6 Months Into My Low Buy Year: Progress, Challenges & Lessons Learned

Ready to throw in the towel?

I’ve officially hit the halfway point of the challenge and I feel like I hit it HARD this month! I made my designated 2 purchases at the start of the month, and then things kinda snowballed. Not in a horrible way, but in a way that has me questioning the rest of the challenge.

Hear me out…

I don’t know that the challenge is serving me anymore. I feel like I’ve proven everything to myself that I set out to:

✅ The no buy year gave me the confidence that I could give up shopping entirely. For 12 months, I didn’t buy any clothing, jewelry, shoes or handbags. This is something that I never thought I’d be able to do!

❌ A 6-ish week rebound period chipped away at the confidence that I had built and in a panic, I decided to do a low buy year. I thought that I was falling back into my old over-consumptive shopaholic ways.

✅ 6 months of the low buy year has taught me that I can be very intentional about my purchases. Not buying clothes, or very few items, has made me realize what types of items that I really like to buy.

I’ve been feeling increasingly unhappy with the current state of my wardrobe. The weather has gotten very hot and I’m rotating between the same few items because I feel like I have nothing to wear. This is something that happens to me every summer with my wardrobe and I hope that one day, I can feel adequately prepared.

As a result, I made an intentional decision to buy more than 2 items this month, resulting in a total of 6 purchases.

So, I’m currently sitting at 17/25 purchases for the year, versus the 12 that I had initially planned for the half-way point. And this reminds me of the famous quote by Scottish poet Robert Burns:

“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

Surprisingly, I don’t feel guilty about this at all, even though I might be jeopardizing the final outcome. I feel at peace with the purchasing decisions that I’ve made up to this point.

Maybe I’ll go on a buying freeze this fall as a course correction when I get to enjoy my cold weather wardrobe and layering again!

Also, I don’t plan to throw in the towel simply because I want to buy a bunch of things - I still want to be really intentional. But I also don’t want to continue to feel miserable about my clothing options. And maybe all of these feelings will pass as I find my hot weather groove (I think the pink/white shirt that I bought might help), but I wanted to be fully transparent with how I’m feeling right now, in case you are currently on a journey and you’re not sure if it’s serving you any more.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you would deal with this situation:

[I’m finishing this newsletter in a more positive headspace that I was when I started it. And while I still don’t know how this year will shake out in the end, I’ll continue to approach it with intentionality and an acceptance of whatever happens!]

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June Purchases

Purchase #1 - “Recycle” T-shirt

I purchased this t-shirt at a local consignment shop at the beginning of the month and even though I had previously bought a cream colored t-shirt (purchase #8), I was drawn to this one because of the longer length and the bright green embroidered “recycle” symbol on the breast. I found it in the men’s department while I was looking for some clothes for my husband and it became the catalyst for a newsletter about The Diderot Effect.

I haven’t worn it as much as I thought I would and if one of my kids stole it from my closet, I’d be okay with it. I do really like how it looks with the jeans in the above picture so I think I’ll get more wear out of it in the fall when it cools down enough to wear it with jeans again!

Purchase #2 - Denim Shirt

In Outfit Diary #28, I wore an oversized denim shirt that I had thrifted a few years ago with my long black slip dress and I had this to say about it:

I really love (almost) everything about this shirt, except I’m starting to feel like it’s a tad too oversized for me and I’d like to eventually replace it. I’m not actively looking for that replacement and I’ll keep this one until I find something that I love!

One week later, I was in a local department store when I came across this Madewell denim shirt jacket on the sale rack. I tried it on and I really enjoyed the fit - slightly oversized but intentionally so. I had originally thought that it would replace my older denim shirt but I really like that one for hot summer days as it’s lighter and I enjoy the oversized fit with a tank top and shorts underneath, à la:

Purchase #3 - Silver Ring w/ Turquoise

I’d fully intended to not buy another item in June after the first 2 but one Sunday, my family and I had visited our favorite antique shop and I’d seen a beautiful silver and turquoise ring there. My intention had been to wait until July to buy it if it was still there.

My daughter had found a turquoise necklace that she really liked but she wasn’t sure that she wanted to spend her money on it so she left the shop empty-handed. After thinking about it for the rest of the day and the next morning, she asked to go back to get it. When we were looking through the jewelry, I couldn’t see the ring anywhere and I figured that someone had bought it since the day before. I felt really sad about it, but then my daughter spotted it, so I decided to just go ahead and buy it now!

Purchase #4 - Navy/White Scarf

I’ve been on the lookout for some larger scarves for styling purposes and a few days later, finding myself back at the antique shop, I came across this navy one with a New York City street map that I immediately liked (it’s from J. Crew so definitely not antique and probably not even vintage).

Knowing that I was eating into my total purchases for the year, but also knowing how long it had taken me to find a scarf that I liked, I decided to buy it.

I envision wearing it a number of different ways this summer - as a head scarf, tied around my neck, over my shoulders for sun protection, as a top, to add some waist definition to looser dresser and as a visual detail between a shirt and pants

Purchase #5 - Blue/White Striped Shirt

For the past few weeks, I’ve been hating most of my clothes - it’s been incredibly hot (it was 90F today) and I haven’t been able to wear a lot of the items that I’ve been enjoying lately, namely jeans.

