Two Low-Buy Guidelines from Someone Who Writes

Since I wrote, “What is Enough?,” I’ve reduced my discretionary spending and focused on using tools that I already own. It has not been easy. But the challenge of mindful spending is part of the fun.

It has been over ninety days since I recommitted to my low spend challenge. In that time, I have not bought an electronic tablet, paper notebook, pen, or pencil, all of which are tempting for me, since taking notes is something I do for professional and personal aspects of my life. I have enough note-taking tools to last me for a long while, certainly for longer than a year. Even with that basic understanding, I have struggled for the past few months to avoid purchasing new products. For the next quarter of this year, my goal is to struggle a little less, and, with two simple guidelines, here’s how.

1. Stop Window Shopping (Especially Online)

A low-buy lifestyle is not well aligned with window shopping, even if the intention is not to buy. This is probably obvious to most people, but for the way that I think, I have had to make it explicit. While in March my daily habit was to not make any unnecessary purchases, my April habit is to not shop for non-essentials.

My habit tracker for April in my chronicling notebook for the year.

Over the next month, I am upping the ante by not placing myself in situations that encourage buying behavior. I will not spend time on in-person or online browsing, and online shopping is particularly pernicious, as the advertisements there are pervasive.

A doodle expressing my frustrations with spending time on window shopping earlier this year.

2. Avoid Commercial Media

I am convinced that many of the accounts on social media are not real, or otherwise their purpose is just to sell products as a form of covert advertising. This is not to say that all engagement on social media is orchestrated, but much of it seems to be commercial.

Commercial media, to me, is any page that is dedicated to a store or specific product. If the name of a page is a specfic brand, it’s not a place where I want to spend my time. If the page praises “hauls” and seemingly unnecessary spending, I will skip it.

I am avoiding subreddits that showcase purchases instead of workflows. In practice, this means I’m directing my attention toward writing craft techniques and daily systems (in books, podcasts, blogs, subreddits) and avoiding product reviews. I’m much more interested in how people do what they do than what they have.

Moving Forward with Clear Intentions

A habit that I am working to build is to spend more of my time on high quality activities (running faster, writing well, reading deeply, sketching often) that do not depend on shopping. I want to use the tools that I own instead of searching for new ones.

Something changes when we continue to use our (writing) tools instead of buying new ones—we learn more about the tools and, most importantly, about ourselves. At least, this has been true for me.

Since I’ve committed to using my analog notebooks, I’ve learned my note-taking style, like the importance of columns, margin notes, and summaries. I’ve learned that some ideas are better meditated on before shared, and that type of meditation does not always happen on a regular schedule. Through my notes, regardless of the medium, analog or digital, I’ve seen my perspectives shift over time and circumstance.

When we are constantly shifting our tools, we may lose a bit of that personal history in the transitions. If we want to visualize change, our personal history is important. We need see the trajectory.

To be clear, I am not writing this to say that this low-buy challenge is no longer a challenge for me. This is not say that I’m cured of spending urges or immune to marketing campaigns or that I will never buy something needless again. Because my shopping tendencies have been built over decades, it may take just as long to break them down, and I’m excited about this challenge, this next quarter of the year, and this next stage of my life.

At the heart of it, a low-buy lifestyle is about minimalism, mindfulness, and intentionality. For me, it also about redefining joy.