Month: April 2025

NO BUY YEAR APRIL RECAP

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Okay friends, this is the last Thursday of the month, so I am sharing my recap of how my no buy year has been going for the month of April! I will say right up front that I have continued to have success! Although I will mention again this month that I wonder if I made this too easy for myself.

So the big test this month was going thrift shopping with my son in Portland. There was a skirt that I saw in one of the thrift stores that I was tempted to try on, but I bypassed it! I did buy several things for my son while we were out shopping while I was there. I even bought some things for his cat too cuz I have a grandcat after all! And her new collar and harness look adorable on her! At one point I was processing with him and I said, you know I wonder if buying you things is giving me that same dopamine hit feeling I get when I buy something for myself. I said it in a joking way, laughing, but there might be more truth to that than I would like to admit. Although it is okay to buy gifts for others within my rules, I’m still wondering about what I was processing last month – where it is still a heart issue for me. Even though I am staying within my rules, I still have this desire to purchase stuff.

I will say though, in addition to the skirt I saw at the thrift shop, I have seen other things online that I was interested in purchasing but I refrained and scrolled past! Clothes are definitely still my biggest temptation! But I really want to learn to keep the spending to a minimum after my no buy year is over because I am still trying to figure out a way to minimize my wardrobe!

And speaking of my wardrobe, I did want to share about my minimalist closet challenge that I was doing in the month of April. I honestly feel like I could have removed even more from my closet for this challenge in hindsight! My plan is to go through the items that I put in my husband’s office closet and see if there is anything I can declutter, then I am going to remove even more from my main closet for the month of May. One thing I did notice is that packing for my trip to Portland seemed much easier than packing had in the past. It might be in part because I have traveled quite a bit over the last couple of years so I am getting to be a pro at packing, but I think it really was also just not having as much to choose from. Which just makes sense!

Honestly this month I didn’t really have any big revelations. I think I am just continuing to see the value in spending money on experiences over stuff. Like I mentioned, I have traveled quite a bit over the last couple of years and it just makes me appreciate those travel experiences. Not only are those life-long memories but I have no physical thing to manage and take care of and one day make a decision about decluttering. For my son’s birthday we went out for a really nice steak dinner at this restaurant in Portland, Portland City Grill. Not only was the food fantastic, but it is located on the 30th floor of a building downtown with beautiful 360 views. I would much rather spend money on an experience and food like that than to have something tangible.

That is all I have to share for the month of April with regards to my no buy year! I am considering reevaluating my rules as I do feel like maybe I was not strict enough with myself. I see to be having no problems with refraining from spending within the rules I had set up for myself! I will keep you posted! Stay tuned for next month’s recap!

Here is the YouTube video I shared in conjunction with this blog post!

INTENTIONAL LIVING

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Okay friends, today’s post is a day late! It’s been a busy week over here as I prepare to leave to go visit my son in Portland! For today’s Thoughtful Thursday post I recently came across this quote from the ancient stoic, Seneca. He said, “For the love of bustle is not industry, it is only the restlessness of a hunted mind.” I found this quote interesting and appropriate for those seeking to live an intentional life. It is a reminder that just because we stay busy, does not mean we are living a life of meaning or intention. We can stay busy for the sake of being busy yet not accomplish anything.

The video I shared in conjunction with this blog post was a “Day in the Life” type video. Doing these types of videos is quite interesting because it organically gives me an opportunity to evaluate what I am doing with my time. Granted, I don’t film every minute in these videos, but it does make you more aware of what you are doing. I would really like to do an audit of my time and see exactly where I am spending my time and what I may want to do differently. It’s easy to get sucked into busyness, but we must really evaluate what is essential. On the other hand, it can be easy to waste our free time scrolling or watching things that aren’t even beneficial for us.

A quote that I shared over on Instagram this week, from Jim Rohn reminds us that if we are not intentional with our time, we can get carried away by the urgent or sidetracked by unimportant things. The quote says, “Either you run the day, or the day runs you.” We must prioritize what is important. Assessing our goals and values can help guide us as we determine what our true priorities are in life.

One idea I keep being exposed to more recently is the importance of living in the real world – spending time with friends or family, getting outside, working with your hands, reading, or pursuing other hobbies, versus constantly being online. Creating boundaries with technology is so important, yet also very difficult so we must be aware of how easy it is to get sucked into scrolling or spending mindless hours on technology. There are studies that have proven the addictive qualities of social media, making it really important to set those boundaries.

I know I have shared this idea or something similar several times before, but it’s definitely an idea that I keep circling back to and pondering. None of us are going to be perfect. We will all struggle, waste time, and sometimes spend our time doing things we wish we wouldn’t have done. But the more we expose ourselves to these ideas of the importance of living intentionally, the more we will pursue it!

Here is the YouTube video I shared in conjunction with this blog post.

NOT JUST ACTIONS, BUT A HEART CHANGE

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For today’s Thoughtful Thursday post I wanted to talk about something more in depth that I mentioned in last week’s post. Last week I was debriefing about how the month of March went for my no buy year. In that post I shared that I didn’t break any of my rules, but my heart was still struggling with the desire to shop for the wrong reasons. Even though the purchases I made last month were all okay with the rules I had set up for myself, I realized that I was still shopping to ease anxiety or to get that dopamine hit to feel better. This week I have been thinking more about this idea of the importance of a heart change and not just a change in actions.

The whole purpose of doing this no buy year, or any of the challenges I choose, is ultimately to change myself on a heart level, not just a habit level. That is the true test! We may be able to muster up enough willpower to change our behavior, but the lasting and sustainable change happens when change happens in our hearts. This is actually a Christian principle, which Jesus talked about in His famous sermon The Sermon on the Mount. He talked about how it is not enough to just follow the commandments, but we must also follow them in our minds and hearts. This is a tall order, which is why we believe as Christians we need the Holy Spirit in our lives to help us follow through.

This may be a really weird analogy, but I have thought about how this is similar to our homes. We may have the counters and external space clear; but if our closets, cabinets, and drawers are disorganized and stuffed, we are still not organized and we are still going to have problems finding things. We may have the external appearance of being organized – we may be following the rules and our behavior is correct, but if our hidden spaces are a mess, like our hearts are a mess, then there is still work to do.

I’m not saying this is an easy thing. As a matter of fact, as I mentioned, there are still things that I struggle with that I am working to change at a heart level. But that all takes time. Just like it takes time to clean out the hidden spaces, cabinet by cabinet, drawer by drawer. I am hopeful that if I put in the consistent work of exposing myself to things that are true (like reading the Bible, listening to sermons or other positive content, and praying) I will eventually get there. Usually cleaning out our hidden spaces in our homes does not happen overnight, and I think the same is true as we work to “clean up our hearts.”

The important thing to remember is that no one is perfect. We all have struggles. We all struggle with different things. But we must keep striving towards better. Each day. That’s all we can do! And our growth is not always linear. We will have ups and downs. We may even have a season – a few weeks, a few months – of setbacks. We can’t beat ourselves up for our setbacks and failures. We must view them as opportunities for lessons and growth. And hope that the growth is still a steady progression forward.

The YouTube video I shared in conjunction with this blog post.