5 Mental Shifts that Occur When Doing a Six Month Low-Buy
Reflecting on the halfway point of a year and realizing it has zero to do with what I’m not buying
I knew the sound before I saw it. I was on my way to work, thinking of how good the overtime was going to look on my paycheck. I changed lanes and heard a noise that sounded like a car crash.
It turns out I hit a huge screw-like nail that flattened my tire. Now I was going to be late for work — perhaps hours late, and the coveted overtime was as good as gone. Yet I felt thankful.
During a normal year, I would have completely panicked. The idea of having to shell out $700 for 4 new tires — from where I had no idea — would have left me panicking and unable to think clearly.
This isn’t a normal year for me, however. It’s my year of less.
On December 4th, 2020 — I made myself and my husband a promise. I would pay off my credit card debt ($5,100 in total), save up $1,000 as a beginner emergency fund (adding extra to it throughout the year if I still had time), and save $1,000 for car repairs (which I later increased to $1600).
I was going to stop shopping for a while. To use what I had and buy only what was on my needs side of the list. I was also going to try to make extra money on the side by working overtime and doing other small tasks.
These two decisions have allowed me to save $500 in the emergency fund, pay $612 for 4 new tires and labor, and paid off the entire $5,100 balance on the card.
I’ve made another promise, I’m not going back there. To the point of no emergency fund and credit card debt.
However, what surprised me in this quest for change isn’t what I expected it to be. It went well below the surface. I thought that I was going to be changed most by actually not having a payment and the ability to breathe easier (which I was) when something out of the expected happened.
My biggest goal was to pay off the debt. However, what really changed was more than just not shopping and goes beyond the money.
Here are the 5 mental shifts that I’ve noticed throughout the past six months:
Increased Creativity
I’ve learned that some things just are not that difficult to fix if broken. I’m learning how to stitch up pants that have holes in them due to seams coming apart.
I’ve dived more into mixing and matching my wardrobe this year than just putting the same outfits together over and over again.
I’m also learning how to meal plan around ingredients I already have instead of constantly heading to the grocery store to add more.
Less Anxiety
When I blew the tire, I could have panicked. In many past years, I would have panicked. I would have had nothing in savings.
It would have been a gut punch thinking of putting it on a card I didn’t have the means to pay off at the end of the month.
Emergencies are essential to save for when trying to get out of debt or build savings. One small thing that goes wrong could blow your entire budget.
When you have some runway or coverage, you sleep better at night. You’re able to budget for goals more effectively knowing that you are covered. You also feel less anxious if something not planned happens. You know that you can still make it through the next little while.
Competition Increases
You get competitive — with yourself. If your goal is to pay off debt, you set realistic and stretch goals for when the money will be paid off.
You do everything you can think of, both cutting back and earning extra income to be able to reach the stretch goal. You also realize that you want to hit it even sooner if possible. You know your numbers, keep crunching them and compete to exceed the goal.
Contentment Increases
You begin to see what you have with new eyes. Perhaps the biggest example in my life was my notebook stash. I’ve had a small addiction for years to picking up cute, inexpensive notebooks. Size didn’t matter.
I worried before starting the year of less about not having enough notebooks to withstand the year. I recently filled up a small box with all of them and probably have enough to last the next two years.
Less Judgment
It’s been so easy most of my adult consumer life to look at other people through the lens of “how do you spend x on y?” especially when applied to things that I personally didn’t find appealing. For example, I wondered how people could budget $400 a month toward makeup.
The journey has reminded me that I have my own vices. When I did the last-minute stock-pile I spent $100 on makeup. I spent a total of $30 on notebooks and I spent $30 on books. It’s easy to find a category that you value and spend money there.
It also made me realize how easy it is to judge someone for being too cheap. I was raised frugally in my younger childhood. However, when my mother became a single parent when I was in 7th grade, I began to get more spoiled. New closet every couple of months, big events out, and getting almost everything I wanted plus for my birthday or Christmas.
This lead to financial patterns that hurt a lot more in the long run than they helped. It was when I stopped going out regularly and cut down on spending, that I realized how much contentment avoiding these things can bring.
Not everyone is frugal by choice, and not everyone stays home all the time out of choice. I realize that. There’s also an element of gratitude that this is only a season for me.
It’s also taught me how to enjoy quiet nights and get back into frugal things like enjoying a potluck at home instead of going to an expensive restaurant, playing board games instead of going to a metal show, and trading day trips for more time at home spending quality time with my family.
Conclusion
Many times, a year-long challenge has lessons that we don’t anticipate. They often go beyond the surface goal that we have set into situations and lessons we don’t predict. They expose more and go deeper than what we might think is possible. The key is to embrace the lessons each challenge has to offer.
