Decluttering and a no-buy challenge are beneficial to my health too

(Previous post said ‘now-buy’ challenge in the title and that’s obviously the opposite of what I mean, so I made a new post)

This may seem off topic, but I (31F) want to share my story.

I’ve always been messy. My room was a mess and it would bother my mom more than it would bother me. When I moved out, it basically got worse since I just couldn’t be bothered. I have a hard time tossing things because they have value or I can always come up with a way I could use them in the future. I’ve started decluttering little by little in November and it showed me how much stuff I have. I decided to do a now-buy challenge and I’m only going to buy the essential groceries like fruit, cat food and bread for a while and use all the food in my pantry first. (I live alone and don’t need three pack of rice in my pantry.) This forces me to plan meals and makes for healthier meals. It may not be exciting, but it saves me a lot of money and since I have a clear and limited list of what I’m buying, I’m not tempted to buy junk food. 💪

I have so much clothes, beauty/shower products, craft supplies, etc and I need to use those before I can buy anything new. That means no fun shopping and less temptation to buy snacks. Last week, I traveled by train and had to wait in the cold a couple of times. Really tempting to get a hot chocolate, but I reminded myself I’m not doing those things anymore. It’s much healthier and makes me feel so strong mentally. If I can resist spending, I can resist snacking too and I don’t have chocolate or chips at home anymore, since they’re not essential groceries to me. I’ll avoid that isle in the supermarket and even if I do see it, I remind myself I’m saving money now and I’m doing so well on weight loss. Of course I allow myself some treats once in a while, but not as often and I try to be creative with my pantry. Chocolate sprinkles on bread is very common in the Netherlands, so I’ll eat that when I really want something sweet.

It really helps that I have some long term goals in mind. For example, I’m going to Eurovision in May (huge fan 😁) and it would be awesome if I could buy a really nice sparkly outfit for it and I would look fabulous in a smaller size. A lot of my clothes are becoming too big, but I’m learning to alter them and maybe by summer I can buy some new items that actually look/feel cute.

I’d love to hear from others. Have you tried anything similar? What are your experiences? Any tips?