As COVID wreaks havoc in so many of our financial lives the lessons shared below by Marnita Opperman – Mindful Money Coach, are more relevant now than ever.
In 2015, before I became a money coach, I was going through a very emotional money story. I was deeply in debt and found myself having sleepless nights over money. I had even resorted to debt review to try to turn my debt situation around! By signing up for debt review, I was no longer able to access credit of any kind and was very short on money to live on. It was an incredibly stressful time in my life.
At the time that I was going through this money stress, I was part of an online coaching program called The Flow Experience and I was sharing my money journey with the group for support.
The facilitator of this online coaching program, Timea Kulcsar, shared with me the story of a woman who had done a 200-days of buying nothing new experiment that she had read about. Timea loves experiments and suggested we do this experiment together to help me shift my mindset around my money situation. She offered to be my support and accountability partner and to make this experiment into a game. Something we could do together and that could be fun!
This experiment was a complete game-changer for me!
The challenge was to buy nothing new for 200 days. (That’s over 6 months) Basic living essentials like food, petrol, and toiletries were allowed but anything that didn’t qualify like nail polish, clothes, and shoes, these were not allowed to be bought NEW.
Think about how much new stuff you buy monthly or every few months. Do you think you could do this experiment easily?
The options left to get ‘new’ stuff that I needed was to:
BORROW
Do you REALLY need to buy a lawnmower/camping equipment/tennis racquet/book when you could borrow from someone when you occasionally need one?
SWAP
There are ALWAYS items in your house/cupboards that you never use or wear. Take these to a SWAP party where you can get new stuff and your stuff becomes someone else’s new stuff.
GET A GIFT
Accepting gifts of new items was acceptable during this challenge. When I needed something new over the 6 months, I would request that to be given as a gift. This also avoids people guessing what you need and giving you gifts that aren’t going to be used or enjoyed.
BUY SECONDHAND
Buying anything second hand was acceptable so when I needed something, like a new egg boiler, I could go to a second-hand shop and find one there.
GIVING GIFTS
I reached a tricky point in the journey when I needed to attend a work Christmas party where there was a secret Santa gift involved. I initially wasn’t going to go but after a little creative thinking, I realized I had the perfect gift that I had been gifted and not used, that I could regift. Re-gifting is something everybody does, but nobody talks about! If you think about the sheer number of unwanted gifts people all over the world receive that go unused, the mind boggles at the waste.
MAKING GIFTS
Get creative. What special personal gift can you make for an occasion with things you already have at home. I made a memory jar for a christening gift with things I had in my craft box.
FREEBIES
I am a freebie queen. When you start looking, there are free offers everywhere. I was on the lookout for these throughout this challenge and got lots of free stuff!
This experiment made me stop, think, and evaluate my purchasing habits going forward. I used to be the instant gratification kind of shopper. Buying anything I liked the moment I saw it, racking up thousands of rands of debt in the process!
Now this way of thinking is ingrained in me and with every purchase, I ask;
Do I really need this?
Is it a real value for money?
Can I prioritize money towards it?
This challenge helped me to instill this new positive habit into my money life. Because we made it a game, it was fun and easy! Having Timea’s support along with the journey was incredibly valuable and made the game more fun as I had a brainstorming buddy who could help to come up with creative ideas of how to get something I needed without buying it new.
The results that came from this experiment were incredible.
As a result of not overspending, dedicating money available to paying off debt, and putting money towards savings, after these 6 months, I had paid R50 000 towards my debts AND had R50 000 in savings as well.
Most importantly, this experiment helped to shift my mindset from one of scarcity to one of fun and abundance. You don’t have to do a radical experiment like I did to make changes around your shopping habits. Simply ask yourself the 3 questions above every time you are about to make a purchase, and you will become a more savvy shopper.
With tighter budgets due to COVID impacts, keep these suggestions in mind when making shopping decisions.
Blog originally published by Marnita Opperman – Mindful Money Coach