I Gave Up Shopping for an Entire Month (& It Was Way Easier Than I Expected)

Now, 31 days later, I have successfully completed my challenge. Though I did come *this close* to breaking my shopping fast twice: once while I was editing a story about the best designer sales to shop now and a bag I’d been eyeing for a while was being offered at an offensively steep discount and again when I spotted a rare jacket from a streetwear brand in Japan that I was convinced I could never find. I went so far as to add both items to their respective carts and input all of the shipping info, but I couldn’t submit the order.

I had come so far, and anyway, something I’ve learned since beginning this experiment is that these seemingly irresistible urges will pass if you give it a little time. That urge to buy that bag or consume that third cookie almost always goes away if you give yourself a beat. (Fine, the cookie usually goes into my mouth, but the bag stayed in my virtual cart.)

It was eye-opening to see how impulsive I had been with my shopping before this point. I found that the kind of joy I felt after buying something was often fleeting. And by taking even just an extra minute to think through my purchases before making them, I was able to realize when I was shopping out of an actual need vs. a force of habit. Nine times out of ten, it was the latter.

If you feel like you’ve turned into a shopping zombie, unable to resist the siren song of sales and Instagram ads, I’d recommend trying a month-long hiatus to reset your habits. And if you decide to give it a go, here were the six things that helped me the most:

1. Unsubscribe from all shopping emails. In this case, ignorance is definitely bliss. Not knowing when my favorite brand was offering 40 percent off their sweaters freed up my mind and my inbox, which was a welcome bonus.
2. Uninstall or remove all shopping apps from your home screen. Out of sight, out of mind.
3. Remove any saved credit cards from retail sites, Shopify and PayPal. Let’s add some barriers to buying, shall we? Saved settings make it too easy to click a few buttons and forget about what you did until a box shows up at your doorstep the following week.
4. Limit your time on Instagram to avoid being targeted by ads and seeing photos of people wearing all of the cute clothes and accessories that you believe will improve your life if you have them.
5. Don’t step foot inside any clothing stores during this time. Why even tempt yourself?
6. If you do find yourself contemplating a purchase, step away from the store or computer screen. Go for a walk. Make yourself a snack. Call a friend. Basically, put some time and space between you and the thing you want to buy, and if you must, bookmark it for later. If you’re still thinking about it after the month is up, go for it (but I’m willing to bet you’ve moved on).