Hello internet! I probably need to reintroduce myself, on my own blog, which is terrible (I know). 2019 was A LOT to say the least. It started by sharing my #sortahouse and my very early plans for the space. Once I shared that blog post my life, job, everything took a turn. Fast forward 4 months and I got a great new role and I got spendy. I noticed that I was slipping back into impulsive shopping (I wrote a post about that here) and the shopping was triggered by emotions. Feeling anxious, buy something. Feeling lonely, buy something. Feeling overwhelmed or stressed, buy something. You get the trend right? Once I realized I was slipping back into this pattern I made some immediate changes but I knew that I was going to start a Low Buy year in 2020 and set some spending rules.

• Set a Spending Goal & create a separate account to save for that goal. This one is the cornerstone of my Low Buy rules and started near the end of 2019. I was already on a cash only budget but I wasn’t budgeting for impulsive shopping and it always ended up affecting my savings. I set up a Qapital account with a round up rule and an aggressive goal amount. I can only spend once I reach that goal. I personally chose an amount I knew would take me some time to reach which decreases the frequency of my overall shopping.

• Make a wishlist and refer to that list before making a purchase. As a fashion enthusiast and blogger I’m always going to love and buy beautiful fashion pieces. But there has to be limits because your girl lives on a budget. The wishlist forces me to choose wisely, stick to what I choose, while also holding me accountable to not spend impulsively. For the eye candy I’m sharing my wishlist next week!

• Can I Buy it Pre-loved or with Discount? This will be the first question I ask whenever I buy anything off my wishlist. Can I get discount is a rule I already live by but I don’t necessarily buy pre-loved as a first choice. I will make more of an effort to be sustainable first and buy pre-loved.

• The Test, I play this game where I text myself links of stuff I get impulses to buy (or actually need). I check that txt strand every couple days and ask myself if I still want these items. Subsequently, most of the stuff I send to myself gets deleted because I no longer have an attachment to it. Im going to stick to the wishlist but I’ll still follow this rule for all non-fashion related items (beauty, home, travel).

• Replacement Only, this rule is really important for me. Outside of my wishlist, I can only buy a fashion item if its a replacement of closet staple that is broken, lost or damaged.

I’ll be honest, this is going to be difficult for me but necessary. I’m excited to challenge myself and have more thoughtful, sustainable fashion practices! Of course I’ll share the progress along the journey and I’ll probable make videos or post on reviews of anything I do buy.

Last blog update, I promise, the #sortahouse is almost done guys. Like, I’m so close. Theres a couple missing moments here and there that I’m trying not to rush but I’m on track to finish and shoot by the 1 year mark, March 1st. Since I didn’t document the process I’ll blog room by room and talk about the design process, final choices and share beautiful imagery. Because let’s be real, thats the only reason we read design blogs.