The #1 Money Saving Strategy You Haven't Tried Yet: The Buy Nothing Challenge

Hey mamas! ✨ If you're looking to save money, reduce waste, and build a supportive community, this episode is for you.

Join me, Katie Kurpanek, as I unpack the secrets behind the Buy Nothing Challenge and share practical tips to help you start saving today.

Discover how this powerful movement can drastically reduce your monthly expenses, build stronger bonds with neighbors, and lower your carbon footprint.

Plus, get a sneak peek into what I teach inside The Eco-Minded Mama Collective, our vibrant online community supporting sustainable living...
 
Tune in now and transform your spending habits! 💚

Pssst--
🌟 Welcome to Jumpstart June! 🌟 June is my favorite month because there is so much I'm personally celebrating, and I'd love to spread the joy by gifting YOU a FREE month inside our Eco-Minded Mama Collective! ➡️ Use the code JUMPSTART at checkout to receive one free month and let's jumpstart your sustainable living journey with instant access to everything you need to start saving money & reducing your stress levels + carbon footprint!

⏰ code expires at midnight on June 30th, 2024

Transcript

Katie Kurpanek: 0:00

Hi mamas! Welcome back to the show. So if you are trying to save money in any capacity, maybe you are trying to get out of debt, or you're trying to just build up a basic savings account, if you are trying to save for like a vacation, whatever it is, if you're trying to just reduce the overall cost of your monthly bills, I have the ultimate money saving hack for you. And don't be thrown off by the name it is. It seems simple, but it's called the Buy Nothing challenge. Okay, buy nothing challenge, really? Does that mean like buy absolutely nothing? How is that even possible? I thought the same thing when I first heard of it, and I was like, Okay, this is not going to work for me. So it really is a thing though, this is something that people are embracing all over the world. And there is a basic framework to it. Today, we're going to unpack the overall structure and framework and give you some tips so that you can get started with a Buy Nothing challenge and start saving your money today. Hi, I'm Katie, if we haven't met yet, I am a mama, a coach and a podcaster, who is empowering eco minded mamas like yourself to live sustainably, which basically just means living a life that is saving money and reducing waste so that you can live with overall less stress in your life. And who doesn't want that. So let's get into it. So I'm going to give you a little glimpse of what I teach inside The Eco-Minded Mama Collective. This is an online membership program that I have created. And we have an entire module dedicated to this inside the collective. We're actually currently at the time of this recording, going through a Buy Nothing challenge together. But I am going to give you a glimpse into what I teach and why this matters. So three reasons why the Buy Nothing challenge could really matter to you. Number one, obviously, it is like the ultimate cost saver if you are buying nothing, or at least, you're not buying as much as you used to with things that you really don't need, or, you know, you could make do with what you have, or you could get it for free somewhere else, right. The second reason that this can matter to you is that it builds community. So we will get into this exactly. But this is actually a really great way to just get to know your neighbors, or to do something really fun with your friends or your family. And it is so much more fun and community, I will tell you that. And then the third reason why this could really matter to you, it reduces your overall level of consumption, which is then reducing your personal carbon footprint. And imagine if everybody was doing that, if everybody was just trying to reduce their carbon footprint by buying a little bit less stuff that they didn't actually need, like what a dent we would make. So a little background, the official Buy Nothing challenge was started by two friends in Washington back in 2013. They basically just wanted to design a space where their community could share resources with each other for free with absolutely no strings attached. Like just say thank you. That's it. That's all they want. And it has now taken off, the movement exploded since then. And now there are Buy Nothing groups all over the world, there is an app for that. So you might have seen like a Buy Nothing Facebook group in your neighborhood, they're popping up all over the place. And so basically, you can give or request material items, even services. So I have seen or requested or given away like the most random things, anything from food, to clothing to home goods, even like sourdough starters, or gardening help and services, containers that I have no use for and I don't want to just toss them in the recycling bins, but somebody else could use them. Like you name it, you could probably find it there. So the thing is, we have an abundance of stuff in this world. And really, we could be sharing all of this with each other, the world would be a much better place because of it, we would be so much more interconnected. And like thankful for what we have, right? And we wouldn't be producing so much excess waste if we really just shared an abundance of resources with each other. So that's the ultimate goal of a Buy Nothing experience. Here's what might trip you up though. And in the module within The Eco-Minded Mama Collective, we go fully in depth in this. But there are three things that could trip you up. So number one is your current spending habits. It can be really, really hard. I know from personal experience, to change your personal spending habits, especially if it has become a habit like something that you just don't even really think about. You're used to making specific purchases or just like scrolling on your phone and something pops up that looks really cute. And you want that and so you just buy it. And there is no shame or judgment here like we've all been there. So it can be really hard to change your spending habits. But if you are wanting to save money if for whatever reason, like we talked about at the beginning, then changing your spending habits is just part of that process. So let's talk about how to do this together. The second thing that can trip you up is having an all or nothing mindset, if you feel like you are going to have to go from your current habits, whatever they are to like, absolutely buying nothing like taking the name of this challenge at face value, and like really, you know, full stop. That's just, I don't think that's really possible for most people. And that's not even like the goal of this challenge. It's just a clever name. Okay, so don't get hung up on that, it's not all or nothing. And then the third thing that could trip you up is a lack of resources. So if you don't know how to even do a challenge like this, what is the framework? How do you even get started, if you don't have access to like a Buy Nothing group or some kind of community in your area, then obviously, that will trip you up. So we are going to address all of those things briefly in this podcast episode, and then I can point you towards more resources at the end. So a couple of tips that I share within The Eco-Minded Mama Collective that will help you if you are trying to embrace a Buy Nothing challenge for yourself. First, like just get really clear on what it is exactly that you want out of this challenge. Do you want to stop buying items within a particular category, like, maybe there are a lot of like makeup items, or like personal care items that you actually have a lot