How to Begin a Low-Spend Year

Have you seen the Buy Now documentary on Netflix? Oof. It was hard to watch. The gist of the show is telling the story of how consumers have been programmed by big corporations (going back to 1925) to continually buy and buy and buy until we’re all broke. Our houses are all full of plastic junk that breaks so quickly that we have to buy more plastic junk to replace it, and before you know it we’re all financially strained and our homes are cluttered.

I think some people are finally waking up and taking back their power after being programmed to spend! I have been seeing a trend of underconsumption on social media, and I’m diggin’ it. People are leaning into underconsumption for many different reasons, but it seems to be unifying people, and I love seeing the results people are getting with their no-spend months and years. I saw one lady on TikTok in the UK who had a goal of saving four thousand pounds this year, and she hit the mark by August! As of this month she had already hit seven thousand pounds, expected to double her original goal by next month, and decided to keep going to hit a nice round number of ten thousand pounds. (Currently that’s around $12,600 US.)

I will definitely be doing a low-spend year in 2025, and while I’m still working on my parameters, here are some of the things I’ve learned so far to help you begin your own low-spend year.

Beginning a Low-spend year begins by saying no to excessive packages. Photo by Claudio Schwarz

What are Some Reasons for Beginning a Low- Spend Year?

I have seen many reasons on social media that people are using to take a spending break and dive into a low-spend year. Here are just a few:

Get out of debt faster.
Build up savings.
Be more disciplined and break bad spending habits.
Save for a specific item (sinking fund).
Offset spending from a period of excess spending (hello holidays).
Gain financial awareness.
Focus on non-materialistic aspects of life.
Increase sustainability. Less spending equals less objects you own and less impact to the earth.
Reduce stress by helping to alleviate financial strain.
Strengthen family relationships by aligning financial priorities and spending time together in cost-free ways.

My personal reasons for beginning a low-spend year are two-fold. The main reason is that I’d like to increase my family’s sustainability. It is way too easy to open the Amazon app and order plastic $h!+ that will be here by tomorrow. We don’t need all of that overindulgence in our house. (You can read my post about how to reduce plastic consumption here.) Secondly, I’d like to focus my spending this year on travel and a couple of larger purchases for the house, and that will be easier to do when I’m not buying frivolous junk, takeout coffee, and overall excess.

Beginning a Low-spend year starts by listing your areas of need and your goals. Photo by Hannah Olinger

How to Begin a Low Spend Year

Take Inventory

In order to begin a low-spend year, first you’ll want to take inventory of your areas of overspending. For some folks, this can be excessive buying of makeup, haircare products and other toiletries before the existing products have run out. For others, this could mean clothing or home decor shopping, eating out, daily Starbies, or mindlessly filling a cart at Target when boredom strikes. Go through your bank account item by item and take note of frequent areas of spending. If you’re super motivated, print the last couple months of statements and use colored highlighters to separate by category.

Take inventory of lifestyle changes a low-buy year will mean for you. If you aren’t buying lunch out each day, this could mean a small increase in your grocery budget to accommodate. If you’re not buying coffee out each day, make sure you have the tools to make what you like at home.

Also, make a list of any monthly subscriptions you can immediately live without, especially those you don’t use. If you have half a dozen streaming services currently, can you temporarily live with one? Or decrease to one on a quarterly rotation? If you’re not using your Kindle Unlimited or Audible subscription, would it affect your life to unsubscribe? These choices will have the most immediate impact on your budget.

Write Everything Down

After taking inventory, write every single thing down. This could mean journaling in your planner or notes section of your phone or making lists. Write down your financial and lifestyle goals, the areas you hope to improve, and your plan. You cannot be too detailed!

Determine Your Low-Spend Year Restrictions

In your written plan, detail the areas you plan to restrict. Will you be saying no to every single type of spending, or only certain areas such as restaurants, clothing or makeup? I’ve also heard some peoples’ limits sound like, “restaurant budget only $30 per month, but no drive through and must be sit down with friends.” Will you restrict spending to replacements only, or an overall spending restriction? Be very specific. You don’t have to have the same rules for every category of spending.

Determine Your Low-Spend Year Allowances

This is a completely optional area, but you could set some allowances for yourself. For example, I have a couple of birthdays in the month of January that I always buy for. An allowance in your rules (and budget) each month for gifts makes sense.

You can also allow yourself some areas of allowed spending to make up for areas you’re restricting. For example, if your physical book budget used to be $50 per month and you’ve committed to not buying any physical books during 2025, a monthly allowance of $12 for Kindle Unlimited would be a significant savings and still feed your reading habit, while not allowing you to accumulate any new physical books. If you’re a daily takeout coffee drinker, making an allowance of one coffee per week instead could make the low-spend more sustainable than completely cutting yourself off. Or make your rules based on social allowances. Maybe allowing yourself coffee with friends will be allowable but coffee alone is not. Be disciplined with yourself, but not so strict that you become frustrated and give up.

How to begin a no-spend year. Photo by Mona Jain

Success Tips for Beginning a Low-Spend Year

Here are just a few tips to set you up for success:

No window shopping. Even if you don’t buy anything, storing the thing you want (mentally “adding to cart”) gives you a cheap dopamine hit, and this is the part of shopping that is addictive. Find new ways to entertain yourself. Start a new hobby! (You can find some suggestions to stay busy this winter here.)
Unfollow everyone on social media that will lead you astray. This means companies and influencers that could lead you to purchase items, sales, hauls, etc. If Insta, Facebook or TikTok is still a huge trigger for spending, delete social media altogether.
Unsubscribe from as many shopping-related emails as possible. You can always resubscribe later, and I doubt you’ll miss them!
Call a family meeting to help get everyone on the same page and set spending boundaries. As the mother of two teenage girls, I realize that this can be met with some resentment. Remember that teaching this skill to your kids while they’re young will help them to be successful adults. Give each family member a voice to make positive contributions and own a part of your low-spend year.
Shop your closet and your existing haircare and makeup stash. Use Pinterest for inspiration on how to put your outfits together in new and exciting ways. This will break you out of your style rut and make you feel excited about what you already own. I recommend this book to help you find your personal style and encourage you to work with what you have.
Find an accountability partner. This could be a friend, family member, partner or spouse. Share as many details as you are comfortable.
Find a new hobby. Be careful with this, because some hobbies can be very expensive. Replace the cheap dopamine hit shopping used to give you with your new hobby.
Normalize saying no to your friends. It’s okay to say that an item or activity is not in your budget. Chances are that you might not be the only one in your friend group who feels like they shouldn’t be spending the money right now. Or say yes to the social aspect but no to the spending. Start a monthly potluck or progressive dinner party with friends!

How to begin a low-spend year. Photo by Giulia Bertelli

I’m still working on the specific details of my own low-spend year, but I have my goals written out and my lists of restrictions and allowances started. I’m looking forward to seeing my growth in the coming year!