The Year of No Shopping: What I Learned

A little over a year ago I decided that 2018 would be The Year of No Shopping. The decision was inspired by a NY Times article by Anne Patchett, who did the same thing in 2017, inspired partly by a friend who'd done it years ago and partly by the gross, crazy-making-ness of our current world.

"After traveling for much of the previous year, she had decided she had enough stuff, or too much stuff. She made a pledge that for 12 months she wouldn’t buy shoes, clothes, purses or jewelry.

...

At the end of 2016, our country had swung in the direction of gold leaf, an ecstatic celebration of unfeeling billionaire-dom that kept me up at night. I couldn’t settle down to read or write, and in my anxiety I found myself mindlessly scrolling through two particular shopping websites, numbing my fears with pictures of shoes, clothes, purses and jewelry. I was trying to distract myself, but the distraction left me feeling worse, the way a late night in a bar smoking Winstons and drinking gin leaves you feeling worse. The unspoken question of shopping is 'What do I need?' What I needed was less."

Now, the idea wasn't to completely 100% stop purchasing any and all things; it was more about breaking a few particularly bad habits. For me, the pathology wasn't purses and jewelry but clothes and shoes were definitely in the mix, and I also found myself purchasing wine, new books, & gadgets at a rate that was influenced less by what I actually needed and more by anxiety, shiny thing syndrome, and craaaaaazy deals. Like, I wasn't trying to become a monk or some kind of extreme minimaist living in a plain white room with two chairs, ten books, and a bowl, but I was starting to become super weighed down by all the STUFF in my life that felt like it wasn't necessarily earning its psychological keep.

So the rules were:

The Year of No Shopping: Quarter 2/3 Update

I haven't done one of these in a while, so here's a quick update.

If you missed it, the original "Year of No Shopping" post is here. So, how have I been doing with the rules I set for myself around shopping? Let us take stock.

• No wine shopping/buying beyond what I'm already committed to through clubs. If you recall, part of the reason for the "no buying of wine beyond club commitments" rule was that all of our wine (we are talking maybe ~1500 bottles) had been in storage and I had lost track of exactly what I had and what would be ready to drink exactly when.

  Now before you ask, yes, there is a database (we outgrew spreadsheets long ago), but from about mid-2017 on I got really lazy about a) entering everything new I bought and b) marking bottles as drunk when we drank them. So I knew that there was a lot unaccounted for. And I didn't, for example, want to buy new bottles that would be ready to drink around say 2021 and then find out Oops! We already have more than we'll possibly be able to drink that will be ready that year!

  
  No shelves in the cellar yet so it's just stacks of case boxes which SHOCKING! is not the easiest way to organize.

  So, when the house was done and we finally got everything back out of storage, I was able to go through it and pull out wine that should have been drunk either in 2017 or 2018. (It was a lot. Oops.)

The Year of No Shopping: Quarter 1

ICYMI, I decided that 2018 would be my Year of No Shopping. Recall that 'no shopping' does not mean 'no spending' or 'no buying things' or even 'no buying things unless 100% necessary'; for me this year, 'no shopping' means:

• No wine shopping/buying beyond what I'm already committed to through clubs.
• No new running clothes or shoes (barring maybe a Boston souvenir or two...maybe), except for probably some new sports bras which are truly needed.
• No new clothes/accessories shopping via idleness/anxiety, crushing on something for no new good reason, or feeling like I need something new for a particular occasion.
• No new books unless I *actually*, *literally* have nothing to read that I'm excited about.
• No 'gadgets' unless it's something we legitimately need. (ie, no seeing an online ad for some handy gadget & going "Ooh! I could use that!" [add to cart])
• No window shopping since it pretty much involves all the same bad habits, just without spending money.

I promised to do a little update once I was a few months in, so, here you go!

The Year of No Shopping

In general I'm not big on resolutions or setting new goals just because I have a new calendar, but a month or so ago I read this article by Ann Patchett and immediately went, "OMG. She is me and I am her. I need to do this."

The article is about how in February 2009 she learned over lunch that a friend had made 2008 her "no shopping" year.

"After traveling for much of the previous year, she had decided she had enough stuff, or too much stuff. She made a pledge that for 12 months she wouldn’t buy shoes, clothes, purses or jewelry.

...

At the end of 2016, our country had swung in the direction of gold leaf, an ecstatic celebration of unfeeling billionaire-dom that kept me up at night. I couldn’t settle down to read or write, and in my anxiety I found myself mindlessly scrolling through two particular shopping websites, numbing my fears with pictures of shoes, clothes, purses and jewelry. I was trying to distract myself, but the distraction left me feeling worse, the way a late night in a bar smoking Winstons and drinking gin leaves you feeling worse. The unspoken question of shopping is 'What do I need?' What I needed was less."

There was so much recognition for me in those words. Now, I would not in any way describe myself as a compulsive shopper or hoarder. I have never put myself in financial danger through frivolous spending. But distracting myself from anxieties about the world by going, "Let me just see what cute dresses are on sale at Nordstrom" or "Perhaps there is a comfy running top I need at Athleta, better check"? Spotting something randomly that I didn't even know existed until that moment and suddenly feeling like I NEEEED it? Getting sucked into good deal after clearance item after massive discount code because "How can I afford NOT to buy it???" Yeah; that all needs to stop.

So, 2018, in addition to the Year of Racing All The Things, you are now the Year of No Shopping.