My 10 Low Buy Year Rules for 2021 | Save Money | Stop Shopping

If you see my video about my no spend month, you know that it was a really powerful month, and it made me realize that I don’t need a lot of stuff. 

But doing it for a whole year is not possible for me. It would be more a punishment for me than anything else. So I’ve decided to do a low-buy year. 

In my video about goals for 2021, I said that I have a big financial goal, and I don’t know where I will find the money (legally). So the best way to save a lot of money is to decrease your spending, which doesn’t bring you joy. 

So what is a low buy year. During a whole year, you decided to spend only on things that bring you joy or which are really necessary like groceries, clothes if you have to replace a piece and so on. 

If you want to start a low buy or a no spend month or year, you have to know why you want to do it. 

For me, my why: I spent too much money on things that I declutter right now during my 30-day Minimalism game! So it’s a waste of money. Last year I reached my financial goal, but I could do so much more. 

So now that my financial goal is even more significant with the same salary, I have to cut off my spendings, especially on things that I don’t need.

So here are my 10 Low Buy Year Rules :

No spending on makeup, cream, or perfume

Except if I don’t have mascara or eyeliner anymore. But with my job I have a lot of cream and I already too many perfumes (I think that I have enough perfume for 2 or 3 years). 

Actually, cream and make up is not something that brings me joy. I’m not a big fan of makeup, and I use the bare minimum not to scare everybody in the street 🙂 

No technology upgrade

For now, my phone and my computer are doing their work, and I have an old Fitbit watch that works really fine too, so I don’t need to purchase anything else. 

If something is broken, I will purchase another one. But if it’s not the case, I won’t change to upgrade my phone or my computer.

Just one take out per month

It’s something that we agree with my boyfriend. We spent too much money on take out last year (and not only to support our local restaurants ;)). Every month, we spent hundreds of dollars on fast food, not at all healthy food, and every time we ordered take out, we feel terrible in our body.  So because it will be too difficult just to stop order take-outs, we have decided to call only once a month. 

No clothes except for replacement or if I lose weight

Ok, it will be the most difficult for me. But it will motivate me to lose weight. In the last few months, I only shop for clothes second hand, and I save so much money on really good quality clothes. But now I have everything I need; I don’t need anything else except if I change my size. But it won’t be tomorrow, so I have time 😉 

No home decor

As I mentioned earlier, I do the 30-day minimalism game this month, and I declutter so many things and especially home decor. It feels so good that I don’t want to have clutter in my space right now. The last thing that I bought in 2020 was this blanket that I love, and it’s a replacement for another blanket that is ugly now. 

Meal prep 

I want to be more consistent with meal prep because we saved so much money and healthier. So because we eat every meal at home and we have a tiny fridge, we need to do it twice a week. 

No useless subscriptions

Ok, so 2020 was the year of subscription! Not only the streaming subscriptions but all about gym apps or subscriptions for everything. I was like : Oh it’s only 10 dollars a month and I think it would be very useful for whatever. But after one month, I used the app or the subscription one or two times… So when I tried to put some order in my finance last year, I unsubscribe for so many useless subscriptions. And I saved so much money, it was crazy. So this year, I don’t want to fall into the trap of subscriptions. For my workout, I’ve decided to start with Youtube videos and I will see if it’s necessary to have an app for that. 

No online course

2020 was the year of online courses. It was the beginning of my business so I wanted to know everything that I need to know on social media, online courses, blog posts and so on. And for most of them, it was a waste of money, I have to be honest. 

I purchased about 5 to 6 online courses last year and maybe 2 were really interesting. 

Now that I have all the information, I need to turn this information to fit my lifestyle and what I want from my business. 

 No books until I finish all the books that I own

I bought so many books last year and I didn’t finish most of them. The main reason was because I saw another book that interested me and I switch from the book that I was currently reading to the new book. It’s not because the “old” book wasn’t interesting, it was because it was the excitement of reading something new. So I’ve decided to not buy new books until I finish the ones that I’ve already started. 

Go out with cash

I’m not the kind of person who goes out every evening but when I do it, I like to have a great evening, eat what I really want, drink one or 2 cocktails and so on. It’s something that brings me joy, especially when I’m with my best friend. But because I pay with my credit card, I’m not aware of the amount of money I spend. So I’ve decided for this year to pay my go-outs with cash. I’ll be more aware of my consumption of alcohol, for example. 

Ok guys, tell me in the comments below if you’re interested in doing a low buy year, and if the answer is yes what are your rules 😉