low buy july: kickoff

empowering! each! other!

Welcome to Low Buy July! I won’t be sending this to everyone via email, but it will be here in substack. Not everyone is participating and I want to respect that.

But here it is! A full month of intentional spending and shifting mindsets.

Here’s today’s outline:
What is low buy july?
Why I’m participating
The prework I am doing
My rules
Link to templates
My goals

What is low buy july?

I did not invent this. I’ve seen it on the internet for years in different ways. LBJ (disappointed the abbreviation is the same as a president but I digress) is an opportunity to reassess priorities, motivations, and pressures in our purchases. It’s a dedicated time to spend less, be more content, and focus on mindful spending.

This isn’t official, just some verbiage I worked up to guide us during this season. Notice I didn’t say NO spending. Life happens, good and fun things sometimes require money and that is okay! What this focuses on is the mindless spending or the spending driven by marketing/consumerism.

Why I’m participating

Years ago when we were getting out of debt (read our story here), I was super duper strict about spending. We were determined to pay off our debt and I was on board. Doesn’t mean I didn’t hate it or resent it, but I saw the vision, and didn’t buy much of anything.

But now that we are out of debt and have increased incomes a bit (we are not rich by any means y’all, but we are doing okay now), my brain has loved the dopamine hit of spending. Since I CAN afford things, I feel like I can get them.

This entitled thinking has begun to make a bit nervous.

And as we start to assess if we are ready for a home and the more “domestic” phase of life, I know there might be seasons where we reign in to save for a down payment, etc. I want to know I can still spend less and be happy. It sounds so materialistic, but it’s my truth.

Not spending, being content, and exercising self-control are all muscles we have to use intentionally. They don’t come naturally to most of us. So taking a dedicated time to “exercise” this mindset and action is exciting to me.

PREWORK

I honestly believe that the prework is possibly the most important part of all this. If you don’t do the work before, you might be setting your self up to fail. Purely relying on your own discipline isn’t a game I recommend.

1. assessing what I have: I have a lot of good stuff. I have a lot of stuff that I used to dream about. I have found that when I actually acknowledge my things, gratitude is easy. This may sound weird, but it helps to spend time with things. I’ll reorganize my closet or stare at my bookshelf. Touching and experiencing the things I DO have helps

2. acknowledging what I want: I LIKE THINGS. I like buying stuff. It is fun to know something new is coming my way. And during this month, there are going to be things I want. I need to not shame myself, but realize there is ALWAYS something I am going to want. Instead of feeling bad that I can’t purchase, I can add it to a running list of things. Often when I return to the item later, I realize I didn’t really want it.

3. muting certain accounts: there are a lot of influencers or accounts I follow that share a lot of good stuff. Whether it’s a shirt that exactly my style, accessories I love, or that one amazon organization purchase that I truly feel will change my life- they know how to get me. As soon as I see one pop up in stories, I go their profile, mute them, and make a list on my phone of the accounts I’ve muted. If after this month I was to unmute, I will, if not, they can stay on mute or be unfollowed.

4. making my own rules: you HAVE to make the rules + exceptions work for YOU. My rules aren’t going to work for you, my caveats won’t be the same as yours. Think about what you want out of this month and work backwards. If there are events this month you want to caveat, budget for, etc. write them out.

My Rules

1. no amazon orders: amazon and I have been too friendly when it comes to clothes & organization. No more orders this month

2. no clothing, shoes, accessories, or books: honestly, books will be the hardest here. So many good books are coming out this month, but they will still exist when this month is over and I can also try to get them from the library

3. limited food/drink purchases: If my husband suggests going out, I’m not going to say no, but I’m not going to suggest. Also I won’t say no to quality time out with a friend, but I don’t want any solo food purchases. If you see me drinking coffee or eating alone on socials, it’s because I get that ish free from work lol

4. conscious spending on groceries: look, ya girl likes to try all the new things from TJs. Not saying I won’t get some, but I won’t get all of them. Like on the morning on 7/2 I went to TJs just for what we needed for the week. V proud of myself. No novelty drinks or new to me items.

5. tracking what I do want to look for patterns: did I save three different navy trousers? Okay that’s something I seem to be looking at a lot. Or wow I really like this one sweatshirt (for real, one time I saved the same nike sweatshirt 4 times, I now own said sweatshirt). Looking for patterns will help you discern what you actually want vs what you believe you need in a moment.

Templates

If you head to my Instagram, I have a saved highlight of things I’ve made to hopefully help with this process!

My Goals

I don’t have any quantitative goals. I’m not trying to keep my credit card statement under a certain amount or anything. I want to feel like I am in control of my money, my will power & decision making. I don’t want to feel like I should buy every link I see or tempted by ads that pop up.

I will be posting one of these each Sunday so we can have a space to analyze, commiserate/complain, make note of things we notice!

If you are participating in lbj, I would love it if you introduced yourself in the comments! Maybe name, where you live, anything else you want to say, and….(tries to think of go to ice breaker question that isn’t annoying)….your favorite current podcast, musician, etc!