The self-imposed rules of a no-buy challenge are simple: participants pledge to stop buying non-essential items, be they unneeded shoes, additional beauty products or other impulse buys for a set amount of time, usually 12 months.

A 35-year-old Brooklyn resident gave up buying new clothes. A 22-year old in San Diego swore off retail therapy at Target. A 26-year old in England banned carbonated drinks from her shopping list.

These three women, who don’t know each other, all started the year resolving to spend money only on necessary purchases, or what is popularly known as engaging in a no-buy challenge. The self-imposed rules of the challenge are simple: participants pledge to stop buying non-essential items, be they unneeded shoes, additional beauty products or other impulse buys for a set amount of time, usually 12 months.

What started several years ago as a blogged-about experiment in budgeting and mindful spending has become a popular trend on social media. A Reddit group where people share their experiences has 51,000 members. The challenge primarily gained popularity on TikTok, where some videos of users seeking to hold themselves accountable get hundreds of thousands of views.

  • @mojo_raisinEnglish
    2•1 month ago

    If you’re doing this because of guilt over climate change: eh probably not relevant or that helpful. That’s just self-imposed austerity measures which only hurts the people while the billionaires and corporations keep polluting.

    Why do you suppose these companies are polluting? It’s to profit from satisfying consumer demand.

    This is like the argument about eating meat being perfectly fine because the animal is already dead. In this situation, if the goal is to reduce animal deaths, the consumer needs to stop playing a part in creating demand.

    We are all perpetuators of the system, blaming all problems on corporations and absolving oneself of blame isn’t going to solve our problems.