Our “Buy-Nothing-New” 2022: the good, the bad and the ugly
365 Days. Family of 4. No brand new stuff. All second-hand. Is it realistic? Is it possible? Is it worth it?
Last January 1st our family launched a year long experiment: Go one full year without buying anything brand new.
It wasn’t a full-on buy NOTHING Year - we still went out for dinner and bought our kids Christmas gifts; BUT if we wanted to buy any stuff (with the exception of consumables or emergency repairs) it would have to be second-hand.
Fun, right?! (my line when trying to sell this idea to Scott)
But why?!
Well…
There were three main goals/expectations that I was hoping to meet with this little experiment…
Goals
Save Money
It had been almost exactly 2 years since we had paid off our nearly $80K worth of debt (full story here) but we were still always looking for new ways to spend less/save more. At the same time I was also about to quit my job and start Organizing full-time (eek!) - so anything to soften the blow of one less consistent income was going to be helpful.
Control Clutter
Decluttering is my life (and now, my livelihood)…BUT with 2 kids and a hobbyist husband, keeping items OUT was an ongoing battle. I figured limiting anything new, would limit how much came in.
Protect the Planet
By last December, I had officially seen one too many distrbuing photos of landfills or overcrowded donation centres and decided that an easy way to “do our part” was to buy used. Plus thrift shops are super cute and make me happy.
It was a basic idea. They were simple goals. And it was only one year. How hard could it be?!
(Full transparency: I had a slight panic attack after I announced this commitment publicly and the first few weeks were by far the hardest.)
But now - exactly 365 days later - here is how it all went down….
Lessons Learned
3 main things we learned along the way…
Lesson #1: We Gained Time
Saving time was not one of our original goals - but it turned out that adding an extra barrier to shopping meant we shopped less - which ended up saving us a TON of time!
When we did buy something; each purchase usually required more intention, research, thought and lead time - but I still believe that overall we saved SO much time.
No more driving to the mall and cruising around for an hour or two, spending an entire evening deciding whether we should order navy towels or turquoise towels, and definitely less time breaking down Amazon delivery boxes!
I even saved time thinking - my brain stopped wasting time considering whether I should get new Christmas decor or if I should upgrade my pots and pans. I knew that brand new items weren’t an option so my mind sort of turned off that thinking power. Which left more room for more focused work, bigger laughs and more moments of calm.
Being at a phase in our lives that is naturally busy and over scheduled, this was one of my favourite surprises of the experiment.
Lesson #2: We Still Spent (alotta) Moolah
It turns out you can still spend a TON of money without buying anything new.
Thrift stores are akin to dollar stores where everything is “so cute” and “so cheap” so you end up buying 36 things when you only stopped in for a birthday card.
In our area of the world (our city, specifically) we have a TON of used options - big box thrift stores, small volunteer-run second-hand shops, Facebook Marketplace, Kijiji, Poshmark and a TON of independent sellers via Instagram - and probably a bunch of other options that I avoided researching because, frankly, we didn’t need anything else.
A lot of our spending was also on entertainment and food so if we truly wanted to save money we would have to do some version of a year of free-entertainment-only (maybe next year!).
If I did this experiment again I would definitely track what we “saved” by buying used - I think it would’ve been SO interesting.
Lesson #3: It was Exhausting
Sticking to this goal got tiring - but not for the reasons you might think!
Finding the second-hand items was relatively easy. But the feeling of constantly “going against the grain” was ex-hausting!
We were living outside social norms which, it turns out, takes wayyyy more energy than just going with the flow.
This lesson was more of a personal one I think, ruffling feathers is not my strong suit. But it was an important lesson that is slowly making me more resilient.
And to be honest, makes me want to ruffle a few more feathers moving forward ;)
Was it tiring? Yes.
Was it worth it? Absolutely.
Easiest Categories
As I mentioned, the shopping part wasn’t overly hard, but there were some categories that I found SO easy.
If you don’t have much experience shopping second-hand - but want to start - these categories might be good ones to experiment with.
Kids’ Clothes: Our kids are 4 and 6 so when it comes to clothes they are still pretty easy - a tutu for my daughter and a hoodie for my son and they are happy. Kids clothes are also veryyyy easy to find used in our area. This category will probably be permanent for us - I’ll be surprised if we buy any brand new kids clothes for a long while.
Women’s Clothes: My clothes were another easy one. Keep in mind I am NOT a fashionista (pretty sure real fashionistas don’t use the word fashionista) and really don’t follow trends at all (however just started wearing high waisted jeans and oh my Lord yesssss).
Household Items: I could track down basically anyyyy item we needed for the house - kitchen tools were SO easy - linens and towels were a cinch - decor - candles - baskets - all of it! (again, I’m not winning any interior design awards but for our needs, we were set).
Accessibility will obviously vary based on location - but if it’s this easy in small town Ontario then urban areas should be even easier.
Hardest Category
There was only category that we struggled with and that was gifts for kids’ birthday parties.
Gifts for our kids were easy - lego, books, beyblades, Shopkins, scooters, pencil crayons - it was fairly easy to track down used versions of anything they wanted.
