No Buy January + Why No Buy?

Header image for blog: Taurus on a Budget - aperol spritz, books on a beach, coastline, cafe scene

Welcome to No Buy January!

Who ended 2024 spending way too much? I sure did. We succeeded with a great No Buy August this past fall, and aside from bills, spent $650 on food for 2 people (groceries for cooking) and that was our only expense outside of our routine bills (rent, car insurance, gas, rental insurance, storage unit, medical bills, phone bill, streaming services.) Toward the end of August, we needed to take care of a car emergency and were able to pay cash instead of dipping into our emergency fund. Overall, No Buy August was a huge success. August was also one of our favorite months of the year because it was very well-planned and we spent a ton of time outside. We have been leaning into our urban hiking era, complete with hiking poles and water bladders and we're ready to take on some trails this winter. No Buy August also helped us go through some pricey pantry items we'd forgotten about and also led to some creative ideas! For example, I wanted to attend a Sound Bath at Grace Cathedral, but buying a ticket was against the rules, so I reached out to them and ended up volunteering with set up and clean up after the event.

With a successful month under our belt earlier this year, we're feeling excited about No Buy January. There are lots of reasons to try a No Buy Month, and getting clear on your purpose ahead of time will help you commit. Here are our reasons:

1. We want to establish a baseline for what our expenses truly entail. With this information refined and tested, we can develop realistic goals for what we can save and invest.

2. We want to retire from Corporate America at as young of an age as possible. My reason here is that I lost my Dad young and suddenly, at age 50, and he worked very hard as a dentist until the day he was taken to the hospital. He was never able to experience life beyond dentistry and I grieve that lost time for him.

3. We're tired of living in a cycle of blowing through our paychecks and living paycheck-to-paycheck!

4. We have a goal of saving 36% of our take home pay per month.

5. We are fully debt free (after years of digging out of major debt) and want to set up strong investment accounts so we stay debt free!

There are lots of ways to proceed with a No Buy Month - we'll share our guidelines in a couple of weeks after we refine them a bit. Keen to join? Please let me know if you'd like to join the challenge.