Fed up with their spending habits and overconsumption, they participated in the 'no buy' challenge. Here's what you can learn from them.

The phenomenon of "no buy months" and "no buy years" has grown in popularity recently on social media sites like TikTok, where users chronicle their mission to ditch overconsumption for more mindful spending habits. While everyone's list looks a little different, it typically includes not buying any new clothes unless it's necessary (think a specific outfit needed for a friend's wedding), only replacing makeup and skin care when it runs out and no new shoes until they wear out. Or not buying coffee outside the house (in other words, make it yourself), meal prepping more often rather than ordering takeout and canceling subscriptions you don't need.

For many people, this is already how they live their lives. But for those who struggle not to shop, these lists can be helpful, whether they're looking to get out of debt or are simply sick of buying things they don't need — and they're turning to social media to hold themselves accountable. But that doesn't mean the goal of ditching overspending comes so easily.

It certainly didn't for Elysia Berman, even though at one point her debt was “catastrophically unmanageable," the New York City content creator and creative director in the beauty industry tells Yahoo Life. "I was really concerned for my future and my safety."

Because of her spending on clothing, shoes and beauty products, friends joked that the 35-year-old Berman was like "Carrie Bradshaw, but with black combat boots." But her mounting bills were no HBO plotline: She found herself in debt for around $48,000. A frequent user of "buy now, pay later" options, Berman realized she was facing more of a shopping addiction than a "cutesy little spending habit." She decided that 2024 would be a "no buy year."

"I was like, I can either let this narrative run me, or I can take control and change it," Berman says. "There has never been a moment in my adult life where I've been responsible with money. I just got really fed up with myself."

Aspiring to have enough money in savings so she could handle an emergency or a layoff, Berman used her 401(k) to help pay down debt and started following "minimalist-ish" creator Christina Mychas on YouTube. However, that's not to say Berman didn't have times when she slipped back into old habits. After her dog died, the first thing she turned to was buying clothing. But instead of viewing it as something shameful, she saw it as a necessary step in her progress.

"You didn't fail at your goals because you broke one rule," Berman says. "One time doesn't derail a year of progress."

Fighting the impulse to shop

That emotional impulse to shop during a challenging time isn't unusual, says Tracy McCubbin, a decluttering expert and chief executive officer of dClutterfly, who points out that pandemic overbuying took us to an "all-time high of consumption."

"We were all locked in our houses, bored, shopping and stressed out about the future. So somehow hitting 'buy now' and having it shipped overnight through Prime gave us a little bit of comfort," McCubbin tells Yahoo Life. "We are biologically built to be hunters and gatherers, so when we find something, we get a hit of dopamine."

However, not all people who take part in "no buy months" or "no buy years" have serious financial issues. Julianna Simmons, 31, an Austin, Texas, content creator, simply wanted to stop herself from spending up to $200 several times a week at stores like Target on home decor and items for her two children.

She had heard of "no spending weeks" on social media and wanted to try it out for a month as a challenge. She told herself that if she stuck to the plan, she could buy something she really wanted. However, Simmons tells Yahoo Life that "doing something challenging and then coming to the end of it" was her best motivation. Of course, knowing that followers were also watching helped. "If I'm posting about it often and people are seeing it, I don't want to look like someone who's given up or it was too hard," she says.

Some followers even joined her, particularly moms who found themselves spending excessively on their kids.

"Overconsumption is a big thing. It's killing our planet," Simmons says. "You're trying to keep up with the Joneses, and you don't need to. For me, it had a lot to do with wanting to make sure I had the next new thing. There's a lot of societal pressure to make you feel like you need to have all these things to make you seem like you're a good mom or a good person, and you don't."

A self-described "recovered superspender," Rebecca Sowden, 27, is a Corona, Calif., content creator and commissions analyst who spent endlessly on clothing but was frustrated by how little she had saved since graduating from college with a degree in economics.

"I looked at the money I had put in retirement and I looked at my savings, and I thought, 'Is this all that I've been able to save financially for myself? Is this really where we're at?'" Sowden recalls. "Because my closet is absolutely bursting at the seams."

Years before, Sowden was inspired by Cait Flanders's book The Year of Less. But she was never able to commit to stop overspending. Shopping was her favorite activity, she tells Yahoo Life, as it "makes you feel productive even when you're not doing anything." She even found herself daydreaming about shopping. Sowden decided to enact a "shopping ban" for herself and followed a $200 weekly budget that included $85 for food, $65 for transportation and up to $50 for activities and miscellaneous. Ultimately, she found the experience "empowering."

"It made me have a lot more self-confidence in my abilities to achieve financial goals," she says.

How to buy less

When it comes to sticking to your plan to spend less, McCubbin advises people to stop saying they "need" things "when they really don't."

"There's very little we don't have that we need," she says. "When you're thinking about purchasing something, change your language to say that you want it. The minute you switch your language to say 'want' instead of 'need,' the grip that it has on you to have to have it goes away."

McCubbin also recommends downloading an Amazon purchase report for the past month and reviewing it on a spreadsheet, labeling each item as a true need or just a want. "When you're faced with how much you bought and how much of it was silly stuff, it brings the chickens home to roost," she points out.

Another tip: Add 24 hours of waiting time before buying something for every $50 it costs. "If it's $100, wait 48 hours. If it's $150, wait 72 hours. Try to pass through the impulse. Try and pass through your uncomfortable feelings that you're trying to soothe by shopping," she says.

As for Berman, she'll be debt-free by early next year and aspires to own a home by the time she's 40.

"I realized that if I'm able to pay off close to $48,000 worth of debt in a year, then if I save $30,000 to $40,000 a year for the next however many years, that's a down payment on a nice house," Berman says. "These are things that I never even thought were conceivable."