to ask if you've achieved the nirvana of not wanting to buy stuff you REALLY don't want

I'm a nightmare for things like this. However I have learned from my mistakes because I'm also a nightmare for buying things and leaving them in a bag in the bag of my wardrobe.
It's one area where online shopping is good for me because I hate paying for delivery so often I add things to my basket but when I see the extra I'm paying to actually receive it I don't bother buying.

Who said anything about giving it away?!🤣

If she’d going to buy them, making them takes longer, more satisfaction and keeps you occupied instead of doing the scroll of doom

As a fellow maker the problem os that once you've made loads of stuff and given it away as gifts yu still have the urge to produce and nowhere to send it. Especially handmade that hasn't been tested to CE standards (which is a whole other thread!)

They are lovely. I just remember

• once I've bought them i will want something else.
• they will always be available
• it's literally just stuff. Dyed fabric with happy faces, not a really cute pea in a pod.
• someone just wants your money and they've invented something to swap for it

And I try really hard not to browse. Looking is the first step to buying. Discounts and time pressure is the next. All they marketing team need to do is catch you on a down day where you feel like you need a treat and then they have your money.

Why the fuck would anyone want to buy vegetables they can't eat?

Just draw faces on the ones you can eat then peel that bit off when you want to eat them?

I live in a flat with two kids with no lpft or garage. No space for crap. One of the very few benefits of the housing crisis.

I was just going to say, do as I do and tell yourself why buy them when I could MAKE them! (Or something similar). I usually get about ten minutes into researching how exactly I might go about this before I think, oh fuck it I don’t want them that much after all.

You are so right people buy things they don’t need. I hate stuffed toys most or did when my kids were small. Then they hang on to stuff until it’s no good to anyone then dump it on the charity shops. I have worked for rich people who cannot part with all the crap they buy because it was expensive. They store it badly until it is nested in by rats and mice discoloured and no use to anyone and fill all available space for their relatives to get rid of Its madness use it or lose it recycle sell but for gods sake get rid So much waste and clutter and it will drive you crazy in the end

@ClownsFear

Learn to crochet...

Toft garden

Utterly addictive and cute (as are all their patterns). And the flowers, birds, animals… etc

I find it helpful to think "so cool I really want it!" And then leave it at that. Don't actually act on the impulse, just leave it as a thought.

Also avoid temptation as much as possible. Unsubscribing from all marketing emails, Instagram, don't browse shops for window shopping etc etc

Think of all the things you really do want and need make a list with cost. Every time you are tempted to buy rubbish put the cost down but don’t buy you can get it later after you have thought about it.Add up all the things you didn’t buy and get the thing you really need. I used to buy clothes when my Mum died she had wardrobes of beautiful designer clothes and shoes that she didn’t need cost a fortune Luckily they fit me will not need to buy any for years but still want to So I sell something to buy something if neccessary otherwise I would be overwhelmed by stuff.

Oh no I really only want to buy stuff I need.

I'm more of a get rid of stuff person 😅

Honestly I'd live in a very bare house if I could.

Came to say what @Newsenmum has said, it’s certainly stopped a lot of my unnecessary spending. Most of the time I completely forget about the basket of crap I have waiting on a tab on my phone

I’m free of this and have been pretty much all my adult life because I lived in flats which cost so much to rent and had almost no space for clutter. Then I had kids and had even less space.

I read Marie Kondo when I had amother baby and it has stayed with me for a decade now. I got rid of so much stuff. Never regretted it for a second.

Not to be smug but I really hate clutter and waste and I actually find it difficult to find clothes / presents / or anything in shops I actually want (apart from food).

Basically a lot of people are in endless rounds of buying stuff only to throw it away.

Out neighbours buy vast amounts of stuff each Christmas and then every summer they have a huge skip filled with other stuff . They don't even bother giving it away or recycling it.

I moved house sixteen times in ten years, from house share to house share. That really helped me to stop wanting useless stuff - every time I thought about a purchase I'd be thinking about how much space it took up and how I would end up having to pack and move it!

I also used to covet 'alternative' fashions/objects, and then had a realisation that owning such things didn't make me quirky/alternative/interesting; it was just marketing/branding just the same way as any of the other types I was a bit snobby about (prosecco lifestyle, yummy mummy, etc)

Yes, I have realised that the trick is just to enjoy that the beautiful/cute etc thing exists, I don't have to actually own it.

I am a magpie for colour and sparkle.

But with four children even if I buy nothing we still seem to accumulate endless "stuff".

Like a pp, I like holidays and KG handbags, so don't spend on what I don't need. I struggle with energy levels (late 50's), but I'm still busy because I do a lot of childcare and care for two adults, I want a easy clean house. I've had clear outs and realised the money I've wasted on stuff. I'm concentrating on getting as much travel in as possible.

DS is like this, but he is 7. I agree with a PP, I have enough tat in the house already (belonging to DS and DH) without buying more, sp I don’t really share this desire to buy random stuff any more.

Think about when you don't want them anymore and they have to be either burned or buried in the ground. That usually helps put me off pointless shit!

My Mum works in a charity shop and I recently had the (dis)pleasure of seeing the lock up behind the shop, full of all manner of absolute pointless crap. Oh my god. Actually made me feel physically sick thinking how that must be replicated in about 10 charity shops in our town alone - and then what that would look like across the country. We humans are absolute dickheads aren't we.

I have absolutely no interest in buying ‘stuff’ - but I have bought land! It’s given me so much pleasure: now I buy seeds and am learning about grazing management programmes. I love the idea of creating something of meaning for the future

Same for me - cleared out grandparents' house in 2018 and mother-in-law's house in 2019. Huge, huge amount of stuff to get rid of compared to the things I (or other family) kept.

I still have loads of books but now when I'm tempted to buy holiday souvenirs/cute ornaments/other unnecessary tat I think "one day my DDs will be hauling all this to a charity shop" and it's made me a lot more minimalist.

No, sorry not interested in Jellycats. Garden plants are my weakness, but I now limit myself to perennials (long lasters) while I am sorting relatively new garden no annuals.

I walk around TK Max feeling thinking “ooh look at this stuff I don’t need” then put the 25.00 I might have spent in the holiday find or buy a premium bond. When the garden is done I hope to do the same at nurseries.

Start a PInterest board to save these things to. Then you still have something to do with them other than press “Buy”.

That’s easy. Not spending money on useless, pointless crap = more money to spend on my next holiday.