no-buy 2024/2025
The end of the year is a time of reflection. In my case, I tend to look back to the year that has passed following some of my core values.
And as you can guess from the title of this post, I want to keep my consumption in check for the remainder of 2024 and 2025. There's no need to wait for the start of the new year to make a change. The best way to succeed in failing your New Year's resolutions is to pile them up on the first of January and expect to start working out, eating healthy foods, reading 50 books, and buying a house all at once.
Change what you can now, review what you want to change in the future!
In the past few years, I've taken great strides to get to where I am now. I'm at a point in my life where I crave hardly any material things, and I'm very happy with that. With that being said, here are some goals I have for reducing my consumption by not buying anymore of this stuff.1
Books. I have more than 200 physical unread books at my place, and I won't even mention how many e-books I have on Kobo. I don't need to buy any new/used books, so I won't do it.
Video games. In 2024, I spent €77,94 on video games. I only played "Mario Kart" with my girlfriend. I will not buy any new video games unless I finish some of these games.2
Vinyl records. In 2024, I spend €75,44 on records. While I enjoy them a lot, I have a cheap record player which makes the records wobble. Since I'm afraid of damaging the records, I stopped listening to them until I get a new record player. So, I should save up to buy a record player instead of spending money on records.
Alcohol. This is a big one for me that I want to explore in a separate post, but I want to stop wasting any money on drinks.
All in all, I feel like my consumption could be much worse. I'm no longer a productivity and strive-for-perfection addict, but I still see little steps where I can improve, and my experience tells me that setting and hitting my goals is a big boost for my wellbeing.
I can get new stuff IF I go through all this backlog and feel that something may add value to my life or keep me entertained. I can also buy any of these items for other people.↩
Currently, my backlog includes "Arctico", "Assemble With Care", "Bury Me, My Love", "Firewatch", "Half-Life" 1 & 2, "Monument Valley" 1 & 2, "Portal" 1 & 2" and "Refunct" on Steam. On the Nintendo Switch, I have "Overcooked", "Roki", "Stardew Valley", "Old Man's Journey" "Gris", and "Florence". I've never played any of these games!↩