The Door I Am Ready To Close

Why I'm Not Shopping in 2025

I finally found the perfect white tee. T-shirts under slip dresses are making a comeback. Light wash jeans for summer, in a slightly different cut than last year. Girls, what sneakers are we wearing this spring? Mob wife fall. No, you need THIS sweater, it’s 100% cotton. Declutter and restock. Try this viral new blush. My Dyson AirWrap changed my life. Girls, what product REALLY changed your life? Restock my Stanley mug with me. Come to the thrift with me (every day). The bathing suit that flatters EVERY body type.

It’s relentless and it’s everywhere and it’s all-consuming and I bought into it for years and I finally feel the claws of consumerism slowly letting go and letting me come up for air. I’m nearly about three weeks into my no buy and the obsessing over items is beginning to relent. I’m starting to suspect that my dream self is on the other side of this no buy.

I have loosely followed “no buy” content since 2017, when I first read “The Year of Less”, by Cait Flanders (her Substack is worth becoming a paid subscriber!). I read TYOL in my first year of paid, full-time employment working as a nurse in Vancouver. TYOL takes place in Vancouver, which helped me to connect with the idea. I vividly remember sitting on the ground in front of my space heater in the Kitsilano basement studio (rent was 750.00 per month, with a few sacrifices such as not being able to turn on the heat and mold in the bathroom), thinking about how I would never allow lifestyle inflation to happen to me.

Since 2017, I have approximately doubled that new grad nurse income through working multiple jobs, being very lucky to win salary scholarships for my PhD, and a few travel nursing gigs. I have also very much succumbed to lifestyle inflation, and the extreme rising costs of living we have seen in the last few years. My rent in downtown Toronto is certainly not 750.00. I have gone through waves in my spending- I did a 6-month no buy in 2022, but essentially resumed my normal spending immediately afterwards.

stained glass reflections at a public pool in budapest

In 2023, I worked a travel nursing contract in the U.S. and earned more money than I will probably ever earn in 3 months again- and my spending habits started to become problematic. I was alone in a new city, working 50 hours a week in a pediatric intensive care unit, and spending 10-20 hours per week writing my master’s thesis. I was lonely, depressed, bored, and working really hard. I rewarded myself by buying pretty much everything that interested me- justifying it because I was still saving more than 50% of my income.

me, a bit depressed and a lot overspending, in Seattle, 2023

My spending habits now certainly don’t match what I was doing while travel nursing, but they haven’t slowed the way I would like them to. After my travel nursing contract, I moved to Toronto, where the pressure to keep up with the Jones’s is high. The girls look gorgeous at every dinner, Alo sets are on every street corner, cocktails cost at least 20.00, and I have absolutely succumbed to it. I haven’t gone into debt, but I am certainly not saving like I could be, and I don’t feel comfortable with my current spending habits- so I am making a change.

In 2025, I am taking on a one year no-buy challenge that will be documented here, as well as on my TikTok and YouTube accounts. Without any further ado, let’s get into the rules…

My no-buy year is pretty strict, but has flexibility in areas that I need to enjoy my life! Here is what is okay and not for me to buy this year, as well as a few exceptions.

Yes List

• groceries

• pet care (walks, sitters, food, vet bills, meds, occasional grooming)

• bills

• transportation (avoid Ubers as much as possible- but not setting rules about this right now)

• replacing personal care items when I have used up everything I own in that category (e.g. if I have three blushes, I need to finish them all up before buying a new one)

• dining out max 2x/week

• coffees out, only socially (no more spending money on coffee at work!)

• travel (flights, hotels, meals- no souvenirs or shopping)

• haircuts every 2-3 months at an affordable salon (less than 100.00 with tip, no dye)

• gifts for loved ones on birthdays and christmas only

• candles, only when the ones I have run out entirely

• sketchbooks, when I use up all of the ones I have

No List

• clothes

• shoes

• new personal care products

• books

• home decor

• tech items

• kitchen gadgets (I have everything I need!)

• unnecessary pet items (dog clothes, for example)

• new craft supplies (will use what I have)

Yellow Light List

(purchases I anticipate needing to make, but will make with caution and care)

• Outfits for a multi-day wedding in India (I have one standard wedding guest dress, and will need at least two more outfits). Budget- 500$. I actually made all of these purchases while Boxing Day sales were running in early Jan- so this category is done for!

• A few items for my home- we moved into a new place in October, and need a bookshelf, nightstands, and a tv stand. We also need art, but I will make it myself and just buy frames.

So that’s the plan! Expect weekly posts, monthly spending wrap-ups, reflections on consumerisms, and tips for a successful no-buy. I would love to have you along for the journey- hit the follow button if you’re looking to hear more about saving, not spending, and changing your relationship to capitalism, and join my

5 Things I Loved This Week

1. Inconsolable by Katie Gavin

Katie’s record was released this fall, and it came out on a day after I had worked a night shift in the ICU (I work part time as a nurse). I followed my usual routine- home by 8:00am, walk the dog for 30 minutes, shower, and sleep from around 9:00 am to 1:00pm. Then I made myself a cup of coffee, sat on the couch, and listened to the record top to bottom, crying through most of it. I related so deeply to so much of it. I tend to hyperfixate on music so I hadn’t listened for awhile, but this came on shuffle and struck me just as deeply as the first time.

2. Game of Thrones Season 1

Guys, I’m finally watching it. It’s so good. I have never been a big tv person but I put this on around 9:00pm and suddenly it’s midnight and I’ve watched three episodes. I’m so excited for this show!

3. The Anthropologists by Aysegül Savas

This was a really sweet book recommended to me by my friend Amy when I told her I needed something easy that still felt kind of smart. It was exactly that. A couple buys an apartment in their city where they did not grow up. Nothing, and yet everything else, happens. I loved it.

4. The Unexpected Poetry of PhD Thesis Acknowledgements, by Tabitha Carvan

I’m a PhD student so this was a pretty emotional read for me. Tabitha went through hundreds of thesis acknowledgements and pulled them out. There is something about writing a thesis acknowledgement, and writing a thesis itself, where you feel you need to sum up everyone you have ever loved and everyone who has ever helped you in a semi professional manner and a single page. This was so beautiful.

5. Monopoly Deal

Think Monopoly without all the drama of the board. So easy and fun to pull out and play anywhere! We played this with my cousins over the holidays and my boyfriend kindly purchased it for our household.

So yeah, that’s the plan! Can’t wait to share more as the year goes on.

XO,

Julia