purchase ban

Hello hello! It’s the first day of June where I’m from which means my hobby purchase ban has officially taken place.

What is this?

I am glad you ask, headings 2.

The hobby purchase ban is basically me not buying new stuff related to my hobbies (e.g. art, stories, audiobooks, games etc)

This means that for the next 6 months, I will only be:

• Reading stuff I already bought
• Using inks, points, coins etc I already purchased
• Utilizing the existing subscription services I already have
• Using art supplies I already bought
• Playing games I already have and not purchase anything in-game/in-app

The main reasons I’m doing this are two things:

1. I want to buy our home a new electric oven sometime in December or early 2023 and I don’t want that big purchase to scratch off my existing savings as much; and
2. I will also have an even bigger savings goal in and throughout 2023 for another house-related project.

I understand I am not able to do these two without reining in my hobby spendings, both in short- and long-term.

Which is also lowkey my third reason. I’ve been spending quite a lot over the past five months, either from necessary spendings (like when I had an emergency operation) and – really, mostly – for my hobbies. This is something I’ve been thinking for a while, to be honest. I’ve always had a bit of a complicated relationship with money but when I was a broke college student this wasn’t as prominent, as I had to allow the practical side of me to take reins and prioritize what to spend. Now that I’m a full-time working adult with some extra money… it’s not as easy. 

On one hand, I don’t want to guilt myself on buying stuff that I want when I can. I no longer believe the whole “Stop spending $5 on Starbucks to build your retirement” spiel from the early 2010s personal finance space. Hindsight is 2020 as they say and I realize now it’s an extremely privileged, useless take. Nevertheless, at one point, I did. 

Consequently, I still want to be intentional in what I consume. I don’t want to succumb to the instant gratification that comes with endless consumption and I know that’s incredibly hard online, the Lotus Hotel and Casino of consumerism. Just a couple months back, I was having this incredibly strong urge to buy something, anything simply because I was feeling anxious and unsettled in some way. I like to joke about retail shopping therapy online and with friends but I really don’t want it to be the first thing I run to to cope with any mental and/or emotional distresses in life.

So yeah, here we are.

I’ve previously successfully done a purchase ban specifically for art supplies a while back for six months but this will be the first time I do so for my hobbies in general. As such I hope that this will be a success and a personal opportunity to practice discipline and consume responsibly.

This whole announcement is really just me wanting to put it out there on the interwebs, and also as some semblance of not-so-formal accountability. Of sorts.

Anyways, I will be sharing my progress every couple months until December. Wish me luck!