I didn’t buy anything new for TWO YEARS – here’s how much I saved (and the surprising side effect)

In 2013, I challenged myself to something a little unconventional at the time. 

With a desire to save money and live more sustainably, I vowed to buy no new things. — a phrase that later became the alliterative name of the challenge — for a month.

The reasoning was two-fold. Firstly, like many people, I was burned out. My career had me working constantly, and I used shopping as a salve for everything, from stress to elation. 

The result was a home stuffed with clothes that didn’t fit or were forgotten about, unread books, and absolutely bonkers items with no use like sequined throw pillows. 

I was suffocating under the weight of my stuff, and I had a suspicion that shopping was quietly stealing my time. 

Secondly, I was in debt. Turns out, using shopping as a hobby gets you into debt? 

When I became afraid to peek at my credit card and bank statements, I knew it was time for a change.

So, I thought, one month. No biggie. I can do this. The rules were simple, and decently forgiving. 

Ashlee Piper is the author of No New Things: A Radically Simple 30-Day Guide to Saving Money, the Planet, and Your Sanity

I could pay my bills (alas, this challenge won’t get you out of those), and invest in my 401(K). 

I could buy necessities best procured new (like underwear and toothbrushes and groceries), pay for maintenance and upkeep on my person (haircuts!) and enjoy experiences like vacations, going out to eat, and concerts. 

Everything else, from clothing to office supplies to gifts to home décor and appliances would be obtained via something I now call the S.U.P.E.R. System, which breaks down as follows:

I went into the challenge scared. I knew it would humble and stretch me, the gal who would browse stores for hours for fun. 

But what I didn’t anticipate was how much it changed me, for the better. What started as a single month’s aspiration, ended up being so beneficial, transformative, and dare I say, even fun, that I stayed the no new things course for nearly two years.

Nowadays, many of these tenets are habit for me, and though I occasionally buy something new, the challenge has positively altered my relationship to consumerism and stuff for the better, forever. 

Here are some of the benefits I reaped during those 683 days of no new things, and ever since:

I saved money

This one is probably a big duh, but I saved over $36,000 while paying off $22,000 in debt. 

Your mileage may vary on this because our largest expenses are often housing, healthcare, and food, but cutting down on discretionary impulse spending will almost certainly bear fruit for anyone uncomfortable with their relationship to shopping.

I had more time 

Like, a lot more time: It’s estimated that we waste hours a day on stuff-related activities like cleaning, shopping, returning, storing, browsing, and disposal, and that the average American wastes 55 minutes a day ‘just looking for things.’ 

Suddenly, I had all this time to redirect to tackling those long-lingering to-dos and life goals I’d claimed I was too busy to get to. 

I started volunteering, I poured into my relationships (including the one with myself) and hobbies. I got a promotion at work and my first book deal. 

I was able to make the time to read and work out and cook food at home. I was floored by how much time I had frittered away on shopping before the challenge, and I’m so grateful to have it back.

I had a refreshed sense of abundance and appreciation

Instead of buying new items, I was repairing and reimagining and taking damn good care of the stuff I already had. 

Taking inventory of your things and making them useful and beautiful again really ratchets up the gratitude for all of the abundance you probably currently enjoy, but are distracted from clearly seeing. 

And when we feel abundant and appreciative, we are so much more immune to marketing messages that attempt to convince us that we’ll never have or be enough.

Ashlee is an advocate for a more sustainable lifestyle, posting on her social media channels

I enjoyed less clutter, stress, and decision fatigue

It’s scientifically proven that we, especially women, experience more stress cues in a cluttered space. And it’s pretty well documented, both statistically and anecdotally, that we are a society buckling under the weight of our stuff. 

We have larger homes than ever before, with stuffed garages, closets, basements, and attics, but self-storage is one of the fastest growing commercial real estate sectors. 

So much so, that in America, we have more self-storage units than all Starbucks, McDonald’s and Subway restaurants combined. 