of, and you really don't need anymore, it's just become like, a very enjoyable thing to go and buy more of them. So whatever that is, maybe you want to like reduce or just buy less of it so that you can save more money, maybe it's clothing, maybe for your kids, maybe it's toys, maybe your kids have an abundance of toys, and they have really generous family members or friends who are also giving them toys, and you just don't need to be like buying any more of that for a certain season. That could be a category, right? So hone in on what it is exactly that you feel like you could give up buying for just a little while. And that leads me to my second point, you need to establish a timeline for yourself that is actually realistic. So it doesn't just mean cold turkey, you are never ever ever going to buy these things again, right? You could establish your own timeline, is it going to be for a week, start really simple? Is it going to be a whole month? Is it going to be for a season, like what are the parameters of your timeline? And once you've established that, then the third thing that you're going to need is some sort of a framework to help you stick to that. So I like to recommend to my eco minded mamas inside the Collective, to take an inventory of whatever those belongings are that fit within that category that you're trying to reduce, right look through your home, see how much of a certain item or category of items you have. And then when you are taking that inventory, I want you to create like a list of green light items, yellow light items, and red light items, what are the green light items that are okay for you to be buying within this category, some of it is going to be essential like food or you know, some sort of personal care that you really can't go without, these are gonna be green light items, you're not going to worry about that, you have to buy them. Yellow Light items are like, ah, you know, maybe there could be a reason but you're not really sure if you need to buy these things right now you might feel it out. Red light items are going to be like, Absolutely not for no reason whatsoever, during the specific timeframe that I've set for myself, am I going to be buying these items. So then when you actually start the challenge, because remember, you have set a timeframe for yourself. So you need to have a start date and an end date. When you go through this challenge, then you have some parameters to fill out. And it is so much easier, like I said before, to do this within community, because if you do it with a group of people, you can all be holding each other accountable. But you can also be sharing your abundance of resources for free so that you're not having to go buy anything within these categories. If you don't have anybody who wants to do this with you right now but you need a community to be sharing with then you could check like Facebook, for example, look for your neighborhood's name and see if there is already a Buy Nothing group, you know, in the Facebook search bar. You could also download the Buy Nothing Project app and see if there's anything in your area that you could connect with through that portal. But honestly, if you want to go through a challenge that is super structured, and has a community of mom friends who are already in it, and has a whole bunch of resources, then The Eco-Minded Mama Collective could be for you. So I actually created a spreadsheet, because I love organization. So I created a spreadsheet for you that helps you to get all of this set up. It helps you to identify your goals to write down why this is important to you. It helps you to go through that inventory of your items that we talked about the red light yellow light green light items, and then it helps keep you organized throughout the challenge. So that is already created for you. You don't have to do anything other than just like fill it out. And then like I said we have a whole community of mamas who are in this together and can be supporting you in real time. You could be choosing to do like a category specific Buy Nothing challenge. So like we said before, it's just this one category of clothing or toys or home decor or makeup or something like that. You could also just do like a monthly buying nothing experiment. So you're just committing to one month of limiting your spending to only essentials. So you can create whatever those essentials are in your green light category, and then put in your yellow light and red light items. But it's a little bit more like up to you on what you want to do. You could do a seasonal buying nothing challenge where you do this every single season. And just figure out what makes the most sense to you in the winter, or what makes most sense to you in the summer. However, that looks. Some people really take this far and they commit to an entire year of limiting their spending to only their essentials, or their green light items. But whatever this looks like for you, whatever amount of dollars that you end up saving is more than what you had before. So you really can't lose here, it's at least worth a shot. And if you are interested in trying this with our community that is already doing it for the month of June, I have another piece of exciting news for you. So the month of June is personally my favorite month because I have my birthday in June, I have my wedding anniversary in June, Father's Day, like there are just so many things back to back celebrations for me personally. And so I absolutely love the joy that comes with this month. And as part of that joy, I want to share a gift with you. I'm calling it Jumpstart June. So this is going to be a month where I am offering a completely free month of membership to The Eco-Minded Mama Collective for you. I have no idea if I will ever even offer this again. It's just something that I thought of and was like you know what, we're going to do it right now. So to help me celebrate my favorite month with you, I would love to have you join our Eco-Minded Mama Collective, take part in this challenge and then take part in all the other awesome things that we have going on. We've got a digital library of video lessons that can help you to live sustainably. So some of it has to deal with the Buy Nothing challenge. But it also has to do with all these other facets of what it means to live sustainably as a mama. And then there are other perks like we have giveaways for the challenge winners. We have Live Q&As with various experts. We support each other in real time and brainstorm our problems together and build like an online community of mom friends. It's amazing. One mama member named Shannon, she recently posted one of her small wins inside the group, because we celebrate each other big or small a win is a win. And so she said, The other day I popped into Target to get a prescription and I wasn't tempted to buy anything unnecessary. I just thought about the effort it would take to store it, how I might need to replace it because it wasn't well made, and how my money could be better spent elsewhere. It's so freeing. I absolutely love hearing stories like that and supporting each other in real time. So if you want to be a part of this, and start saving your money and building a community of friends while you're at it, then use the code JUMPSTART at checkout, that's all linked in the show notes for you so that you can access one month for free for The Eco-Minded Mama Collective and just try it out. See if it's for you. Again, all of this is linked in the episode description. I hope that you will check it out and I'll see you on the inside. Next week, I will be back with more sustainable living tips. I'll talk to you then.