Without opening your banking app, can you count how many things you bought in the past month? We’re not talking about grocery-store runs, but the rest: meals out, gifts, décor, coffees, beauty products, clothes, random gizmos that cross your feed. How many times did you tap your card or click “buy now”? Chances are it’s more than you realize.
Just a taste: Americans buy about 53 new items of clothing per year and spend $281.75 in impulse buys every month. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, the goods we buy account for around one-third of our individual emissions—and nearly a quarter of that is “miscellaneous” stuff. That’s why—whether driven by ballooning credit card bills, digital burnout, or growing concern over the environmental impact of all that consumption—more people are taking on no-buy challenges.
The idea of a no-buy challenge is simple: cut out non-essential purchases for a set period. Could be a month or two; could be a year. Whatever the duration, it’s a chance to hit pause, evaluate your habits, and gain a better understanding of your spending and the motivations behind it. If you’re looking to rethink your relationship with stuff, it might be a challenge worth considering.
The idea isn’t new, but it gained steam when New York–based creative director Elysia Berman went viral in early 2024. Noticing her growing credit card bills and tendency towards unnecessary purchases, she challenged herself to avoid buying non-essentials for an entire year, and documented her experience on social media. Pretty soon, others joined in.
In an age of fast-moving social trends, the no-buy challenge has shown surprising staying power. It’s been trending on TikTok nearly nonstop since it began, with videos tagged #nobuy racking up tens of millions of views. Whatever the motivation, a no-buy challenge can remind us that—no matter what a swooning influencer or perfectly-placed Instagram ad might tell us—the answer to our problems isn’t always more stuff. “I learned how resourceful I could be with what I already had, and it encouraged me to get creative instead of consuming out of habit,” says Christina Kantzavelos, a therapist who started the challenge to curb her emotional spending and finished it feeling “empowered.”
That’s not to say kicking an “add to cart” instinct is easy. As many who’ve tried it told us, it also comes with real personal and social obstacles. But everyone largely agreed that the experience is ultimately eye-opening—and positive.
Thinking of taking the leap? Here’s how to set yourself up for success, according to people who’ve done it.
1. Find your reason
Strong motivation is essential—especially at the start. Without it, most attempts will likely sputter out. Your “why” needs to be clear. Take the time to figure it out. Maybe it’s financial, environmental, or, as it was in Kantzavelos’s case, personal. She wanted to become more intentional about what she brought into her life and how she used her resources. “Saving money was part of it, but the deeper reason was about mindfulness, sustainability, and aligning my choices with my values.”
2. Start small
How do you eat an elephant-sized pastry? One bite at a time. Start with manageable goals, says Kate Jones, owner of U.K.-based Squirrel Gifts. She began her no-buy journey by avoiding new clothes for three months, which helped her ease into the challenge and find creative ways to use what she already owned. After that, she tried a 30-day no-buy, only allowing herself to purchase essentials like food and soap. “It’s about slowly developing that resistance muscle so you don’t exhaust yourself early on,” she says.
3. Create a system
The no-buy challenge is more about rewiring habits than testing discipline, notes Emma Alves, a family lawyer in Toronto who works with clients to implement systems that help enforce good habits. Success, she says, depends on tracking, which starts with a simple two-column list: one for what you’re allowed to buy, and the other for what you’re not. Allowable expenses are things like food, housing, utilities, personal care essentials, and debt payments. The “not allowed” column, she says, should be as specific as possible. For example, no new clothes, books, home décor, or eating out.
4. Give yourself something tangible to track
Proof of progress, no matter how small, is a big part of sticking with any new habit. One way to do that: Figure out the amount you normally drop on what you’re cutting out, and set up an automatic transfer in that amount into a savings account on the first of each month. “This makes your progress tangible and prevents the saved money from being lost to other impulse purchases, which can undermine the challenge,” says Alves.
5. Be clear with friends and family
Limiting spending presents social hurdles. You might find yourself turning down invitations that involve shopping or spending, and you’ll almost definitely face questions—especially around holidays and birthdays. Being upfront helps, says Jones. She let friends and family know what she was doing and why. Sharing your intentions takes the pressure off and invites understanding. It also sets expectations early, which can make awkward moments easier to navigate.
6. Get creative with gifts
Gifts—both giving and receiving—can be one of the toughest parts of a no-buy challenge. As a shop owner, Jones found this especially hard. To navigate it, she asked friends and family to skip traditional presents and suggested alternatives like sharing a meal, baking, or going on a hike. For close friends, she wrote and framed handwritten letters. “Their hearts were touched, as it was so much more considerate than a mass-market purchase,” she says.
7. Expect some deep thoughts
Many no-buy participants say the toughest aspect of the challenge is that it holds a mirror up to your habits. “The hardest part wasn’t avoiding the urge to purchase but instead facing the reality of how many times spending was a distraction,” says Peter Murphy, founder and CEO of the Montana-based sportswear brand Track Spikes. Breaking a pattern isn’t easy, and can come with uncomfortable thoughts.
8. Consider the 30-day rule
The impulse to buy can happen fast—and noticing those moments is half the battle. Murphy started logging what he almost bought during his no-buy challenge, and quickly saw how much noise came from unnecessary gadgets and gear.
Alves suggests a tactic called the 30-day rule to interrupt the cycle. When you feel the urge to buy something non-essential, write it down with the date, and commit to revisiting it in 30 days. Chances are, you’ll no longer want it—or even remember why you did. If you’re doing a short-term challenge, add the item to a “save for later” list and revisit it in a few days. Odds are, you won’t be able to recall that steam cleaner the algorithm convinced you was a necessity.
9. Fight temptation with friction
Unsubscribe from marketing emails. Mute shopping apps. Install an ad blocker. And don’t give your email address to anyone new—even if they try to lure you in with 10% off. Consider pausing catalogs, unsubscribing from junk mail (psst: we’ve got a guide for that), and banishing temptation-filled social-media apps from your home screen. Murphy also created friction by removing saved details of credit and debit cards from shopping sites, which makes hitting the “buy” button a much slower process.
10. Don’t just remove—replace
Removing an impulse without turning your attention elsewhere can be recipe for relapse. You need to follow every “no” with a “yes.” If you tend to scroll through deals when you’re bored or anxious, find something else: Go chop veggies for dinner. Take a walk. Or spend 15 minutes in a language-learning app.
11. Keep your eye on a prize
You know what helps sustain effort? Reward. Belinda Borrelli, director of the Center for Behavioral Science at Boston University, stresses the importance of rewarding motivation that dovetails with your values. Several no-buy challenge participants also suggested giving yourself a small treat—a fancy coffee or deeply discounted video game—after, say, a few weeks of no-buy to sustain motivation.
12. Go easy on yourself
Borrelli’s research also shows that shame or finger-wagging are extremely counterintuitive to the cause. So go easy on yourself. Not everyone is able to stop buying non-essentials. For many, even the idea of a “non-essential” spending is a privilege. If you’re dealing with financial instability, a no-buy challenge might not be empowering, but rather stressful or harmful.
Instead of going all-in, you can also try adapting the concept. A “low-buy” approach—where you set boundaries instead of bans—might be more realistic. You could also focus on just one area: online shopping, takeout, or clothes. Perfection isn’t the goal; awareness is. Whether you’re doing a full reset or just slowing things down, anything that brings more intentionality to what you buy is a win.