Once I’d decluttered the items that didn’t serve me and spruced up the ones that did, while also turning off the tap of new stuff in my life, I felt significant relief. Like, shoulders dropping and deep exhaling relief. 

My home was a joy to return to each day, a space for creativity and relaxation. My tidy closet made getting dressed each day a breeze. My finances weren’t scaring the crap out of me. And the items and activities I welcomed into my life, actually contributed satisfaction and ease, instead of complication and strain.

I felt more creative and stylish

Our brains are pretty remarkable, and while we’ve been sold this narrative that an abundance of options breeds convenience and ingenuity, the opposite is true. 

We need constraints to work our creativity like a muscle. And the more I focused on upcycling what I already had to meet a need, or made outfits for TV segments from items in my closet, I became better and better at being resourceful. 

The results were more fearlessness around ‘what do I do if I need something?’ because I could rely on myself to figure something out, and a personal style that blossomed into something I felt proud of.

Ashlee said she felt more creative and stylish when doing the no new things challenge

I completely rewired my relationship to shopping 

During the challenge, I began tracking my feelings whenever I had the impulse to buy something. 

This was both a way to get through the tremulous two to seven minutes (the time when the impulse to buy something usually lasts) and also to better understand why I felt the impulse in the first place. 

I found after just a few days of tracking my triggers that I was especially susceptible to the thousands of ads we’re assailed by every day when I was a) cold, b) procrastinating on something, c) feeling tired or thirsty, or d) my pants were cutting into my stomach. 

No joke, all of these feels can make us more likely to buy crap we don’t need. 

So once I uncovered that data about myself, I could address the real need, as opposed to cover it up with shopping (which never actually assuaged the need). 

I’d take a walk to clear my head so I could return feeling productive. Or maybe I’d sip some water or stretch or put on a cozy sweater. And you know what? The consumerist haze would lift. And doing that over and over again completely rewired my consumption habits.

I created and nurtured connections

It wasn’t too long ago that we relied on community to get many of our material needs met. Items used to take ages to make and were expensive, too expensive for a household to own one of everything, so we resource shared. 

Today, that’s a lost art, and even one that’s considered a little gauche. People have told me they’re worried they’ll come off as cheap if they ask a neighbor to borrow a lawnmower or standing mixer. 

But when doing this challenge, I was forced to rely on and be an active contributor to my networks and neighborhood. And what I was worried might be inconvenient and full of judgement, ended up being the very thing that filled my cup. 

In a day and age where loneliness has been deemed an epidemic and as bad for our health as ‘smoking 15 cigarettes a day,’ meeting and helping my neighbors and friends and sharing and pooling resources was refreshing and fulfilling. 

And there’s something so cool about seeing your friend accept an award wearing a dress you have, or reading a book your neighbor said changed her life – that reciprocal experience gives us purpose and is something we all sorely need, but don’t connect with enough.

Consuming less and working with items already in existence gave Ashlee an enormous sense of purpose and satisfaction

Ashlee saved more than $36,000 over two years by not buying new things

I was a better steward of the planet

It’s no secret that the overproduction-marketing-overconsumption trine is putting serious strain on the planet and that new items – both the production and disposal of – contribute handsomely to harmful global emissions. 

Consuming less and working with items already in existence gave me an enormous sense of purpose and satisfaction. Knowing that though it be small, in my little corner of the universe, I was doing some good.

I’m not the only beneficiary here. What started as a humble personal challenge evolved into one that thousands of people have done even before it became a book, some with simple results, and others with outcomes so profound they blow my mind.

What remains true throughout every experience is that we as individuals are incredibly powerful, and small shifts in our habits and overconsumption can reap significant benefits. 

They can also make you feel lighter, happier, and more satisfied. And that’s kind of the whole point.

No New Things: A Radically Simple 30-Day Guide to Saving Money, the Planet, and Your Sanity is available to buy here.