view from my window

Why I'm buying nothing for a year – no clothes, no holidays, no coffee ... 

Inspired by the Black Friday counter-movement Buy Nothing Day, I want to see if I can go a whole 12 months without spending on anything but bills and food 

‘I’m hoping the next year will teach me a thing or two about how little I need to live on and open my eyes to the wonderful free events that happen right under my nose.’ Photograph: Michelle McGagh 

Black Friday is looming and while most people are gearing up to flex the plastic in the shopping bonanza, I’m facing a year of buying nothing – a whole 12-month shopping ban. 

Inspired by the Black Friday counter-movement Buy Nothing Day, which encourages you to embark on a 24-hour shopping detox instead of rushing to the shops, I want to see if I can take it further and go a year without spending on anything but bills and food.

This means no meals out, no cinema trips, no holidays, no gigs unless they’re free, no rounds down the pub, no new clothes, no coffee – you get the idea. It also means I won’t be able to buy train tickets or bus fares so my trusty bicycle will be relied on to get from A to B. 

And I won’t be able to rely on friends and family to pay for me either – it’s a year of no spending, not scrounging. 

I’m not the first person to attempt this. There is a growing movement of people who are turning their back on consumerism and purchasing possessions in favour of buying experiences and travelling the world. In the US, the Minimalists have encouraged people to live with less, while in Canada Cait Flanders – who blogs at Blonde on a Budget – transformed her finances with a shopping ban. In the UK, Kath Kelly lived on just £1 a day for a year in order to buy her brother a lavish wedding gift.

These people have encouraged me to look at what I consume and take control of my money, as well as given me hope that a spending ban won’t mean a year sat indoors. They didn’t live like hermits for a year, they found new ways to entertain themselves, pushed themselves out of their comfort zones and enhanced their lives.

 ‘Most people are gearing up for Black Friday but there is a growing movement of people who are turning their back on consumerism.’ Photograph: Tom Pennington/Getty Images

So why do I want to follow in their footsteps? My husband and I have already spent the past 18 months reducing the amount of items in our home after an epiphany at a storage unit that was housing boxes of stuff we didn’t need. We gave away and donated things we no longer used and sold items that had some value, using the money to overpay on our mortgage. 

I realise that as we live in London we’re lucky to have a mortgage at all but that doesn’t mean I want to be saddled with it for 25 years. Getting rid of it early is an appealing idea and to really make a dent in it I need to get a handle on my everyday spending habits. 

While I know my half of the monthly bills equate to £1,000, I’m not so good at keeping tabs on where the rest of my money goes.

Totalling up my spending on coffee over the past year left me with palpitations (not the ones induced by caffeine either) – I’ve spent more than £400 on takeaway coffee alone. Random trips to the supermarkets for top-up shops and lunches totalled another £1,000 over the year despite doing a big food shop once a month. 

My spending, along with everyone else’s, is what is supposed to fuel the recovery in the UK, according to government figures UK consumers spend £90bn a month, and we can’t all just stop spending completely. If we did, businesses would go bust, people would lose their jobs and companies wouldn’t be able to pay dividends to investors, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t question what we are spending our money on or whether we are living beyond our means.

Much of the consumer cycle is being funded by credit, meaning we are putting our personal finances in the red as the economy struggles to make it into the black. Statistics from The Money Charity show Brits owed £1.45tn at the end of September, up from £1.41tn a year before and equal to an extra £661.50 per adult. 

Of course, for many people in the UK, using their credit card may be the only way to put food on the table and I recognise that a spending ban is a way of life already for those living close to the breadline. I have the luxury of choosing to step out of the consumer cycle.

I’m hoping the next year will teach me a thing or two about just how little I need to live on, help me save more and open my eyes to the wonderful free events that happen right under my nose. 

Living in London will be a blessing and a curse; there is a wealth of events that happen in the capital, with gigs, concerts and exhibitions on my doorstep, but these often come with a hefty price tag. However, there are plenty of free events to take advantage of – I’ve just never done so before. 

It won’t be easy though and I’m sure there will be times when money will have to change hands. I’m bound to get a puncture at some point and while I have a couple of spare inner tubes, I have resisted the urge to stockpile items.

However, I have purchased two bike-packing bags that fit onto my bike frame and a new sleeping mat so I can have a free wild camping holiday next year.

The only budget I do need to confirm is for food. Of course, I’ll have to make sure I have my three meals a day packed into my bag if I have to eat on the go, along with a flask of tea, but I would appreciate your thoughts on what a fair food budget for the month would be. And your tips on how to stick to it.