10 THINGS I DON'T BUY ANYMORE

If you are like me, you made many bad buys in your past. You really dug into that sale-pile and brought home a bunch of clothes that you didn't need and seldom wore. Or you couldn't get yourself to bring lunch to school/work and instead bought unhealthy cafeteria food that didn't even taste good. But we all learn from our mistakes, which is why I decided to share this little list with you in hope that you do it better than me.

1. Don't get me wrong, I love a good bargain. But I also get overly excited when I see discounts, which regularly caused my closet to overflow with sale-items that I didn't wear. They were either not fitting me right (but who has time to try on clothes when they're on sale, right?) or just didn't match the rest of my wardrobe. So save yourself the money and don't impulse buy just because there's a sale.

2. I am fortunate enough to live in one of the regions of the world where tap water has a great quality. It's not necessary to buy bottled water and buy simply drinking that refreshing h2o straight from the tap, you also help the environment. Double win!

3. Ok, so even before paperless kitchens were a thing on Pinterest, I have stopped using paper towels. Mainly because I always forgot to buy them but I soon learned, that you can simply switch them for cotton towels. Sure, that's more laundry, but you're still saving money and natural resources!

4. Now that I'm already rolling with the environment-friendly adjustments that I did, I might just as well continue. To-go cups are somewhat of a touchy subject though. For many people their iced frappucino is holy and if someone tries to take it away from them, they get furious. I'm not trying to do that though, I love my iced frappucinos! But I learned to not ever leave the house without my reusable cup, because I know now, that the next spontaneous cup of coffee, is just around the corner.

5. Ok so now this might be too much information, but I feel like it is my duty as a fellow woman on this earth, to share this information: you don't need to buy tampons! Or pantyliners! You only need to buy one single item: the menstrual cup. Yup. Only one purchase and you're good to go. It takes a while to get used to them and learn how to fold them correctly, but it's really worth the effort, trust me. And if you're not sure: check out some reviews on youtube!

6. If you love to drink coffee or tea, then this is for you: Get a french press or a tea filter. There will be no need to buy new coffee filters constantly and handmade coffee tastes way better than anything a machine could do. If you drink tea then you should really consider switching to loose tea and filtering it yourself, if you haven't already!

7. Now, this is a controversial one, so get ready. I don't buy books anymore. Over a year ago, I bought an eReader and I absolutely love it! For all the nay-sayers out there: try it yourself. Good eReaders allow you to have a way better reading-experience and you can even take notes, mark important quotes and export them into a handy pdf. That sounds quite good, right? And if you really love to hold books in your hand, you can also borrow them from the local library, instead of buying them.

8. This is something I struggle with until today, but I'm really trying my best to not give in. When I walk past the makeup section in my favorite drugstore, I feel the strongest urge to try out each of their products. And of course, a lot of those products look amazing while you're in the store, so you are tempted to buy them. Truth is though, that as soon as you unpack them at home and try them out, all the excitement is gone and you realize that you just spent a lot of money on a bunch of products that you don't need or love. Compared to how my shopping behavior was before and how I am now, I have gotten a lot better at staying away from buying loads of makeup, but there is always room for improvement.

9. Financially, it has made the biggest difference for me to stop eating junk food. I'm vegan so you might think that I only eat salad and carrots all day but you would not believe the amount of impossibly delicious vegan junk food here in Berlin. The problem is though, that it is not just bad for my health, but also for my wallet to give in to my cravings. So I stopped buying those amazing falafels and vegan burgers and invest that money into organic vegetables that I can prepare myself, which is not just cheaper, but also way better for my body.

10. It's not just material things that we spend money on. It's also lots of different digital services and subscriptions that cost you every month. I took the time to look into the different subscriptions that I had and quit my membership in different services, that I did not use enough. Have a look at your own subscriptions: are you using all of them?

If you have purchased something like an ill-fitting sweater or some trendy leggings that you will not wear very often you can still create something you love! By upcycling your clothes you give them a second chance and help the environment by getting more wear out of them. You can check out my video below where I upcycle some old thrifted sweaters and some leggings below!




I really hope you liked this blog post! If you want to start your own minimalism journey, you can click this link to get the free 30-day minimalism challenge pdf, that will guide you through all the steps you need to take, to live a more minimalistic life. You can also head over to my YouTube channel and watch my videos about minimalism and how to live your best life.  I also love to read your comments, so don't be shy!