2026 No Buy

[Eatingmusselsfromashell]

I am planning a strict 2026 clothes no buy. I’ve tried in the past but the maximum I achieved was 3 months or so.
I’m sick of the cycle of seeing/ wanting / buying. I want to couple my No Buy with some other habit changes. I would like to limit screen time to one hour a day (except when listening to podcasts/ books and language learning). This is the year to brush up my Spanish and German for trips later in the year. I am annoyed at the hours of life I have wasted scrolling online sites.
I’ve tidied wardrobe in preparation and am ebaying / charity shopping anything which isn’t currently working for me.
Anyone else want to join me for moral support?

Sorted the clothes in the garage. Two huge boxes for charity. The collector is coming today. I had two armfuls of clothes that I’ve realised I would and could wear so brought them back to my wardrobe which now looks stuffed and in need of a sort out. It has made me realise I’m in a cycle of binge and purge with clothes. I have (most of) my summer wardrobe in the loft, several things that are too tight but am hoping will fit, and an over filled wardrobe of stuff I think I wild wear. I’m completely overwhelmed about how to organise it, which is why I think I have regular purges, get a buzz from
how organised it is, and then gradually start accumulating a lot more. I’m thinking of an app (I’ve downloaded a couple) but am overwhelmed at the thought of organising this all, both physically and virtually. What is everyone doing? I’d love to plan outfits.

@ThisIsMyBurnerPhone it's exhausting isn't it and I'm just going to keep looking at what I have as a reminder ! 4 massive bags in the spare room which are on vinted..but nothing shifting. Need to decide how long I want to look at it sat there !

I've made some positive steps today. Cleared my sons rooms of clutter, lots to charity- find it calming.
Have unsuscribed from loads of promotional emails.
Have made some plans which don't involve shopping!

Am finding it hard to resist the January sales but haven't bought anything since early December.
I am telling myself that I don't need as many clothes as I wfh. It's true really. Also I want to lose half a stone at least before buying anything.

I use an app called Bless which is very helpful for postponing things. It used to be free, now there’s a paid version but the free one still has enough features. I put everything I want on a wishlist and then use the rethink feature to postpone purchases for up to 30 days. I often find that putting things together side by side shows how unreasonable my wants are - I definitely don’t want to spend precious money on three sweaters but would probably cave in and bought them one by one.
I also use Bless to block shopping apps, this feature is still free.

Another thing that helps me a lot is having strick criteria for what I want in clothes. For me it’s 100% natural materials, transparent environmental impact info and made in Europe. This makes me completely immune to most sales because 99% of fashion brands are very bad at all three.

I still struggle and ended up buying one thing since the ban but it really helps filter out the most tempting things like Vinted, large sales at places like M&S or the H&M group brands or Sézane archives.

@coolcahuna well done on all the decluttering. The charity collection didn’t come today, so I’m WFH and walking past the boxes of shame and realised how much there is.

I been trying to buy less but better, done quite well in the sales I brought
Cashmere cardigan john lewis £60
Pair of jeans marks and spencer £9.
White stuff sequin grey cropped cardigan, I was going to return as it has 60% acyclic in which I hate , but as it fits so well I kept it, £29
And just received today from qvc Frank usher brown longline line fur gilet £60
Thats really good for me, all last year I tried to spend less most of my buys were reduced or sale items.These items i paid mostly with Christmas money.

So far so good. I’ve even resisted the kindle daily deals, a first as I used to download one of the 99p ones every day & have hundreds unread!

Love the jumper, CortieTat, is it chunky wool or super chunky
You’ve inspired me to dig out some half finished jumpers that have been lying in bags for months. That’s another of my weaknesses…..yarn. I have bags & bags of it. A drive to a favourite wool shop is my idea of a day out & instead of the one item I intended buying always came home with carrier bags full. I haven’t even been to visit their sale!!!!

I’m enjoying this so far! No wobbles yet although I have had to stop myself a few times from thinking ‘oh il just pop to the shop for xyz’. Love the idea of an analogue bag- I’m striving for screen free Sundays in 2026 so that’ll be a great help.

I am going to check this app out

I'm not impressed today, to put it mildly. I bought three pairs of wool tights back in October at Lindex. They are quite nice, impressive wool content for tights (63% wool). They were on the expensive side too. Yesterday I wore one of them for the second time, came back home with big toes sticking out! I am going to darn them, no problem but I expected them to last longer than two wears. They are 37% plastic which is A LOT to justify added reinforcement (which obviously did not work). Most cheap sock yarns are 15% polyamide at most and the socks I knitted several years ago are still as good as new.

In other news, someone washed one of my wool scarves on the cotton cycle by mistake. It's only partially felted but I like my woolies in top condition. I wonder if this would be a justified replacement - so far I've put it on the Bless list and postponed for 14 days.

