Georgia. We hadn’t visited that part of our family or walked the beach in 3 years.
Being out of my normal routine - it was a nice way to start a year of no shopping. There was a sense of relief. The anticipation was over. We were finally beginning. I removed the Amazon, Target and Facebook (Marketplace) apps from my phone. Add to that, The Baer Minimalist started a '“No Spend January” thread on Instagram. Accountability partners are wildly motivating for me. I joined.
On one lazy afternoon, my husband suggested we stroll around downtown Fernandia Beach. And while I sat in the sun, he and my daughter strolled through a store. They emerged and she made a beeline for me. I know the sense of urgency in her eyes. The sense of purpose. The mission.
This time is was a bunny stuffie.
It was unlike any bunny stuffie she had at home and it was ‘only’ $17.95. I asked how much money she had. After all, I was ready for this. Although it’s illuminating, the human desire to desperately want NEW no matter what. I mean, we just wrapped (pardon the pun) December, the month that contains both her birthday and Christmas. She had shiny new objects all around her. But this bunny was even more new.
So I was ready for this, but I also realized as I watched her beeline - this is going to be hard. It was - what - January 1st? I was going to have to say no a lot this year.
But I said it, calmly, ready for her to beg —
When my brother-in-law, sitting next to me in the sun, told her he’d been meaning to give her $20 for Christmas so why doesn’t he get her the bunny.
Lucky gal.
When we returned home it was my turn. I became fixated on our roller shades. They are simple and minimal - and the white looks great on the inside. Matches the trim.
On the outside - the white sits against a cream stucco house. And every time I walk the dog and return home to find the shade pulled down, it bugs the f outta me.
It’s.so.wrong.
So, I started daydreaming about how to fix it. (Read: I started wondering what to buy to appease my annoyance.)
It was a 2-3 day black hole of searching for crewel fabric and curtains. I wanted the embroidery to not just hang on the inside; I wanted it to face outward too. I wanted our sweet front window to look like it was framing a wall tapestry.
I even messaged some sellers on Etsy. Perhaps I’d just use my 1st mulligan (read our rules here) on expensive drapes.
Let it be known, I still think this is a good idea. I may follow through with it in 2024; hell, it may even be my mulligan later in the year.
But after 3 days, the urgent desire that made me make a beeline to Etsy, it subsided. I favorited the drapes, and went on with my life.
From there, I stopped feeling deprivation and started feeling calm. I started turning the focus to what I already owned. What I could look at already living in my home. I visited my seamstress. I had pants hemmed and I turned a dress into a blouse (would have resold it; loved the sleeves.). Was this shopping? I mean, I spent money paying for her services. I decided it wasn’t. I decided I was working with what I got. (I also was reminded that learning to sew needs to happen.) (I also was reminded that I really love to pay for skills and services that others possess, but that I don’t.)
Life started to get busy. I got a job. I started rolling out a new service for Less is Maura (stay tuned!). I wanted to make our 2022 Annual Heirloom Album by the end of January. (And I did! I don’t mean to toot my own horn [yes, I do], but those systems in my class - they seriously work.)
Instead of scrolling and planning - instead of thinking about an imagined future filled with imagined things - I was living my life.
My daughter came home from school one day with a new desperate desire. One of those awful diaries that is soft on the outside and - wait for it - looks like a stuffie.
She already had one. Hardly used. It was a unicorn. She wanted the one that was a puppy dressed like a frog.
I swear you can’t script this $hit.
She was relentless. So I had her add up her money. This was my no shopping mission, not hers. She came up $4 dollars short. I told her in 4 weeks she’d have enough to buy it. No dice. So I had her do chores to earn the extra cash. Instead of standing on my high horse and saying no no no, I remembered that the whole point we are giving her an allowance is to let her learn how to use it. Use it all on a 2nd diary then have nothing when she stumbles upon the next desperate desire, maybe she’ll learn to pause better than a lecture would. (I’ll keep you posted.)
But it stressed me out. Maybe her urgency reminded me of my own...
In my NYC days, I just didn’t buy stuff. I had one bedroom to fill and the rest of the apartment - even the kitchen - was made up of my roommate's stuff. I set the idea of shopping (even window shopping) aside. I refused to participate. It was too painful. Pinterest started in 2010 and I leaned into that pastime. But early on, it wasn’t a method to collect-all-the-things-I-wanted-on-a-secret-board-to-purchase-at-a-later-date. It was about collecting images of beauty. Style - fashion and interior design - drew me in. Actually, it developed my sense of style because one might argue - should you ever stumble upon old pictures of me - that I had none. I culled through countless images and picked what pleased my eye. I pinned like a mad woman. Recently I’ve returned to this pastime. I find it relaxing, to look at beautiful interiors, exciting street style (in this iteration quilts are also top at my list), with no expectation that there are things in these images that I’m planning to purchase.
But for all my talk of ascending above any thought of shopping, I decided to keep a running list this year of all the things that crossed my path and “made” me want to find my credit card. Let it be known, even when one stops scrolling, avoids Target like the plague, and refuses to seek out things to buy - algorithms have my number. Now, in the past I’d see a lot I wanted, but I didn’t necessarily buy the item. So it’s hard to know how much money I’m really saving. But I’m curious, so I’m tracking. Here are the items from January. It’s humbling, being me.
Protein powder from IG (Perfect Aminos) $85
Online facial cupping course from IG
Solowave Wand $149
Higher Dose infrared sauna blanket $599
Intuitive Daily Stitching Online course
Sewing scissors $20
Quilting class
Epic drapes for front window
How to Make Textile Coiled Baskets online class (Craft a school Oz) $48
Oven mitt kits (Kate Kilmurry weaving kits)
the kit for kids $35
the kit for me $30Grid Patterns Weaving Class from Hello Hydrangea $40
Online acupressure class from Facial Cupping expert $149
Stackers Garment Bag (black) $112
De La Heart Body Tool (lymphatic drainage tool) $32
Plyobox $39
Vilno Nobel Kneeling Chair $250
The book “Finding Form with Fibre by Ruth Woods”
Who wants to sew? Who loves online courses? Who wants to be ‘healthy’ (but still craves diet soda)?
It me.