So, on the morning of the 24th, I made a decision to visit a local consignment shop. I didn’t have a plan to buy any specific items, but I was hoping to find a couple of items that felt like “me” to supplement my summer wardrobe. I usually find summer dressing to be difficult and I end up resorting to the same items over and over, and while I love most of them, I do get a little sick of wearing them so much. After buying nothing last summer and maybe buying too much denim the past few months (aka not preparing for the really hot days), I was sick of standing in front of my closet and feeling like I had nothing to wear.

I was excited to come across this blue/white striped shirt. When I tried it on, it was perfectly oversized and it’s a nice departure from my navy/white striped shirt in terms of both color and fit.

Purchase #6 - Pink/White Striped Shirt

On my way home after buying the blue/white shirt, I had about a half hour before I had to pick my daughter up from a friend’s house so I dropped into another consignment shop that was on the way. I don’t go to this one as much because it’s more expensive. I took a few shirts and a dress into the changing room and the only thing that I really liked was this pink/white striped shirt. It felt like the perfect item to infuse a little fun into my summer style.

The majority of my warm weather staples are devoid of color and I’m honestly quite happy about that but this pepto bismol pink is bringing some excitement back into my wardrobe right now!

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Low Buy Year Total Purchases

So far, I have made 17/25 purchases of my low buy year:

1. Frye Moto Boots* (Jan)

2. Glendalough Woolen Mill Wool Sweater* (Feb)

3. Vintage J.G. Hook Wool Coat* (Feb)

4. Levi’s 90s Jeans (March)

5. Land’s End Jeans* (March)

6. English Factory Maxi Dress* (March)

7. Sahira silver Earrings (April)

8. Orejas T-shirt (April)

9. AMO Tank Top* (April)

10. Madewell Ballet Flats (May)

11. Madewell Barrel Leg Jeans (May)

    

12. “Recycle” T-shirt* (June)

13. Madewell Denim Shirt (June)

14. Vintage Silver Ring* (June)

15. J. Crew Navy Scarf* (June)

16. Cutter & Buck Blue/White Shirt* (June)

17. Pistola Pink/White Shirt* (June)

* secondhand item

I’m really happy to see that 11/17 items were purchased secondhand. For a moment there, I felt like I was buying a lot of new items but looking at the tally up to this point, I’m happy that about 2/3s are secondhand! I think my style feels more unique and authentically “me” when I shop secondhand, which I guess makes perfect sense!

More Low Buy Updates

Low Buy Year 2025 - January Summary

Low Buy Year 2025 - February Summary

Low Buy Year 2025 - March Summary

Low Buy Year 2025 - April Summary

Low Buy Year 2025 - May Summary

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6 Lessons after 6 Months

1. Things don’t always go as planned - I’m somewhat of a planner and definitely a perfectionist, so setting rules for myself is something that I do to hold myself accountable. I really thought that by setting a limit of 2 items/month, I would be able to spread the purchases out and increase the likelihood that I would only buy 25 items or less. But I’m feeling more scarcity with my warm weather wardrobe than I did with my cold weather one and I didn’t account for that.

2. Low Buy > No Buy - while the no buy year gave me the confidence that I didn’t need to shop, the low buy year is teaching me how to shop with patience and intention, even in the secondhand market where I used to overconsume because of FOMO. It feels more sustainable to have a limit on purchases instead of a complete ban.

3. Less is more - I’ve followed this philosophy in terms of my home for years but have only been able to properly apply it to my closet in the past few years while doing these challenges. In the past, I used capsule wardrobes as a way of achieving a more minimalist wardrobe but stopping and then slowing my clothing consumption, while also decluttering items that I no longer want, has been instrumental in actually achieving a more minimalist wardrobe.

4. Deprivation shouldn’t be the goal - when I did the no buy year, there were times where I felt like deprivation was the goal, and it didn’t matter if I was miserable. And as a result, I rebounded by buying a lot of clothes at the end of the challenge. I started to feel those same feelings of deprivation this month and instead of suffering through them, I decided to bend my rules a little to account for them.

5. Things get harder in the middle - or maybe it just gets harder for me because it’s summer. Either way, the 6 month mark is when I started to struggle during my no buy year and also where I’m experiencing my first struggle during this low buy year. I also think that when you choose to do a year long challenge, everything seems exciting in the beginning and there’s also excitement at the end but at the halfway point, you start to question if you’ve learned all that you need to.

6. Better idea of personal style - when I went to the consignment earlier this week without a plan, I still didn’t bother with every item that I really liked, which is something that I did in the past. I was able to identify which items I knew would work for my lifestyle and which ones would work best with my existing wardrobe, My goal wasn’t to entirely revamp my wardrobe, just to find a few items to compliment what I already have and to make it feel fresh again.

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I’m curious about a few things:

As always, thanks so much for reading! If you enjoyed the post, please leave a 🖤 and maybe consider sharing it 🫶🏻