How to slow down your life by buying less

Have you ever wondered why you have so much stuff?. Most of it just accumulates over the years – and where does it all go? Most likely to the landfill. I bet that made you think. Can you even remember where and why you bought it? The trouble is, all that stuff clutters up your life – both physically and metaphorically – like trying to view the world through a pair of greasy glasses. Everything’s just a little out of focus.

Organise your world around owning and buying less stuff and everything important in your life will suddenly become much clearer. Having lots of stuff is just a distraction that prevents you from focussing on what really matters to you. Read on to discover how to live a slower, more intentional life by buying less in the first place…

How I saved a lot of money buying second hand furniture

A few years ago, I was looking for second-hand furniture to fit out my new living room with. On one of my collection trips around town, I visited the home of a couple who were selling their lovely oak cabinet. It was in essentially new condition, and at £90, it was a bargain. Upon asking why they were selling this beautiful piece of furniture, they responded: We’re looking to update all our furniture this year.

What? I didn’t even know that updating (or upgrading) furniture was a thing – selling your current furnishings to replace them with equally lovely (and very expensive) new stuff just seemed like a gigantic waste of money to me. I didn’t see the point. But maybe that’s just me – I couldn’t fathom why anyone would do such a thing, especially when there was so much usable life left in everything.

A few days later, I was looking for a glass TV cabinet – you know, the one that everyone has owned at least once in their life. And the chap I went to collect it from was giving it away. Nobody would take it. He literally begged me to take it off his hands so he wouldn’t have to take it to the tip himself.

The glass TV stand that everyone has owned at least once.

I’ve always found it difficult to understand why people want to buy so much new stuff. And especially why people want to replace perfectly good items with something new. It just doesn’t make sense.

Why buying less matters

There are three main problems with buying new things frequently:

Financial cost – new items are expensive and depreciate quickly.

Buying new stuff costs money. You also pay a premium buying new vs used, while the shiny new toys you buy will depreciate with time. That’s because almost all the stuff you buy throughout life is a financial liability (rather than an asset). So, that £30,000 car you bought might only be worth £15,000 after five years. That’s a loss of £3,000 per year, or £8.22 per day.

Environmental cost – production consumes more natural resources.

The production of stuff has a strongly negative effect on the natural environment. Producing wood furniture is linked to deforestation of the world’s primary rainforests, while many cosmetic products, pastries, butter and spreads contain palm oil – whose plantations are also linked to deforestation and habitat loss.

Cars and technology contain heavy metals which are often mined in poor countries where child labour is frequent and there is little concern for habitat loss or the negative impact of toxic chemicals leaking into the environment. On average, humanity is using nature 1.7 times faster than Earth’s biosphere can regenerate, and for developed countries the number is even higher. The average UK resident uses 2.6 times Earth’s resources, in China it’s 2.4, while in the USA it’s (a shocking) 5.1 times Earth’s resources(!)

Cost to mental capacity – more stuff demands time, energy and attention.

Buying new things takes up a lot of your time and mental capacity. What size, what colour, what brand, what model of X/Y/Z should you buy? And then you have to maintain them – even store them and remember where they were placed sometime later. While you spend time thinking about these things, the person who buys less can focus on things that really matter to them – like spending time with their kids and focussing on their health. Having lots of stuff in your life requires you to expend time and energy that could be spent on something else.

You may even have so much stuff that it is literally cluttering up your house and you must constantly look for space to store it all. More extreme consumers may have to pay to store all their stuff. But why? This makes no sense. In this case you spend lots of money on things which you then pay to put into storage – and which, by definition, you can no longer use. Never pay to store things – you may as well flush your money down the toilet.

My simple policy for buying things:

If it doesn’t need replacing, don’t replace it. If I think it does need replacing, first wait – wait to see how long it might last for, and to see if it still has good life left in it. Check with myself to realise how much I actually want the item, and to consider if buying it will really add any value to my life. If it passes all these checks then I should go ahead and buy it. But first, look for a good quality, used version on Gumtree, Ebay, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist etc. And keep looking. If it really doesn’t turn up on any of these sites, and I’ve exhausted all of my options to buy the item used, then – and only then – can I buy it new. Always pay in cash.

Essentially I:

Keep my current stuff for as long as possible by looking after it.
Really think about whether what I want to buy will improve my life.
Always check for a quality used item first; buy new only if none exists.
Always buy high quality; cheaper items wear out faster and cost more in the long run.

These are simple principles which are difficult to implement. The appropriate mindset comes from thinking about money differently than the average consumer. Money is something that you should hold onto – and so you should always check with yourself that you really want to buy that something, and that it will add value to your life.

How to beat lifestyle inflation

Taking this mindset really helps to keep lifestyle inflation in check. Rather than wanting something and then buying it, you instead make a considered decision about the purchase. Essentially, you begin to run your finances more like a business, rather than a four-year-old child who wants everything they put their hands on. As an adult, you can buy anything you want – you just have to make sure those purchases are wise decisions.

Lifestyle inflation is such a problem because you don’t notice it creeping up on you. Why did you purchase that new car or phone, or start taking those fancy holidays every year? Would you be happier if you stopped taking nice holidays and simply stayed at home with your family, taking walks, cooking good food and spending quality time together? It’s a difficult thing to do – to question your own lifestyle like this – but an essential process if you are to tackle lifestyle inflation.

My personal battle with lifestyle inflation

I’ll hold my hands up and admit that I’ve suffered from some lifestyle inflation over the years. I have a nice car, phone and computer to work from. But that’s it. Most of my furniture is second hand and everything has been bought with cash. And I don’t intend to unnecessarily replace these things – my car, for example, I expect to keep for as long as it will last, hopefully decades away. With the exception of a house, if you can’t pay for it in cash, don’t buy it. Simple.

You want to avoid lifestyle inflation – as you gain money throughout life, sure, upgrade your life – but only by a little. Remember that true happiness does not come from comfort, but rather from discomfort and doing difficult things.

Buying used is King

The more you start considering used items in your purchases, the less you find that’s wrong with them. You can simply start by looking at websites which sell used stuff – and you’ll find thousands of good quality items, likely within easy collection distance. You can save a ton of money buying used furniture (as in my example at the beginning of this post), and while it is more difficult, if you look hard enough, you’ll even be able to find good quality matching furniture, either second hand or on sale in a showroom.

Tech and cars

Technology and cars, in my opinion, should always be bought used. There’s so much depreciation on these items that it makes very little sense to buy them new – just know that you’re throwing money away if you do. You can find so much barely-used second-hand tech online, and if you look carefully, some still performing as-new (with the tiny drawback that they’re not the absolutely latest model). Look for a used model 2-4 years old, and you could get a 40-60% discount off new prices. Bargain!

In general, I wouldn’t buy a car any less than four years old, for fear of buying too close to the top of the depreciation curve. And when I do buy a new piece of technology, I make damn sure to look after it.

Typical depreciation of a car. Made using ChatGPT.

Clothes and holidays

If you’re in need of a wardrobe change, charity shops and thrift stores often have a treasure trove of high-quality clothes, although you do need to spare the time to look properly. For holidays, there are some fantastic discount website like Loveholidays, which give discounts on package holidays. Increasingly over recent years, I’ve been considering holidaying domestically within the UK, as it provides more freedom and can be inexpensive if you plan and book efficiently using Airbnb.

Table created using ChatGPT.

If you spend your money intentionally like this, you will be able to save and invest thousands more every year – potentially bringing forward your retirement date by a decade or more. Perhaps something to think about the next time you open your wallet!

Want to build a slower and more intentional life? Here are some other posts you may find interesting:

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