No Shopping September (or At Least No Online Shopping)

Another monthly challenge time! This feels almost late to write this post, but it’s only 4 days into the month so it’s not so bad. But this challenge is actually one I started before the month started, so it feels like I’ve been doing it a bit longer.

But first, a really quick recap on last month’s challenge. I don’t know what I was expecting to happen, but I really didn’t have to say no to things as often as I thought I might need to. I don’t know if my friends read the post and didn’t invite me out to things or it was just a slow month socially for everyone, but I never really felt guilty saying no because I never had to say no to anything significant. I didn’t make plans, but that’s different from turning down plans. But I did like allowing myself to have days at home watching tv or reading because I did need those.

And I plan on continuing to do the same from now on because I do feel in a better place mentally than I had before. Even after dealing with some setbacks, I bounced back from those faster than I expected and I think that’s because I did allow myself to be the priority. While I don’t like the idea of being selfish, I see the benefits of doing it and how it makes my time with other people better and more focused.

So this month’s challenge is something I started last week as soon as I thought of it. I am challenging myself to not do any online shopping for the month.

I am not as bad about online shopping as some people are, but it’s bad for me. I find it way too easy to order something online and not have to think about it. It’s not all about the instant gratification, although ordering something on Amazon and getting it a few hours later is pretty incredible. It’s also making me a bit lazy and allowing myself to not go out and do things because I can just order stuff online.

If I see something in an article or in social media, it’s so easy to click on the link and to see if it’s something I want and then to order it. I do try to not buy things too often, but even when I think about if I want something or not I still often get the thing. And I know I have spent money on things that I wanted and not that I needed. I do like to have nice things, but I also am not in a financial place where I should be thinking about what everyone else has. I need to focus on maybe being a bit more minimalistic and paring down on what I have. I have started doing that a bit with all the cleaning I’ve done lately, but I know I can do more.

If I do see something online that I really do think I want, I am going to work on using wish lists more often. This isn’t always an option for all online stores, but I know I don’t use it enough on Amazon. I will probably create a private wish list so I don’t have to worry about other people seeing what I have in there, but I should also work on adding things to my public one too since I can use that for anyone who is asking what I want for my birthday or Hanukkah.

And for online stores that don’t have wish lists, I can try to see how long you can keep something in your online cart before it is released. I don’t think most stores will be long enough, but I’m going to test some out to see if there are some I can use that way. And if I can’t, I can always email or text a link to myself to remember I was looking at it or add a bookmark for that website. There is almost nothing that I need to get right away and can’t wait for. And if I can wait, maybe I’ll realize I don’t need it or it will go on sale and if I need it I can spend less on it.

But there will be a few exceptions to this challenge. First, I’m not counting paying bills online or ordering refills of my prescriptions online. Online bill pay is not shopping so that’s not even one I considered to eliminate this month until a friend had asked me about it. And ordering prescriptions online is basically required with my insurance unless I wanted to go to the hospital one day to order my refill and then return a week later to get it because my medication isn’t usually in stock when I order it.

I’ve also had a few books for my Kindle that I was thinking of getting this month. Some of them I can wait on (or figure out if I really need to own them versus getting them from the library). But there’s one book that may be a part of a 7 week challenge with an online group (similar to The Artist’s Way). I can’t get it from the library because library books are only for 3 weeks and I would need it for 7. Also, it’s possibly something I would like to own. But I’m debating on if I’ll do the challenge now or another time. Also, some of my supplements I take are significantly cheaper online and if I need a refill of one I will order it online. It’s silly to buy a 30 day supply for the same price as a 60 day supply would be online. But I will be doing some price matching before ordering anything just to make sure there aren’t sales for stores I could go to.

And while I have tried to buy things online I knew I would need ahead of time, I do have a few gifts for birthdays/weddings/babies being born that will possibly need to be ordered in September that I will allow myself to order online if that is the cheapest way to do so. I think I have gotten everything ordered that I will need this month, but especially with the friends who are having babies I know that they might be born before October and I do want to get gifts for others on time. Maybe I shouldn’t consider gifts for other people shopping since it’s not for me, but I don’t want to make too many exceptions if I can help it. So this exception is only for gifts that need to be timely and can’t wait until October.

I don’t know how this challenge will go or if I will feel a huge difference. But when I realized that my online spending was not as controlled as I would like it to be I wanted to see what I could do to fix it now instead of waiting to see if it happens to get better on its own randomly. I know there are some friends who are doing no shopping at all challenges this month, but I’m not totally sure I can do that one. But I am going to try to spend less in stores in person as well since I don’t want to take my online shopping habits and just shift them to shopping in person.

It will be interesting to see how I feel after this month. Maybe I won’t feel like I need online shopping as much? I might discover things that will help me be a smarter online shopper so I don’t stress about overdoing it. But I have a feeling that whatever happens this month with this challenge that there will be a lesson to share when I recap this in October.

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