10 Little Notes to Stop Buying Things You Don’t Need

If you need to stop buying things you don’t need, give yourself reminders (little notes) to consider when you are about to buy something you don’t need. It may be enough of a pause to help you stop.

Before I did the Project 333 challenge for the first time, I shopped on a very regular basis. I bought things I didn’t need all the time. I shopped for new events, new seasons and new emotions. If I was having a good day, I bought things because I felt good. If I had a bad day, I bought things because I wanted to feel better.

Sometimes shopping was a celebration, but other times it was just a distraction from the pain. When we are bored, overwhelmed, sad or otherwise distressed, we do whatever we can to make it go away. Some of us drink or scroll and some of us buy things we don’t need.

Part of the Project 333 challenge is not buying anything new for three months. Doing this challenge changed my relationship with stuff and shopping (especially clothes and other wardrobe items). Whether you want to know how to stop spending money on clothes or how to stop buying things you don’t need in general, a little challenge or experiment will help.

Any kind of shopping ban or no-spend challenge will help you stop buying things you don’t need. You also need consistent reminders about why this is important to you. These little notes will help you stop buying things you don’t need.

1. I have paid enough.

Realizing I have paid enough helped me let go with more ease and resist buying new things. I paid with my money, my time, my attention and my emotions. There is no benefit or need for me to keep paying. Accepting the fact that I had paid enough allowed me to cut the ties that bind stuff, shopping, emotion and letting go.

Knowing you paid enough will help you stop buying things you don’t need because you know how hard it is to let go of things you don’t care about because you spent money on them. Haven’t you paid enough too?

2. I can enjoy my favorite things if I only own my favorite things.

How many coffee cups, holiday ornaments, water bottles, t-shirts, jeans, candles, vases, and other “things” do you own. I used to have so many of all of those things even though I always my had my favorites of each. When it all matters, none of it matters. If you want to enjoy your favorite things, only own your favorite things. Hold on to what matters, let go of the rest.

3. I don’t want my legacy to be containers full of stuff.

Think about what will happen to all the stuff you buy that you don’t need. Will it end up in another container buried in the garage or basement? Who will have to sort through all of that stuff? I don’t want my legacy to be containers full of stuff. I want my legacy to be how I loved while I was here, not the meaningless things I left behind.

4. I have enough to take care of already.

It’s likely that you are already at your max in terms of things to manage and take care of. If you ever feel like you have to “organize your stuff” chances are you have too much stuff. One of the reasons we are so easily overwhelmed is because we have so much to deal with. By turning your focus from organizing to living with less, you can create more margin so when bigger things happen they don’t completely upend your life. You need a buffer and some margin for the unexpected. Let’s face it, if organizing worked, we’d be organized by now.

5. Nothing I buy will make me a better person.

Reflect on how you feel about past impulse purchases. More stuff never made you a better person. Stop buying things you don’t need because it never makes you feel like a better person. It doesn’t make you feel happier (for long) and eventually you are struggling to declutter the thing you never really wanted in the first place.

Buying things isn’t bad or wrong, but shopping to feel a certain way, or to prove yourself to others or because you think something will make you feel happier or more successful doesn’t work (at least not in my experience).

6. I want more life, not more stuff.

Think about how you want to spend your time, energy and money. Is it really on more stuff? I want to invest my resources on actually living and enjoying life.

7. I can return that.

If you do buy something during a shopping ban, or over do it during a sale and momentarily forget about why you want to change your shopping habits, instead of judging yourself or giving yourself a hard time, remember that you can likely return whatever is weighing you down and move on.

8. What do I actually want?

Ask this question just before or after you “add to cart” or make an impulse purchase. How do you think that buying this thing you don’t need is going to make you feel? Is there another way to feel that way, to get what you actually want.

9. This is not an emergency.

Timing is everything, especially when it comes to an impulse purchase. Pause your purchase for at least 30 days and see if you are still as excited about it as you were initially. Chances are the desire will pass. For more reinforcement, look around your house. If you had all of your money, time and energy back from buying all the stuff there, would you spend it the same way?

10. Owning less = cleaning less!

This is the simplest one of all and the one that always makes me think twice before buying something new. I really don’t want to clean more.

Sometimes, especially if you are just going through the motions, or stuck in a pattern of shopping to buy your way out of feeling what you feel, or holding on to things out of guilt, it’s hard to detect the real hold that stuff and shopping have on you. Once you begin to simplify, you will see how your shopping and spending habits really affect your life and you can shift accordingly.

Use these little notes as reminders or mantras to help you stop buying things you don’t need. They can help you change your relationship with stuff and shopping.