The No-Buy Year
We're in a new year and for many, it's a time to set goals and resolutions, especially financial goals. As prices climb and the economy shifts, it's definitely a good time to reevaluate our spending habits and determine our financial goals for this year and beyond. Good financial management might seem like magic, but it's really a skillset- and any skillset can be developed with the right training.
Jessie, creator of the website How I Fund This, writes about how she became frustrated with the "lack of transparency" in discussions about money. This frustration inspired her to help others manage their personal finances and she has now developed a community of 40,000 people driven toward their financial goals.
After coming across Jessie's posts about doing a "no-buy year," I decided to reach out and learn more about her project and get some ideas on how to have a successful financial year.
starting a personal finance journey
Where should people begin when they want to start a personal financial journey?
I think starting with your ‘why’ is important. Why do you want to start a personal
finance journey, and what are you hoping to achieve with it? It’ll help when the
motivation wanes - and it will! - because naturally, a personal finance journey never
really ends. Our lives evolve and with that so do our priorities and values. There will also
be new situations and scenarios that we need to figure out. This means our ‘why’ may
change as well but being able to embrace those changes can make a big difference in
the sustainability of the journey.
What are the biggest mistakes that people make when trying to manage their money?
There’s definitely a sense of trying to commit to big changes; for example, someone
might message me to say they’re currently spending £200 on clothing and they now
want to cut this down to £20 a month. While I am all for being ambitious, I think we
often forget that improving our personal finances is a long game and incremental
changes in the right direction can help us commit to these changes for the long-term.
Plus we’re more likely to succeed when we implement small changes over a long period
of time.
The No-Buy Year
What made you decide to have a no-buy year?
When I was furnishing my home from scratch someone said to me, “it’s quite
surprising how little we actually need” and that’s something that’s stuck with me;