My 'buy nothing year': How one woman saved £22,000

Telegraph (UK) ^ | 08 January 2017 | Michelle McGagh

[Lorianne]

I started reading about minimalism on American websites and learnt about Buy Nothing Day, an anti-consumer movement, which falls on Black Friday, and encourages people to spend nothing on the most frenzied shopping day of the year.

It gave me an idea: I could easily manage a Buy Nothing Day but could I manage a Buy Nothing Year?

Spending nothing for a whole year would do wonders for my wallet and stop me from refilling my empty shelves with more possessions. It sounds extreme, but I’d set myself budgets and spending plans in the past and they’d always fallen by the wayside on my next night out.

A full year of no spending seemed the only way of resetting my relationship with money completely.

First, I set myself rules: I’d pay my mortgage, utilities, life insurance, charity donations, and broadband and mobile phone bills (£1,896.76 a month). I would also buy basic toiletries (toothpaste, deodorant, soap and shampoo) and cleaning products (washing powder).

Plus I’d need to eat. But there was no budget for luxuries – that meant no cinema trips, no nights in the pub, no takeaways or restaurant meals, no new clothes, no holidays, no gym memberships, not even a KitKat or cheeky cheesecake from the supermarket. And certainly no flat whites from Pret.

I limited myself to a zero budget for transport, meaning I’d have to cycle everywhere. And I decided that I wouldn’t rely on my husband, friends or family to pay my way – that wasn’t the point. In a show of solidarity, Frank agreed to take part in the food challenge. We set a combined weekly grocery budget of £35 for all meals, and calculated we could make it work if we cooked in batches and took a strict list to Lidl each week.

[Lorianne]

I find this interesting. Although I couldn't do this, I find I buy less and less every year. I really have all that I need. Other than food and a few other consumables, most spending is just recreational, I could do without it at all without much trouble at all.

I wonder though if enough people feel this way as they get older, and the general population is getting older, what are the implications to our consumer driven economy?

[dangerdoc]

But what about ammo? Gotta buy ammo.

[SkyDancer]

No, she didn’t save anything because she didn’t spend it. It’s like you bought something on sale for $500 that usually sold for $700 - did you put that #200 in the bank or did you never really take it out? I saved $40,000 by not buying that car.

[MNDude]

Jeez, everyone who loses a job goes through this. How is this a story?

[Lorianne]

Yeah I didn’t buy a yacht last year.

But seriously, if you spending a lot on things you don’t really need you would save money by not buying so much.

[central_va]

This is too funny. Normal is now news.

[Twinkie]

We can pour our own. One guy on FR has a real setup to
pour his own ammo - several bullets at a time. - Daddy
used to pour his own bullets for his great-grandfather’s
antique Smith & Wesson revolver. He sat at the kitchen
table and melted lead on the stove, poured it a bullet at
a time in a bullet mold. Grandad worked as a lightskeeper
on the Tennessee River. Some rough characters roamed that
river back then; they’d as soon shoot you as look at you,
then pull you off into the bushes to rot after they’d
robbed you.

[central_va]

RU From Minnesota?

[Secret Agent Man]

Tards today think living on a tight budget is equal to ‘no spending’ .

[SkyDancer]

True.

[SkyDancer]

True. And also I’ve lost millions by not playing the Lottery.

[I want the USA back]

Don’t call it buy nothing, because it is not.

[wbill]

Well, it is amazing how much you spend when you don’t have a budget. $5 Starbucks coffees and $10-15 lunches with the guys from work, add up quickly. Way more quickly than vacations, unless you have 5 star itinerary.