First installment in a 12-month series

“If you buy what you don’t need, you steal from yourself.” –Swedish Proverb

If you’re new here, welcome! At the end of December, I wrote a piece about why I was going to give up shopping at two behemoths as a result of the amount of spending I did the last quarter of 2023. You can read that article here.

The first week of January brought me pure joy and practical giddiness over the thought that I was really doing this. I also felt like it wasn’t going to be all that hard to do.

And then reality set in.

The convenience of shopping at Target and Amazon was one thing. However, I genuinely started to panic when I thought about things I “needed” and then couldn’t get because of my “stupid pie-in-the sky” experiment.

Once I let myself have a momentary pity party, I understood that these weren’t actually things I needed at all but it might also be more of a challenge than I first anticipated.

Grocery lessons.

First, I had to pivot from the way I was going to purchase groceries. My initial plan was to shop at Aldi first, Hy-Vee (a Midwest chain) second, and Trader Joe’s third.

Aldi worked out really well. I went twice and spent $132.11. I got my produce and refrigerated items there, along with a few staples.

Hy-Vee was the problem. I went three times, spent $106.39, and didn’t get nearly the amount of groceries I did at Aldi. And, I ended up not going to Trader Joe’s at all.

So, I made a pivot to Thrive Market for the majority of my staples and household items for the rest of the month. I ordered one time and spent $64.15. The subscription for the year was $60, but I think it will be valuable over the year.

Final thoughts: In February I will use Aldi and Thrive Market with perhaps one trip to Hy-Vee for anything I can’t absolutely get at the other two.

General Shopping Lessons.

Deciding not to shop at Amazon actually lessened my overall desire to shop. I did purchase one book for myself, and I did have a moment where I froze, because I would normally have either purchased it at Amazon or Target.

Instead, I went to bookshop.org to buy it. I did do a comparison, and it was roughly $2.00 more than through Amazon, but I was also able to support a local bookstore in my community so it was a win-win. I got my book and I supported a small, local business.

The only other spending I did for the month was on gas for my car, coffee on three different occasions, and one trip through a fast food restaurant.

Concluding Thoughts.

While I was very happy with the first month, January is a slower month for me. There weren’t any special occasions that I need to purchase gifts for, like birthdays.

It was great that I could concentrate on groceries and thinking about possibilities for shopping options in the future. I know there are going to be curves thrown my way, but overall this first month went well.

I would give myself a B+ overall.