But getting second-hand gifts for Leo’s friends was WAY more nerve racking.
If I’m being completely honest, the issue wasn’t lack or availability, it was WAY more about me caring what people thought. Nothing scarier than a 6 year old boy who thinks your gift is crap and isn’t afraid to say so! Or the parents who thought I was off my rocker and spent more on the treat bags than I did on the gift.
I ended up sticking with a used book + cash (or a gift card) + candy for almost every kid.
And it turned out that my worries were all in my head - it was always all smiles from the birthday kids :))
Our Cheats
Overall our year a success.
Buuuuuuut we did have a couple of missteps along the way.
Two, specifically:
Sunglasses for Scott: It was late summer, Scott had lost his sunglasses, and we were heading to a cottage for a week. He spent a lot of time (several weeks) looking for a used pair that were reasonably priced but in the end he ended up using Canadian Tire points to grab a brand new pair. We felt a bit guilty but totally worth it - the summer sun in Ontario is no joke.
Hair Buzzer: We do at-home haircuts for both boys so our hair clippers are invaluable for us. Our buzzer was on the fritz so we bought a used one which was terrrrrible (so bad, guys) and after agonizing (way too much) about it, finally ordered a brand new again. Again, totally worth it for us. (but if you have a used hair trimmer that you never use, you should sell it - hot commodities!)
Our Best Finds
The fun part about the year was finding some UH-MAZING deals on our new to us treasures.
My favourite 4 finds:
Car: Last winter we drove up North (in a snow storm!) to buy the cutest little white Volkswagen Golf - and it has been one of our best family purchases. Totally in love with our little grocery getter. Bonus: we could afford to pay for it in cash - yeahhhhh.
My winter coat: My winter jacket was the first purchase of the year (picked it up on New Years Day!), and I have loved it ever since. I think I paid $50 and the new version of that coat was selling for $170 + tax last year. We live in Ontario which gets CRAY cold for a big part of the year so a good winter jacket is key to survival.
Leo’s Scooter: This summer Leo became OBSESSED with anything on two wheels. The scooter was easy to find but what made the purchase special was that we involved him. He had to help take photos of his old (baby) scooter to sell, used his own money to pay for the new one, went with Scott to pick it up, and handed the seller the cash. It was one of his first big purchases and it felt like a real big-kid moment for him which made me a very proud mama.
Scott’s Golf Clubs: In July Scott went to a club fitting session at a local golf course. They analyze your swing, height and a million other details and then tell you what golf clubs you should have, to be the best golf player you can be. Which (shocker) is a brand new set of clubs for approx $3,000-$5,000. Regardless of our Nothing-New Challenge, there was NO WAY we were spending thousands of dollars on golf clubs. Scott knew we couldn’t swing it (pun intended), but I also know that deep down he was really bummed. Like, quiet-for-days bummed. Scott doesn’t ask for much so I genuinely felt really bad about it. Fast forward about 6 weeks and he found a used version of the EXACT SAME SET for $1,200!!!! Whaatttt??!. He sold his old set for a few hundred, used $100 from his side hustle, and we covered the rest from our savings. BOOM. I’m not going to say we manifested it. But we totally manifested it.
I could give 100 other examples of amazing deals we found throughout the year. GREAT gifts for the kids, lovely used books, some of my favourite new clothes, and a trillion practical day-to-day items.
There is something super special about being intentional with purchases and repurposing items that others no longer need. Gives me the warm and fuzzies every time!
Grey Areas
Once we got started I quickly realized there were a BUNCH of items/cateogires that were major grey areas. Most of them are technically considered “consumables” which were allowed but I felt like they weren’t necessecities and felt like a bit of a cheater buying them.
Here’s a few examples…
Paint: I bought the kids paint for their stockings. I’m still on the fence about this one.
Kids’ Activity Books: Midyear, the Indigo gift cards we had were burning a hole in my pocket so I used them for activity books for a couple kid birthday gifts. I still consider this a cheat but I’ll let you decide.
Gifts: Although we didn’t buy anything brand new, we were still gifted brand new items (mainly grandparents). If we wanted to be hardcore we could’ve asked for nothing new - the kids wouldn’t have even noticed. Maybe next time…
I should have made the rules more clear from the start. Tip for you if you’re considering this challenge!
Final Thoughts
Overall - YES I recommend a Nothing-New Year, and YES we could easily do it again!
Doing a no-spend month in the past definitelyyyy helped us prepare for this experiment. If you haven’t tried one, I have a video with some tips.
Just like the no-spend months, this exercise will change our spending habits forever. We might splurge on a couple brand new items this January but overall I imagine us buying used first, for pretty much…ever!
Remember you don't necessarily have to follow the calendar year - if you’re reading this in June, do it from July to July - any timeline works. Or do half a year! Or try a month!
If you are attempting a Buy-Nothing-New Year, LET ME KNOW!!! I want to hear about everyone else's experiences - good, bad & ugly.
Happy 2023 to you and your fam - and keep your eyes peeled for our 2023 Family Goal :))
Mary Ann K xo