The shopping that was Christmas and the hustle of starting the new year leads me to more drive-through coffee and the purchasing of complete randomness seems to spill over from the holidays. I am so used to looking for things that people would like that I can get sloppy and forget the holidays are over. Even though everything is on sale, it’s time for the gifting to cease.
For the last five years, usually in February, I spending cleanse. It’s pretty similar to a cleanse you would do for your health. It feels like a detox, and once you get into the routine, it’s freeing and it resets habits.
So how do you do it? Just stop buying anything that isn’t a need. Don’t drive through, cook at home. Simplify. Don’t purchase things just because they are cute, or even because they are on sale. It’s really simple, and very freeing, to say no. Just cleanse.
By resetting your patterns you can choose what you are purchasing rather than falling into habits that you don’t even realize.
I find that my kids now understand the routine because it has become a pattern for us. They will ask, “Can we get ice cream? Oh no, wait! We are cleansing.” It breaks the cycle for all of us.
Now, if the kids have a birthday party to go to, yes, we pick up a gift, but we don’t buy gum in the checkout or get a new game just because it is on sale. Do you still sign your kids up for next season’s sports? Yes, but maybe let your kid wear the tights with the hole in the knee for a few weeks. Do you still go to girl’s night? Yes, but don’t pick up a coffee on the way there, make it at home. You don’t need to go into isolation, just trim. If a family asks you to do something together, yes, go. Make your cookies rather than buying them. Let yourself revert back to the basics. It may be hard at first, but I promise the return back to simplicity will feel so good.
I like to do a month; maybe you start with two weeks. Perhaps you only cleanse on certain things. There is no perfect way to do it, but I find it simplifies and puts me back in the driver’s seat of our spending.
Spending cleanse. It feels fresh to start anew.
HLLF,
