Re-starting My Fashion No-Buy Challenge For the Rest of the Year

At the start of the year I was feeling really motivated to embark on a fashion no-buy, but I think I just chickened out and reworked it into a “low buy” year. Then, I failed miserably at my no/low buy challenge.

I failed at a "No Buy." This is what I'm doing instead.

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February 21, 2025

At the beginning of January there was a buzz of people sharing their “no buy year” and I was inspired. I’d also just watched the documentary “Buy Now” while sick on the couch and that was eye opening show. I was feeling the momentum toward significantly reducing consumption and naturally jump on the bandwagon.

But somethings shifted in me the other day when I went to the mall with my sister to get our ears pierced. That sentence makes me sound like I’m in high school, but I’m in fact a 38 year old grown women with three kids, husband named, Joel, and a mortgage payment.

Anyways, as we walked around the mall with our new piercings browsing clothes I suggested we go into Madewell because I wanted to try on a pair of pants. My sister agreed and we went in. I tried on a few pieces along with the pants I was searching for and it just hit me. I don’t need these pants. The only reason I even thought to go into this store for these pants was because about two days prior someone on instagram posted about them. They were army green utility pants that definitely don’t live on any inspiration board of mine or were even in my brain as a possible addition to my wardrobe, but there I was seeking them out to try-on all because they looked cute on someone else I don’t even know from the internet.

It was my what-the-hell-am-I-doing moment that made me realize I wasn’t driving my fashion choices anymore, the internet was, which also made me realize I was still far from cultivated my personal style.

When I think about my “personal style” as novel I’m currently writing Chapter 5. Previous chapters in chronological order were Chapter 1: I’m a kid and my parents dress me, Chapter 2: I’m in high school and I want to fit in, Chapter 3: I’m a 20-something with an income and started a “fashion” blog, and Chapter 4: I’m pregnant or breastfeeding, nothing fits and I just want to be comfortable, but I can’t live in pjs, but also want to kind of look stylish.

My goal for Chapter 5’s title it something like—When I stopped caring about what other people think and wear what makes me feel good, fits me well and I don’t really care to follow trends, because I’ve developed my own personal taste. That day at the mall made me realize I’m never going to develop my own personal taste if I’m always trying to keep up with the fashion zietgeist of social media.

*Fashion no-buy challenge re-enters the chat*

So, on a random Thursday at the end of May I decided I re-boot my fashion no-buy challenge from the beginning of the year with some tweaks, deeper motivations and more confidence at success.

In the rest of this post I’m sharing:

• My no-buy rules

• My second motivation for doing a no-buy challenge

• What I think went wrong with my initial failed low-buy

• Mini challenges I’m doing within the no-buy year

Before I dive into my actual no-buy rules for the challenge I wanted to touch on my other motivation for this challenge. I want to break up with my shopping habit. While I’ve always tried to be mindful of my consumption by purchases secondhand and investing in quality pieces made with natural fibers, I’m realizing I’ve used shopping— wether it’s online or at a thrift shop—as more of a hobby and less of an intentional act.

I’m not someone who’s in credit card debt from shopping, but I find myself online shopping, even if it’s just browsing, more often then I’d like to admit. I think a big reason why I failed on my last challenge was because I shifted to a “low buy,” which almost fueled my online window shopping addiction searching for the one monthly new purchase I’d allotted myself. I was spending wwwwwaaaayyy too much time analyzing, searching and thinking about the perfect piece to add for that month. So, this time I’m going for a true no-buy to give myself a clean break from shopping.

My No-Buy Rules:

• No new fashion purchases—this includes clothes, shoes and accessories.

• I can replace broken or lost items (ex. if I lost my winter mittens). If something breaks and I don’t have a similar item them could serve nearly the same purpose I can repurchase it. I find this unlikely to come up but you never know. If I ruin my one favorite ivory t-shirt I wear under most of my sweaters in the cold months I’m going to replace that with the same one.

• I can borrow clothes from people.

• I can make myself new clothes or accessories—knitting, sewing and jewelry making are hobbies I enjoy. I have a large stash of fabric so I find it unlikely I’d need to purchase new fabric, so I’m going to try not to buy more in this area. I could see needing some heavier weight fabric for a pair of winter trousers. With knitting I just started and will buy yarn as needed for projects. I have my next two knitting projects planned out in my head, but will wait to purchase until I finish my current one.

How I’m Setting Myself Up For Success This Time:

• Decluttering my closet. I went through my closet the day after starting the challenge. I decided to just bag up the items I wanted to donate and leave them in the back of my closet. My thought is if/when I get the urge to buy something new I can “shop” my bag of donations. It’s not a huge bag, but it’s a mix of the pieces I thought I could let go of.

• Reorganized so I could see everything I have. I have a jewelry box, but don’t often wear the pieces in it. I moved somethings around so I had better access to my jewelry and displayed my necklaces to make it easier to get ready in the morning.

• I swapped my clothes around to the current season. The weather here in Minnesota seems like it’s going to stay summer from here on out, so I bagged up my deep winter clothes and more fall-ish pieces to ease the process of getting ready everyday.

• Deleted most of my shopping apps. I’m keeping a few like Target and Amazon, because I need them for grocery pickups/deliveries, but the rest got deleted. I might still delete Amazon. I did this at the start of the year because I realized I was making impulse purchases for my kids and house stuff. It really helped me get out of the habit of just making a quick purchase and being more creative with what I already have at home. I try to avoid buying too much for Amazon, but sometimes it’s the only option.

• Allowing myself to make new items. Sewing and knitting are hobbies I enjoy very much. I find if I make it myself I’m much more intentional with what I create because of the time commitment to the piece.

• Creating mini challenges for myself. When I was decluttering my closet I was kind of shocked at how many pieces I’ve never worn or worn only once. To start this challenge, I made myself a mini challenge to incorporate one piece daily I’ve never worn into my outfit until I’ve gone through them all. Today, I’m wearing a really cute vertical yellow and white stripe button down from J.Crew I thrifted a few months ago, but haven’t worn. Other summer fashion challenges I have in mind:

  • Styling short skirts—I have a few that are cute, but I haven’t worn a mini skirt in a long time so I’m feeling a bit intimidated to style them.

  • Recreating outfit inspo from my pinterest board—I recently overhauled my seasonal style boards to be more realistic and less aspirational and it’s been a game changer. I’m realizing I’ve been using pinterest wrong this whole time. More on that in a future post soon!

  • Picking a piece from my clothes and styling 3 times in a week—I have some pieces I wear the same way over-and-over again. I want to push myself to try new ways of styling them.

  • A week of dresses—I have a bunch of cute dresses, but sometimes they make me feel too fancy for my everyday life. I want to challenge myself to try and style them more casually and not just use them for special events.

I’m planning to share an updates on the challenge here, but if there is anything specific you’d like to know please let me know in the comments! I’m also sharing the occasional outfit on instagram if you’d like to follow along there.