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Here is a little guide about buying nothing.
- Practice reverse snobbery. Express contempt for those who buy things mindlessly.
- Go window shopping, but do not buy. Try on a bunch of sweaters. Make a stack of stuff you want, but leave without buying.
- Get satisfaction from money saved, not money spent.
- Become a scrounger. Useful stuff is everywhere once you start looking. Take pride in being a recycler.
- Look for barter opportunities.
- Consider having a “buy nothing Christmas” (or other holiday).
Some comments: While shopping without buying can be immensely satisfying, it’s also very dangerous. I’ve never practiced this art intentionally, but have done so many times inadvertently since developing my frugal habits. My weakness is books. Many times I’ve stopped by a book store, accumulated a pile, and then realized that I don’t need to purchase a single thing. This is a Good Thing. However, I’m not sure I’d ever allow myself to intentionally attempt this; it sounds like a recipe for failure.
Two methods that I do like are “get satisfaction from money saved” and “become a scrounger”. Both are easy. Both of fulfilling. I find it particularly enjoyable to scrounge an old piece of wood, for example, and convert it into a shelf. Or to build a wardrobe from cheap clothing. (On the other hand, I’m not exactly a fashionista.)
This article is about Choices, Frugality Tuesday, 2nd May 2006 (by J.D. Roth)
May 3rd, 2006 at 8:18 am
You realize, of course, that the more you master the first 3 suggestions, the more it makes sense to have a credit card that pays you back for the purchases you *do* make. But even then, I don’t really agree with the first 2 suggestions.
Reverse snobbery doesn’t do it for me. If somebody buys something nice, more power to them. I guess I’m not wired for envy, at least not for material goods. I think the fact that I know that I can afford to buy stuff, but make a conscious choice not to buy it, is satisfying enough for me.
Frankly, I don’t get the “shopping without buying” concept. I scour the Sunday newspaper supplements every week. That’s pretty much my equivalent of shopping without buying. If I see something on sale that I was going to buy anyway, I write it down. Then I go buy it, knowing that I’ve got a good deal. Then I go home, happy and satisfied that I got a good deal. Buying something I didn’t plan do buy only spoils the deal. I stock up on consumables when it’s cheap, then don’t think about it until I start to run low. Then I look at Sunday ads for a few weeks until I see a sale that I like. Note that I don’t stock up on tech stuff (RAM, blank DVDs, USB flash drives) because that *always* gets cheaper in the long run.
May 3rd, 2006 at 11:25 am
Reverse snobbery doesn’t do it for me.
I think that the point the article tries (and possibly fails) to make is that it’s easy to fall into the trap that “other people have X, and so I want it too”. Or that sometimes people feel good when they have the latest widget (an XBox 360, say), and it becomes a sort of status thing. One effective way to counter this is to adopt the opposite line of thought: “I don’t have the latest X, and the people who are buying it would be better off saving their money.” I don’t think it’s something that ought to be overtly expressed. Reverse snobbery is just as lame as real snobbery.
As for “shopping without buying”: I don’t take a newspaper, so don’t have the luxury of browsing the ads, which is probably a good thing. As you say, it’s fine to be satisfied with a deal, as long as it’s a purchase that you needed to make anyhow.
Have you ever read Andrew Tobias’ thing about stocking up on toilet paper? Funny stuff, but he makes a good point.
May 6th, 2006 at 3:28 pm
[...] Earlier this week I posted an entry about how to buy nothing. At his wonderful 43 Folders, Merlin Mann has shared his technique for fending off mindless purchases. I have a […] “buy me stuff” capture device, but more for the purpose of outgassing my brain’s frequently mindless consumer pollution. My file is called “crap I just don’t need.txt,” and I have fended off many ridiculous purchases just by parking the desired item there. Just viewing the long list of previous entries is an embarrassing exercise in aversion therapy. Not to say this always ensures a non-purchase — consumer lust has a permanent apartment in my heart — but at least it provides a satisfying speed bump on the race to the checkout screen. [...]
May 18th, 2006 at 8:49 am
Get satisfaction from money saved, not money spent.
Of course it is. But how do you learn to do this? (Heh, this is kind of like saying “Buy low, sell high” as the key to successful investing. Or plastics.)
How do you change a mindset? I guess once the savings account actually reaches a useful size, the hoarding compulsion and greed will kick in. “No, I don’t want to go to Starbucks! I’ll take that Frappuccino and put in savings. mineminemineminemineallmine.”
No snark intended, J.D. You are doing a great job on this site and I really appreciate the variety of topics you put up. Two enthusiastic thumbs up!
August 10th, 2007 at 9:01 am
In response to luneray… I don’t how that mindset changes, but I know it has for me.
I was a born packrat, had to have “my stuff” all the time. I stored it, stacked it, hid it, you name it. Now, after 6 years of moving (Navy husband), and continuous reading of decluttering sites (FLYlady.net especially) and watching CleanSweep… it’s like a magic switch has been flipped in my brain. I pride myself in how little I can have or use. I see “the least” as a challenge. Simplification has become a goal in itself, not just “control the clutter” or “find somewhere to put stuff”. I’m not very eloquent, I know, but really the mental shift is huge.
Keep trying, keep focussing on the effort, and somewhere along the way the shift will come.
December 21st, 2008 at 11:08 pm
The ‘Go window shopping but don’t buy’ concept seemed a little far-fetched at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that it is actually something I do. Particularly while shopping for clothes, accessories or books, while browsing through the store I tend to pick up a lot of stuff that initially catches my eye, but just when I’m about to check out, I go over all of it, and pretty surprisingly, I can easily put back a majority of the stuff. I think an even better practice would be to zero-in on stuff you want to buy, and then come back the next day or later and actually buy it. The longer the gap between the selection and the actual purchase, the wiser would be the decision.
January 25th, 2010 at 6:51 pm
I find myself doing number one all the time, though not intentionally. I have nothing against people buying things if they can afford it, but the more I talk to friends and family about finances, the more I learn that they’re spending money unwisely.
One thing that I find myself snobbing about a lot is books. I read so many personal finance Web sites where the person has a book addiction. It’s fine when they’re buying books used and selling them after their read to make a profit, but if you’re not doing that, why not use your local library? If my library doesn’t have one book I want to read, I can always use interlibrary loan. If I cannot do either of those things, I’ll request that the library get the book and read a different book in the meantime. There’s just no excuse to collect new books.