How To Stop Wanting To Buy New Things
Updated 2024.10.02
Wondering what to do instead of buying stuff? Read on -
When you’re on the frugalism, simplicity or minimalism journey, there may come a point when you consciously want to stop accumulating new things, yet the desire for new things to buy still is very present.
People in your life may encourage you to buy, you may encourage you to buy, and collective groups (stores, organizations, corporations, advisory boards) may encourage you to buy.
You may not be able to control the people outside of yourself wanting you to buy and have new things, but you can shift your own desires away from buying new things, whether online or in stores.
As you’ll see in this article, by shifting your attention from the want of new, to appreciation of what you have, using what you have, or potentially seeing that wanting as a need to be honored and still honoring that need - you can decrease your want for buying new things.
Below you will find 11 simple tips to stop wanting to buy new things:
1 - Inventory your existing things
Go through all your existing things and see if you already have a like-item to the new thing you want to buy. Sometimes a want for something new, is simply a desire for a solution to which the answer already exists nearby.
Moving room by room, inspect everything you own and write it down on a spreadsheet you can access easily, like Google Sheets, creating a written record of your physical assets. When a desire for a new thing comes up, search your written recorded inventory to see if that thing exists in your possession and “shop your inventory” first.
Challenging yourself to inventory what you have can reduce the want to buy new by giving you the opportunity to use what already is.
2 - Write a gratitude list of 10 things you appreciate
Before you buy, write down 10 things you are happy with having right now. What you are grateful for does not have to be elaborate or expansive, it can be simple things. It can start with being grateful for a tool to write.
Remembering the possibilities present in what you have right now, takes the focus away from the possibilities that exist in what you don’t have. Re-focusing on things you have right now, can evaporate the desire to acquire more from elsewhere, because it reorients your attention to what’s right in front of you.
3 - Create a purchase order chain of command: free, used then new
Sometimes the desire for buying something new is the desire for a solution, which can sometimes be created with something free or pre-owned, potentially given or borrowed.
You may find your solution for free, by looking in your inventory and your local Buy Nothing and Freecycle groups, or pre-owned, through checking your nearest charity shop or community marketplace.
If you change your acquisition process to shopping your own inventory, looking for it free or borrowed, then buying pre-owned, then finally buying new, this gets you out of the habit of always buying new things first.
4 - Put new wants on a purchase order hold list
Resist instant gratification. Make the purchase order hold list a bookmark tab in your search bar or notes. Write down any new thing you want to buy in this spot. Let it sit for a suggested minimum of 24-hours, three-days or up to six months. Ultimately, you get to decide the minimum hold time.
While your wants are on your purchase order hold list, think of ways to fulfill your want to buy with what you have, by borrowing from someone or buying pre-owned. Wait for an opportunity to come up to fulfill the need by being given the item.
This exercise allows fleeting wants their chance to flee, gives you time to think it through, and gives your community a chance to fill your need.
5 - Use up what you have
You originally acquired your current resources so they could fulfill your needs. Allow your things the opportunity to finish doing just that and use them up to the last drop, then buy new.
Even if you can see something will need to be replaced in the future, scrape out the very last, wear out the soles, give the buttons time to fall off and see your thing through the very end of its useful life. This exercise allows you to get the most out of your investment and you still get to buy new, after you finish what you have.
6 - Before you buy new, ask yourself some earnest questions
In our blog, How To Reduce Your Personal Spending, there are 22 questions to identify if you really need to buy something. Pause and ask yourself these questions before hitting that “Buy Now” button.
7 - Check out a few books on mindful spending
Mindful spending is the practice of putting conscious thought into everything you buy. Developing a habit of buying mindfully can reduce the desire to buy new as the reflex answer to all.
Read: 4 Books To Inspire Mindful Spending
8 - Where are you going to put it?
There are some really great new products out there and being developed all the time. Going to look at the great new products at the store can be inspiring. People are really creative, always thinking of new inventions to solve problems in easier, more joyful and beautiful ways. The continual flow and development of new things makes you really appreciate the ingenuity of people.
But, where are you going to put it? Even if you see something truly amazing, an act of pure genius, a huge gift to you and your clan, where is it going to go?
Do you have space right now? Do you have a good spot for it when you bring it home? No, not in your future fantastical, dream-inspired living arrangements; right now. Think about it, come up with a spot in your mind. Is space already full in that desired spot?
If you have nowhere to put it right now, simply appreciate looking at it, bask in its mere existence at the store, feel the joy of it right there in the display, and put it on your purchase order hold list until the other things taking up that space have run their useful course.
9 - Calculate your long-term maintenance costs on it
The short term purchase of a new thing is just the beginning of the cost of an item. If you intend to maintain your new thing, it will incur a long-term maintenance cost.
If you inventory your belongings, you’ll need to inventory this new thing when it enters your collection of material assets, which incurs an administrative cost. If you do bookkeeping, you’ll also need to enter the receipts and account for them in your balance sheet, more administrative costs.
When it breaks down, gets dirty or loses a piece, you’ll need to repair it, remove and dispose of it, replace it, clean it and acquire the supplies to do that. Calculate these costs in your mind or on paper before buying it.
Depending on the object, like a car, pets, plants or beauty products, there may be usage costs to keep it up, so calculate how much those may be.
Given the maintenance costs, decide if it will be sustainable for you and your clan to maintain that.
If you aren’t willing to, don’t want to or can’t financially maintain the new thing with your current budget, put it back and consider another option to buying that thing to experience it, first.
For example with a pet, consider volunteering to pet sit for others. You can volunteer to foster a pet. Some pet foster agencies cover the expenses of maintaining the animal, you only provide the loving environment until a forever home is found. You get to enjoy the pet, without any of the maintenance fees.
10 - Declutter what you don’t use
Go through your things. Declutter what is broken, has finished its useful life, things you don’t remember using for years, things that no longer bring you joy or things you tried, but ultimately give you grief. Recycle it by offering it to others or toss it.
As you routinely declutter your space, you’ll notice things you bought that ultimately didn’t last as long as you wished, didn’t solve the problem, or simply were never needed because they’re still unused, acting as a solid reminder that sometimes new may not be the solution you seek.
11 - Calculate the cost it would take to earn that
If you’re working for money: does that thing require ½ a year’s salary to own? Does it take 4-hours of work a month to afford it at your current rate of pay? Consider your living allotment, divide it by the hours of work you do per that allotment.
Is that item worth that amount of money x (multiplied by) the total value of that work?
Include everything you could experience to earn that money, your worst shift/day ever, the one that makes you question your life choices. Imagine the worst client, the most painful bureaucracy, the work things you have complained about. There’s an underbelly to every job, so is it worth that too? Would you willingly do any of that again, to afford this thing?
When asking if that item is worth the effort to get it, you may find a lot of times the answer is a strong no.
This is a hard one but a really good question to ask yourself. It can inspire you to put some things back.
So to recap, 11 simple tips to stop wanting new things are:
Photo of room filled with clothing and accessories by Onur Bahçıvancılar on Unsplash
Inventory your existing things
Write a gratitude list of 10 things you appreciate
Create a purchase order chain of command: free, used or new
Put new wants on a purchase order hold list
Use up what you have
Before you buy, ask yourself some earnest questions
Check out a few books on mindful spending
Where are you going to put it?
Calculate your long-term maintenance costs on it
Declutter what you don’t use
Calculate the cost it would take to earn that
You can minimize the lure of buying new goods as your Plan A by coming up with alternatives to filling your needs.
The goal of this article is to give you a few simple ways to meet your needs, other than with buying new things.
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