Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to try a low by month. You might
Speaker 1: try minimizing new purchases for a month and see what happens.
Speaker 1: People often save money, but handled right, it's possible you
Speaker 1: might save time. So I have noticed that people love
Speaker 1: month long challenges dry January, Nino Raimu, which is National
Speaker 1: Novel Writing Month, thirty days of yoga, the whole thirty diet,
Speaker 1: and so forth, and I understand the appeal. A month
Speaker 1: long commitment feels doable, but it's also long enough to
Speaker 1: be meaningful. You can make real progress with that in mind.
Speaker 1: A lot of people have sung the praises of doing
Speaker 1: a no by month. Now I know it's my questioner
Speaker 1: side coming out, but I doubt most people who do
Speaker 1: a no by month truly by nothing. Groceries are an
Speaker 1: obvious exception, and most of us are still going to
Speaker 1: pay for ongoing services, or at least we should. If
Speaker 1: your kids are signed up for piano lessons, you will
Speaker 1: pay for piano lessons during your no by month. If
Speaker 1: you get a parking ticket, you should probably pay for
Speaker 1: your parking ticket. In general, money is a tool, and
Speaker 1: in many cases money can be used to solve problems.
Speaker 1: I have zero problem with that. I also think many
Speaker 1: people might enjoy spending more on experiences. It would be
Speaker 1: stupid not to go to a girl's night at the
Speaker 1: Paint your own pottery studio with your dearest friends because
Speaker 1: you happen to be in the middle of a no
Speaker 1: by month. However, I know that a lot of people
Speaker 1: feel they have way more stuff than they need. Buying
Speaker 1: less of that could be a worthy pursuit. So let's
Speaker 1: reframe this as a low by month. Before purchasing another
Speaker 1: thing that isn't strictly necessary, consider waiting a while and
Speaker 1: evaluating what would it feel like to try that. When
Speaker 1: people do try this, they often realize that they shop
Speaker 1: for entertainment. Your board while sitting in your kid's room
Speaker 1: while waiting for them to fall asleep, and hey, looks
Speaker 1: like Nick and Zoe is having a sale. A hard
Speaker 1: day at work leads to stopping at paper source, which
Speaker 1: happens to be located where your train stop empties into
Speaker 1: the mall. A low by month could help you identify
Speaker 1: that this is what is going on and encourage you
Speaker 1: to find new forms of entertainment. Maybe you could read
Speaker 1: an ebook as part of the challenge, you find something
Speaker 1: in the public domain or borrow it from the library. Perhaps,
Speaker 1: instead of stopping at them, you meet a friend for
Speaker 1: a wine down walk or a glass of wine, which
Speaker 1: again would not be a no buy option, but might
Speaker 1: be cheaper than a department store hall. A low by
Speaker 1: month can also help with clutter. If you don't acquire
Speaker 1: much new for a month, the clutter won't build up,
Speaker 1: and you might start making progress on using the things
Speaker 1: you have. Novelist Anne Patchett wrote about her own experiences
Speaker 1: with a no by year. When she ran out of lipbalm.
Speaker 1: She was deciding whether buying more was allowed, but then
Speaker 1: she poked around in what she already had and she
Speaker 1: found five lip balms. She realized that when she bought
Speaker 1: toiletrees she didn't like, she didn't throw them away, she
Speaker 1: just put them under the sink. I'm using them now,
Speaker 1: she wrote, and they're fine. A low by month will
Speaker 1: perhaps obviously save money, but I think it can also
Speaker 1: save time. The tree is that shopping can take a
Speaker 1: fair amount of time, and some of this time isn't
Speaker 1: strictly necessary. If you love shopping, that is one thing.
Speaker 1: But if it is more transactional, then spending less time
Speaker 1: shopping could be a big win. Anne Patchett noted that
Speaker 1: in October, I interviewed Tom Hanks about his collection of
Speaker 1: short stories in front of seventeen hundred people in a
Speaker 1: Washington theater. Previously, I would have believed that such an
Speaker 1: occasion demanded a new dress and lost two days of
Speaker 1: my life looking for one. In fact, Tom Hanks had
Speaker 1: never seen any of my dresses, nor had the people
Speaker 1: in the audience. I went to my closet, picked out
Speaker 1: something weather appropriate, and stuck it in my suitcase. Done.
Speaker 1: Now again, there's no reason to be militant about a
Speaker 1: low by or no by month. I'm picturing someone refusing
Speaker 1: to buy a child a birthday present, or sending a
Speaker 1: kid to a party without a present, just to keep
Speaker 1: the challenge going. Don't be that person. I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: my kids would roll their eyes if I told them
Speaker 1: we couldn't go to Starbucks together anymore for a month
Speaker 1: because I was doing a no buy challenge. It is
Speaker 1: one thing not to spend money on yourself. Refusing to
Speaker 1: spend money in ways that allow for spending time with
Speaker 1: other people you care about could be more problematic, but
Speaker 1: I do think many of us have more stuff than
Speaker 1: we need. Many of us have stuff we could repurpose
Speaker 1: and other ways we could fill our time. If you agree,
Speaker 1: then a low by month might be a way to
Speaker 1: tap into that creativity. And hey, you can always use
Speaker 1: the money you save to go on a big spree
Speaker 1: at the end. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.