The popular social media challenge meant to rein in
needless purchases would backfire in the long runBy Erin Lowry
/ Bloomberg Opinion
A couple of weeks into a new year and the shine of “new year, new you” has started to dim — but one personal finance trend, “No buy 2025,” has taken hold for millennials and Gen Z on social media. Whether it is in response to a few years of post-COVID-19 pandemic “revenge spending” or just balancing the books after the holidays, people are locking down their wallets in the hopes of a changed relationship with consumerism or at least a fattened-up savings account.In a “no buy” (or “no spend”) challenge, participants aim to go an extended period without making purchases beyond the essentials. The rules can be modified to fit the participant’s life — many people continue to shell out for haircuts and other beauty routines, for instance — but the spirit of the challenge is to minimize discretionary spending.There are plenty of aspirational tales of “no buy” adopters who went on to make healthy long-term changes to their consumption and saving habits. However, more often, noble intentions are hard to sustain. That is not surprising: Sudden and steep spending reductions are an extreme reaction to financial frustrations. The more pragmatic, but less “Instagrammable” approach is to slowly shift toward healthier practices.Illustration: YushaThat means making small, manageable changes, one at a time. So, someone who wants to get better control over their spending could decide to boost their contributions to their retirement accounts by a percentage point or two, leaving less cash to deploy on everyday purchases. If the “no spend” effort is aimed at paying off debt, it makes more sense to eliminate one consistent but unnecessary expense than to attempt to go cold turkey on all spending.At this point, I should disclose that I tried a “no buy” challenge in 2019. In February — notably the shortest month — I cut my spending drastically and shared the experience on social media as a form of accountability and education.For me, permitted spending included bills, groceries, public transportation, and a weekly stipend of US$25 for networking-related social activities and attending events to which I had already committed to. Explicitly prohibited spending included coffees, ride share or cabs, drinks with friends, restaurants, ordering takeout, online purchases beyond essentials (e.g. food for my beloved mutt), shopping, and new events such as plays, concerts and movies.Taking on the “no buy” challenge made me realize that it is important to identify the emotional trigger behind a purchase. In my experience, cravings to buy a daily latte, an unfortunately trite example of mindless spending, were less about the delicious, frothy beverage and more about having interpersonal contact in my day as work-from-home w