Low-Buy Year: How I Cut Spending and Stress

If you’re anything like me, your social media feeds were full of people doing low-buy or no-buy challenges at the beginning of the year. They were sick of overconsuming, so they set rules for themselves to spend much less — or nothing at all — on nonessential expenses.

Scrolling through those videos got me thinking about my spending habits and what goals I wanted to set for myself in 2025: less financial stress, a more thoughtfully curated life and the freedom to plan new experiences without guilt.

So I decided to start my own low-buy experiment in January and asked experts for their perspectives.

The goal of a low-buy or no-buy challenge is to break the cycle of overconsumption by cutting nonessential spending for a set period.

“Social media has made it trendy to do no-buy or low-buy, but to be honest, as a financial expert, over the last 10 years, this is a phenomena that happens every single year,” says Bola Sokunbi, a certified financial education instructor and founder of Clever Girl Finance in Bridgewater, N.J.

With a low-buy challenge, people reflect on what they bought last year and set rules based on their biggest financial struggles, she says. The purpose is to redirect saved money toward meaningful financial goals and move toward underconsumption.

This challenge is about rethinking your spending, particularly if you tend to buy stuff that winds up cluttering your home and stressing you out. To identify purchases to cut back on, locate areas of your home or life that overwhelm you, says Amanda Rakoczy, a Florida-based content creator who says she paid off $50,000 in credit card debt last year.

If you’re tripping over kids’ toys or can’t find storage for unused home decor, for example, those types of expenses are likely worth trimming.

New clothing was becoming a budget breaker for me. My closet felt like a mashup of passing trends, cheap clothes I’d buy online and postpartum necessities that didn’t reflect my personal style.

For Rakoczy, beauty products were her vice. “Before I know it, I have 20 lip glosses by four different brands,” she says.

Rakoczy is now tackling a low-buy challenge with her family.

Practicality and realism are keys to success. “Most people fail the no-buy or low-buy because the rules don’t work for them,” Sokunbi says.

I know not buying any clothes for a whole year isn’t realistic for me. So I am allowing myself to buy secondhand clothes, but only those that are made of better quality than what I already own — think 100% cotton, wool, cashmere, silk, denim.

I did break my rules once to buy a pair of shoes I’d been eyeing for months — but they were deeply discounted, and the purchase didn’t feel impulsive or unplanned. I leaned into the new consumption habits I’m trying to form, and this one purchase didn’t open the floodgates to more spending.

Your rules can also be tailored to the season of life you’re in.

Rakoczy and her husband decided to divide their low-buy year into quarters. Each quarter has different rules that align with seasonal expenses and help the challenge fit better into their lives with two young children.

This quarter they’re focusing on saving money at the grocery store. “We felt like we had a lot of waste, and so we were able to reduce our grocery bill by almost $400 for the month,” she says. They simplified shopping trips, allowing kids to pick one snack for the week rather than many.

There’s another benefit of breaking a longer low-buy challenge into smaller parts: the chance to start fresh. If you slip up, the whole experiment hasn’t failed.

In those early low-buy or no-buy days or weeks, Sokunbi recommends using a spending journal, spreadsheet or smartphone note to track what you buy, or even what you didn’t buy. Noting what triggers your spending can help you understand your habits and make better choices.

I track my no-spend days in my paper calendar and keep a note on my phone where I list all the things I wanted to buy but didn’t. At the end of the month, I tally up the cost to get a sense of what I’ve saved.

Dawn Abernathy, a certified financial planner, suggests using a budgeting app to categorize spending and provide insights.

“It gives you real-time understanding about how you’re spending,” says Abernathy, who’s based in Chesterfield, Missouri. “Then you’re able to adjust your behavior or learn about what you’re really doing — not what you think you’re doing.”

For some, a low-buy or no-buy challenge is a way to achieve financial goals, such as paying off debt or saving for a down payment on a house or car.

A low-buy or no-buy challenge can also be a great way to build an emergency fund, Abernathy says. Having three to six months of necessary expenses can offer financial security and a sense of control, she says.

Reducing consumption can also decrease your financial stress.

“I was worried about another emergency happening, or another layoff happening, or something was going to happen and destroy this house of cards that I felt like I lived in,” Rakoczy says.

But things feel different now. “I am buying things to live a life that I want to live. I feel like I’m in charge and back in the driver’s seat,” she says.

The challenge has also improved her marriage, adding more accountability and teamwork, she says. Her kids are catching on, too. Her son asked for a family trip instead of a birthday party with presents. It feels like a culture shift in their family.

Focusing on your “why” can be the motivation you need to stick to your goals, Abernathy says.

“It can be really easy to say, ‘Oh, I want to save for the future.’ But when you have a cause behind why you’re doing it, then it has a greater meaning to you, and then it makes it much easier to implement,” she says.

My “why” becomes clearer every day. I have less financial stress and have easily managed a few unexpected costs that would have tripped me up before.