The January algorithms got me: I have watched so many videos about people planning for a no-buy or low-buy year in 2024. This entails only buying what you absolutely need and keeping any excess to a minimum. Grace Nevitt on YouTube suggests making green light, yellow light and red light lists to divide up what you are required to buy in order to survive, what you are allowed to buy and what you shouldn’t be buying and/or buying more of.
Given the green light are things like bills, groceries, hygiene and cleaning products, along with whatever needs to be replaced. The yellow light list is for going out to dinner with friends, checking out museums and engaging in other forms of amusement that are more experiences than material things. The red light list consists of what you will not be buying this year. For me, this means I’m enforcing a one-in-one-out policy on books and records, and I don’t want to buy any subscriptions this year. It’s definitely time for me to get a library card! The whole process of making these lists is meant to give you pause before choosing to purchase something and bring it into your home where it will eventually just take up space unless you give it purpose.
I also watched some videos on Swedish death cleaning, but I’ll leave death out of it for now!
As someone who enjoys physical media, I grew up wanting to hang onto every good book I had ever read and have all my favorite albums on vinyl. But as I get older and schlep my entire life from place to place every few years, I want my material things to be imbued with more intention. I don’t need to have every record by Ty Segall on vinyl—the man is beyond prolific and shows no signs of stopping! Instead, I can just have my favorites on hand that bring me the most joy. In the past I was quite the voracious reader, consuming more than 50 books per year. But in recent years I have slowed down to less than half that, and I recently discovered that I have the same number of books left to read on my shelves as I read in 2023—I truly don’t need any more books this year!
Upon declaring that I was in a no-buy year, I promptly fixed a four-year dilemma and bought myself a new desk. Technically, I have never had a proper desk since I moved out on my own. I had a vanity that eventually became my desk when I started working from home during the pandemic. Bless my dad for helping me put it together—because it was stressful for everyone involved—but the single drawer has never pulled out easily, and the top has always been such a diva to clean. I’m willing to finally part with it to have something functional with proper storage for an adult’s number of papers and problems!
While working on my green light list, I noted other things that I need to replace this year. I could really use a new kitchen pot and pan, but I have something in mind that will do the job of both those vessels and more. Another idea I picked up from these videos is to choose the option that brings the most value into your home. If there’s a gadget that can do more than the object it’s replacing, it will add more functionality and take up less space. I love organizing and decluttering, so this is my bread and butter. One day I will reach the final-boss level of efficiency, and I’ll spend my entire life getting there if I have to!
Overall, buying less in 2024 means that I will have more money to gain momentum on all my goals. Instead of causing dread, enforcing a no-buy year makes me excited to see what my money will do this year. Buying less is also better for the environment, so this ties into my sustainable investing strategy. Instead of having three or four backup toothpastes, I only want to buy toothpaste when I’m close to running out of it to avoid hoarding. I also don’t want to spend more time thinking about what I don’t have, feeding into a scarcity mindset. Focusing on using what I already have and still buying myself a little treat here and there is the goal. I’m choosing to limit any large/replacement purchases to once per quarter. My new desk was my first-quarter qualifier, and the amount of happiness it has already brought me solidifies that I made the right choice.
Do you think you would be able to do a no-buy year? What would be on your red light list? Let me know in the comments below!
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