Retailers know how to crack into your savings. They appeal to your emotions and lure you to what they want you to buy.
Brick-and-mortar stores have used this simple trick for ages, arraying impulse buys near checkout lanes. Digital businesses do it too, with their homepages and promos.
People are apparently fed up with all this easy selling. No Buy July, a social media trend, is about cutting back on frivolous or excessive spending.
– Some people buy less of what they typically spend discretionary cash on. A few common examples include clothing, restaurant meals and on-the-go coffee.
– Other No Buyers are more aggressive. They don’t make any non-essential purchases for the month.
– How much you lean into the concept is totally up to you. The more fun you have with it or satisfaction you get from it, the less onerous it feels.
A great way to bid July adieu is with money saved, of course. But it’s more fruitful — even ideal — to end the month with a healthier spending imprint. Otherwise, you’ll just yo-yo and spend excessively the rest of the year, kinda like crash dieting’s boomerang.
Want to give No Buy July a try? Here’s how to dip your toe in the (oh-so-warm July) water — and then meet the smart-spending challenge all year long.
No Buy Challenge Strategies
1. Get a lay of your land
Start by taking stock of what you spend your discretionary cash on and whether you actually have discretionary cash to spend. Ugh, I know: budgeting. But if you have a true global view of your finances, it’ll be easier and more rewarding to proceed.
Are you logging debt, and does it keep growing? If so, No Buy July is a good place to start because it can enable habits that keep your spending aligned with your means and rewire your relationship with money.
On the other other hand, if you’re someone who barely splurges, you don’t need to read this article. In fact, you might want to treat yourself to Yes Buy July (more on that in #7).
2. Beware of big purchases
Say hello to the endowment effect, which makes you unlikely to return your big splurge even if you don’t really want or need it. Why? Once you buy it you feel a sense of ownership.
The endowment effect also causes you to assign a higher value to something you own than to the same exact item if you don’t own it. Crazy, right? In the same vein, we value things we own more than someone else would value them.
Put another way: Buying can be a trap. So buy wisely — and during No Buy July, maybe not at all.
3. Reject free trials
Free trials are insidious, thanks to the endowment effect.
Once you start a trial or try-to-buy for a new thingamajig, unless you hate what you’re newly exploring, you’ll feel like it’s already yours and it’ll take willpower to part with it.
4. Embrace the outdoors
For much of the nation, summer is the time to get outside and do stuff that doesn’t cost much: swim, walk, hike, picnic.
If you’re in the soupy south or scorched Southwest, water activities and walking might be all that appeal. But in cooler and drier climates, particularly up north, you can do tons of things outside in July.
That includes sitting, which costs nothing and can be incredibly relaxing. But you also can head outside for free to read, listen to music, look at wildlife or talk to friends.
Use summer’s example to broaden on-the-cheap outdoor possibilities the rest of the year.
5. Consider the broad upside to your actions
Instead of looking at No Buy as deprivation, recast it as a gift to the planet.
Your lack of spending cuts back on all the resources that would go into manufacturing whatever it is you’d typically buy, plus whatever resources it takes to ship it to you or the store.
If you’re cutting back on travel, your carbon footprint goes down.
6. Find support or get inspired
No Buy is a social media creation, so entertain yourself by watching some of its Tik Tok and Instagram posts (there are millions upon millions), or hop on the no-buy reddit community.
Use the posts and communities to gain a shared sense of purpose for what you’re doing. Or, for the thrill of it, try to outdo what you see others do.
If you’re the type who needs a personal connection to stay on track, hop on No Buy July with someone you know. Hold each other accountable.
7. Tally your wins
A friend, whose family is extremely thrifty, once told me his wife rejoices when her receipt shows she saved more money at the grocery store than she spent.
I’m a savvy shopper and have managed to log discounts as high as 50 percent of my total grocery bill. I have no idea how to get my savings to exceed my spending in a weekly grocery haul. But if I did, it would be a massive win, and one I’d tout too.
In the same spirit, any time you can buy something but don’t, count it as a win. The more you tally, the more empowered you’ll feel, until concerted saving feels as good as continuous buying.
That said, compulsive saving can be unhealthy, insofar as you’re obsessing — just at the other end of the spectrum, even if the other end is better for your wallet. Instead, the hope is that at the end of the month, your No Buy victories will feel good and tip you toward conscious spending all the time.
Mitra Malek writes about well-being. She’s resistant to spending money on anything that isn’t strictly a necessity, but a free Sirius trial hooked her, proving the endowment effect true.
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