No Buy Year: January Update

I almost failed. Few times. And there are so many temptations. Haaa another 11 months to go, help!

Early this month, I’ve removed as many online temptations as I possibly could. I deleted shopping apps like Zalora and Hermo from my phone and I unsubscribed to any mailing list from websites. I still keep Lazada and Shopee though because sometimes I can get necessities there cheaper, but I only open those apps if I have something specific to look for and that’s that. So I can say, online temptations are within my control.

However, offline though. Fuhhh a tough one to tackle. At first, I planned to not going to shopping malls this year. I even told my partner, “We’re no longer having our weekend dates in the malls”. But he said to which I’ve to admit he got a point there, “That’s not how it works. You have to control yourself, not avoiding temptations altogether”. Point taken, sir.

So I’ve been going to malls few times this month but there are all because I had to accompany family or friends. And on all occasions, I was tempted. Real bad.

Cobaan January

Kaison stuffs that make you suddenly believe you need them

I’ve always have this problem with Kaison, Daiso and the likes. Going into the shop, there’s nothing more in the world that I could possibly need but going out of the shop, I’m suddenly RM50 broke. Good marketing on their part. Bad for me.

This time, I found a nice desk planner (that’s so useful for my productivity if I could just have them on my table). Nice try there, my brain. That’s basically the arguments that I have inside. What did I do to stop them? I left the shop. I stood outside. Breathing in, breathing out. I swear it really involved physical interference. Glad I did.

The pants, like the pants

Omg, it is the pants. It has perfect fitting, just the cut that I like, not too tight, not too loose, and it’s of pastel pink colour that will look good with white shirts on my casual day out. I was with my mom when we found that gem. I stood there holding the pants for soooo long though I knew that I won’t buy it no matter what. But my feelings inside went “alahhh sayangggg“.

My face must’ve shown it because my mom offered to belanja me. My heart skipped a bit hearing that, yass I got it aferall! I’m not breaching my no buy rules because this is a gift. But the wise part of me let out a soft whisper, “But you don’t have space for another pants. You’ve got too many pants.” That stopped me. I rejected the offer. Who is this new me?

Everything on Chinese New Year sales

It’s the festive season, so of course, we got sales everywhere. Thankfully, this was not as bad as the ones above, I managed to just walk past through them. But I still have the feelings that I’m missing out on good deals. Shhh.

Bonus temptation: Spotify subscriptions

I’ve been listening musics via Spotify for so long and I listen through the many ads wihout being able to skip to different songs. It’s annoying but I’m cheapskate like that till I figured out that Spotify family premium for 6 accounts is only RM22.40/month, so it would be only RM3.73/month for one. I want that. But yes I know the rule, “I’ll pay only for the fixed bills that I currently have, will neither upgrade nor add anything new.” Noted. So that’s a no.

January Overall

Overall having completed the first month of the year, it’s not that bad if I just stay away from shopping malls. But yep, that’s not how it works.

So I’ll just continue putting myself out there. If I got tempted, I’ll remind myself I’m on a no buy year. Or else, reminding myself that my room is already cluttered with stuff also seems to do the trick.

So that’s my mantra going into the second month- No buy, no buy, no buy. Clutter, clutter, clutter.

Next Update: February Update