I quit over consuming after I created a challenge for myself that totally transformed my buying habits.
Before I always thought I was “bad with money”. And I don’t want to take ownership of that title anymore. I am responsible for how I steward my finances.
This is not something that I understood early in my marriage.
I felt like I needed to have the perfectly styled home.
I obsessed over home details.
I thrifted constantly looking for “the deal”.
I had a throw pillow obsession.
I was stuck in this cycle of needing to add to our life.
If you find yourself in this cycle that you are constantly on the hunt for the best deals and have to buy “xyz” item because it would be perfect in XYZ place it’s not uncommon. I had been there too, clearly. I was over-consuming.
T0 over consume its the action or fact of consuming something to excess. You can think of this as overconsumption of calories, or material goods.
It’s really about not having a deep understanding of why you are buying something in our day age. It’s so easy to have your credit card hooked up to your phone or your computer or you don’t actually have to have the card in your hand to click buy. There is such a, lack of intentionality behind buying decisions. This was the case for me when I was newly postpartum for the first time I just kept feeling like these new clothes that I was buying would make me feel better.
Things I bought or thought I needed to be buying weren’t actually adding value to my life.
It is a human condition to want what we cannot have. You get on this hamster wheel of buying, buying, buying.
It got to a point where my thrifting habit needed to stop if we were going to buy a house or make any kind of financial gains.
AS women we are able to naturally multiply. if you give us groceries we will make a meal, if you give us a house we would make it a home. It is such a beautiful thing.
My problem though is I kept yearning for more, I fell into this comparison trap of seeing how other people lived their life that I couldn’t see how I wanted to live mine. It was all subconscious. it was hard for me to stop consuming. it was hard for me to get my finances in order. I still feel like I need to fight this battle with over consumption in this modern world. It has become so easy to buy in one click and marketers are smart they want us to buy in one click. They’ve taken the whole thought process out of buying. why do you think that most people just pay with the credit card?
So how did I change it?
Well it all started when my husband actually challenged me to keep my spending under $1000 a month.
To give you some context I typically bought the consumables for our family like groceries, clothes etc, and I was in charge of the electric bill.
I had such a hard time with this.
Because for whatever reason I couldn’t get this budget to work for me until after a hard conversation it hit me like a ton of bricks that I needed to be an active participant in our long term financial picture. I didn’t understand that our long-term financial goals will be achieved in your everyday moments and buying decisions. I apologized to my husband for not really understanding our long-term financial goals. As I am not the best forward thinker. I’m not even a past thinker. I’m one of those people that focuses on the now and I don’t plan too far in advance.
At the end of 2022, I was reflecting over the year and I decided I needed to change this. Spending $1000 a month needed to happen if we are going to get anywhere in life.
So I created a challenge for myself called Make First, Thrift Second, and Buy Third. It’s exactly as it sounds. I would make the item first if it was within my capabilities. Then I would go to the thrift store to see if I could find it. If not as a last option I would buy brand new.
This challenge changed 2 key things.
- First It slowed down my buying process
- Then It gave me a framework to run all my buying decisions out of. Which I didn’t have before.
- Before if I wanted something or needed something I wouldn’t think about it other than in that moment.
Really stopping to consider each item I was willing to spend money made me realize how many times I wanted to buy something because I saw it on some instagram page. I realized I was shopping to keep up with the virtual jones and not aligning my finances with how I wanted to live my life.
This challenge saved us so much money. I was able to dive into different hobbies that I already had the materials for. I started to make my own clothes. Because I wasn’t spending my time looking for the next deal I was able to slow down and dive into an exploration of hobbies. It healed this notion that i need more to be happy. It made me realize that I already had everything I needed.
But don’t get me wrong,It’s hard to not compare yourself to other people. What really needs to happen is for you to zoom out and view it from a bigger picture. If you were working on saving for a home or for renovations going to the thrift store every weekend will not get you to that goal. I’ve finally learned the hard financial lessons that I needed to learn, and have needed to learn for a long time.
Now to look forward to this year, I’ve felt the need to subtract from our life rather than add to it. I don’t think I would have gotten to this point if I hadn’t been challenged to do so. If you didn’t know I am decluttering 85% of the things we own as we move into a camper and work on our massive home renovation. You can find both of these playlist down below.
What Can you do?
Okay so this is what I did what can you do?
If you have a sewing machine but rarely find the time to use it I would challenge you to do try a “make first” rule when it comes to clothing for you and your kids.
If you aren’t that into sewing I would encourage you to find a way to slow down your buying decisions.
Bring some consciousness back to your purchases.
- Stop buying with one click. If that means taking your credit card off you phone do it. I did for a long time.
- Create a natural stopping point maybe its when you Add something to your cart you leave it for 24 hours. If you are still thinking about the item after a full day you can revisit the reasons why you thought you need it. I still do this. You just have to be careful because you can rationalize any decision to fit your desires.
- Then ask yourself will this item serve me and my family for years to come? OR Will I be decluttering this a year from now?
- If you have an online shopping issue try spending less time on your phone or computer. I’ve shared about my phone boundaries before in this video.
- Embrace the less is more attitude. I was listening to a podcast recently and the women were talking about decluttering kids toys. They said that kids 18 months and younger are just wanting to explore their environment and be close to you. Most kids at these ages are so content with a kitchen spatula and anything that is not a toy. SO you don’t need the latest and greatest for your babies.
So if you find yourself over consuming and on the hamster wheel of buying you have the power to change all of that. I think the first step in combatting over consumption is bringing awareness to it. Then you can create an action plan to adjust your buying habits to fit your needs.
If you are new here I’m Katelyn. I love creating with intention as I share about creating a home, decluttering your life, and savoring your days. I’ve always been someone who craves a creative outlet and this is one of my favorite ways to connect with you and share about my life as a wife, mom, and a creative. Thank you for being here!