Buy Nothing Challenge Week 4 Update

Final Update May 8, 2009

I finally reached the end of the buy nothing challenge on April 30. Check out week 1, week 2, week 3 updates.

It has been a week since I finished this challenge, and I waited to write about my results because I wanted to see how I felt, and whether I really shopped once the challenge was over.

I was thrilled that I reached the end of this challenge, and here are the results.

What did you start doing that you will you keep doing?

I am planning on running my kitchen very lean from now on. I definitely don’t need to keep as much food around as I thought I did. My Costco membership might get rusty, but I was keeping way too much food in the house, because I was always worried that the fresh things were going to spoil. Even though I rarely threw anything away, I was eating too much in hopes of stopping things from spoiling. This was silly, but since I would buy things in bulk, I didn’t want to see things to to waste, particularly fruit.

Now I will be much more likely to shop lot smaller, or if I do buy the economy size, I’m going to just buy one variety of fruit at a time. I think this has really changed the way I think about groceries. Before the buy nothing challenge, I really liked having my kitchen stocked, and now I realize I can run it 75% leaner and not notice too much of a difference.

This will cost less and make me leaner over time too. I’m a ‘see food’ kind of eater. When I wander into the kitchen and see food that looks good, I want to eat, whether I’m hungry or not. This can stop by simply having less of everything around and shopping less.

I have also been noticing that in the week since the buy nothing challenge has been over that I have really still not felt like shopping. I originally thought that I would want to go shopping right away after it was over, and that I would go back to normal. Turns out, this is not the case. Doing this project has really slowed me down in the shopping department.

Yesterday I finally decided that it was time to go to the supermarket at least to get some fresh fruits and vegetables. When I got there I didn’t feel like shopping at all. I ended up getting a big container of organic baby spinach, a tomato, croutons and caesar salad dressing. Looks like I’m eating spinach caesar salads all weekend.

Originally I was worried that when I went back to the supermarket I would doing an expensive restock of my refrigerator that would negate the gain from doing the buy nothing challenge. So far, I just haven’t felt like doing this.

I also really like going to exercise classes, like kickboxing that I started going to. I’m going to definitely keep doing that because it is very time efficient and I don’t have to think a lot about my workouts. I like just showing up and playing follow the leader. I’ve noticed more muscle tone and definition, and it also forces me to do cardio, which I really dreaded before. I probably wouldn’t have started this if I didn’t feel like I needed to get out and try free social activities.

What is the first thing you bought when the buy nothing challenge was over?

Deodorant. I ran out on Saturday April 25 (Day 25). To make up for the time which I didn’t have deodorant I used some body powder that I found while rummaging through my bathroom cabinets. This wasn’t terribly effective, but I was determined. Deodorant was nearly the straw that broke the camel’s back for this challenge. First it was toilet paper in week 1, now deodorant. I figured I had already gotten to day 25, so I didn’t want to break down and buy anything, so I used body powder and took extra showers. Not terribly sexy, but it worked. By Thursday (Day 30), this really had to stop, but I managed to hold out until Friday May 1. My first expense was $5.34 for Secret Invisible Solid. Not refined, not stylish, but necessary.

What did you miss?

Chocolate and fresh fruit. Once I ran out of the chocolate I had stocked, I didn’t really have any way to get more without breaking down and buying it. I noticed that I had a huge sugar craving that I didn’t realize was so strong until the means of sating it had run out. Usually I keep a lot of fresh fruit around too, but think that this might be contributing to me snacking all day long.

This sugar craving has been messing with my mood and sabotaging my physical goals. I’ve noticed in the past that eating sugar puts me on an emotional roller coaster where I feel good at first and then crash an hour later and get really irritable. I thought that I wasn’t really eating that much of it, but usually at night I get a craving for something sweet, and the small stock of dark chocolate I was keeping around was usually satisfying.

Since the challenge has been over, I haven’t wanted to go out to buy more because I don’t want to get on the same roller coaster again.

How will you keep from spending the money that you saved during the 30 days while trying to restock your refrigerator?

I was originaly worried about this but have changed my mind. I haven’t wanted to go shopping and now view it as a chore more than ever. I don’t know if this feeling will fade, but I’m content to keep purging the contents of my freezer for right now. I know I’ll eventually want some more fresh fruit, but yesterday my Mom gave me some pears and avocados, and that is enough for right now.

I’m going to keep raiding the stock of food I already have until I feel like shopping. There is definitely no hurry in this department so I’m going to wait until I feel like it.

Would you ever go 30 days without buying anything again?

It might be a nice way to clean out my refrigerator, if I feel like my spending gets out of control again or things are going to waste. I’m definitely not committing to it right now though, while it was instructive, it was harder than I thought it would be.

Are you going to do any more 30 day challenges?

Probably. I learned a lot from this one. It was interesting to have the accountability of my readers and friends who asked about how it was going. I didn’t break down and buy things lots of times because of the thought that I’d have to write about it and publicly admit to failing.

I might try going to all cash for the next challenge.

This month though, I’m taking a break.

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