Take A ‘Nothing New’ Challenge To Save Money, Appreciate What You Have

Buying used stuff is a great way to save money. You might not realise all the ways that you can live off of hand-me-downs. If you want to learn, take a “Nothing New” challenge. As personal finance blog Green High Five explains, a “Nothing New” challenge consists of buying, well, nothing new. No new clothes, new gadgets, new anything (except food or perishable goods, obviously). The goal is to save money, or just live with what you have already. New is nice, but you don’t always need it.

Photo by Steven Depolo.

For 200 days, I was able to get everything I needed pre-owned, except for groceries, basic toiletries, and a pair of new rock climbing shoes (I added a day at the end making up for it). I also got rid of a lot of stuff, including my wedding dress, bags of photographs, clothing, jewellery, kitchen items, old trophies and more.

The author went 200 days without buying something new, but you can adapt the challenge to whatever length of time you want. The point isn’t the duration. The goal is to change how you think about your spending habits.

Why I Decided to Do a 200 Days of Nothing New Challenge (And Why You Should Too) [Green High Five via Rockstar Finance]