At the end of last year I started to become intrigued by people who didn’t buy stuff. Beauty products or clothes or sausages or fishing rods. Anything. They were trying to save money usually. Sometimes it was a challenge, other times an ethical stance.
Michelle McGagh from the UK didn’t buy ANYTHING for a whole year and she saved $37,000. She limited herself to spending money on the essentials (bills, broadband, mortgage etc) and when her moisturiser ran out she didn’t even replace it.
I was looking down the barrel of a fiscally tight 2017 (three kids, mortgage, school fees, orthodontist, bills, groceries, bras, shoes, toilet paper, mobile phone chargers … everything). I was getting stressed by it.
I had also started questioning consumerism. I wasn’t anti consuming, I was beginning to feel as though my purchasing of stuff was contributing to something I wasn’t proud of. I’d seen the documentaries. The world was being pockmarked by piles of rubbish that would not degrade until 3129 and children were working in unsafe factories making rich people’s bargain t-shirts.
So I made a deal with myself. Don’t buy any clothes for a year. Try to pay off your credit card. Fun times. Yay!
In November last year I wrote down on a rogue notepad on my tallboy that I would not buy any clothing, footwear, accessories or fashion of any sort for a year. ONE WHOLE YEAR.
(I did make a deal with myself where I could buy underwear and running shoes if mine wore out because exercise is important to me, but my running shoes are still going strong).
Michelle McGagh didn’t buy ANYTHING for a year.