It’s two threads together, Alafoslopi and an alpaca/linen blend. The second is lots of fluff wrapped around a natural colour linen core. It came out as 10 stitches and 11 rows in 10x10 cm on 10 mm needles, the ribs were done on 8 mm. So chunkier than chunky but thinner than super chunky.

Ive had that Alafoslopi for several years and didn’t know what to do with it, so I only bought the alpaca/linen yarn.

I’ve just downloaded the Bless app. It looks good.

When I brought the things I decided not to donate or sell on Vinted back to my wardrobe a couple of nights ago, I noticed that I often rebuy similar after clearing out. For example, I had two pairs of embroidered jeans in my Vinted pile because they’re not a fashionable cut. I didn’t get round to listing them and when I was filling the charity boxes I decided to hang onto them because I love them and think I can style them in a way that works for me. One of my December buys was a pair of vintage embroidered jeans. If I hadn’t cleared these out two months earlier, that would likely not have happened.

I need a couple of new books for holiday and have downloaded some ones that were recommended and are free if you have Amazon Prime. They get lots of great reviews and the books rotate so will keep an eye out now. I was about to start downloading 99p ones when I came across this. I also have 2 unread actual books I could read. I'm finding this is all about mindset for me! What do I already have or how can I do this cheaper or for free.

I had an appointment yesterday and it was very close to a great Primark. I would normally just go in and more likely end up buying something - I just didn't go there at all and came home - deliberate decision.

Two weeks in and still going strong. I even went for a mooch in M&S yesterday! I was looking at the new clothes to get some inspiration for outfits from my own wardrobe but it was all fairly uninspiring unfortunately. The sales rails were very busy as it was 70% off, but is it a new thing that M&S don't offer refunds on sales items? There was a couple next to me talking about it in the cafe and they weren't happy about it (I had a free coffee voucher which was very exciting!).

Sales are my downfall as I end up buying clothes I don’t really need (and sometimes don’t really love).

My main resolution this year is to not buy only really essential things and take up darning and repair clothes. I have some great cashmere jumpers with a few small holes that I think I could get looking pretty good again.

@canyon2000 I bought some 70% off trainers in M&S around last summer/autumn and they weren't offering refunds then. I only found out because I asked when paying and the assistant said it was because they were reduced so much. Not sure if they were doing exchanges. Don't know when that policy began. What I thought was rather bad was that they didn't volunteer the info, though maybe that was because the policy changed some time before. It just stated it on the receipt.

As far as I can remember, marks have always had the policy no refunds when good are down to 70% or more off

@lindyloo57 Ah, that explains it then. Last year was the first time I'd ever bought anything that was 70% off, so I wouldn't have encountered it before. Just had a Google and there are results from almost a decade ago saying such M&S sale goods were non-refundable.

I must admit I tend to avoid the M&S sales when it gets to the end as I would end up buying something I will never wear because it's a "bargain".

Just catching up here, I am still trying very hard, have also unsubscribed from many marketing emails, and unfollowed several Instagram influencers.

I did cave and buy a replacement top on Vinted - I sold the exact top in a size 12 and repurchased it in a 10, feel bad about this but I love it and have already worn it, other than that so far so good. Have sold a further 6 items on Vinted so thats more space freed up in the house.

I am trying to pare down my belongings and save some money too, whilst changing my attitude to spending and buying. I'm quite impressed with how it's going so far.

Thanks for the recommendation of the bless app, every little helps!
So far so good on the clothing but I have purchased a lip balm and blusher. They are replacements though so I'm allowing myself that.
Isn't it frustrating that so many companies seem to continue sending emails even after you've unsubscribed?!

Just popping my head around the door. Updated my Whering app. I find it so useful when tempted by the sales!
I've streamlined my categories to just skirt, trousers, shirt, etc so it's easy to see I do have jumpers including a black fluffy one for comfort on cold evenings, instead of buying another one.
Having less rather than more makes scrolling so much easier and I'm determined to get my usage figures up across the whole wardrobe.

So I am doing okay.

I have bought things out of my personal budget
Stayed within it
All intentional.

I really want to build on a capsule wardrobe and have managed to get 6 things for it
Utilising the m&s sale and vinted.
2 fine knit jumpers (vinted)
Wide leg trousers (vinted)
Whistles black top (vinted)
Camel blazer (m&s)
Another black top but a dressy evening one (m&s)

But my capsule wardrobe is almost complete now.
Will need some trainers in the spring

But have all the beauty and perfume etc to stock the street for a year.

Will also need to replace my foundation in the next couple of weeks.

I was tempted by an ad for Seasalt jumper, it was a lovely colour, thankfully out of stock in my size. My bf did say 'would you wear it instead of your black one' talking about a jumper I got last year and love.