Graphic of a woman doing a shopping challenge and deciding whether to spend her money or save her money
Episode 13 – Could you do a ‘No Shopping Challenge’?

In this episode, Lesley talks to two friends who embarked on a challenge to change their clothes shopping behaviours. We talk about the psychology of shopping, the details of their challenge and most importantly what they learnt from the process and whether they would recommend it for anyone who wants to challenge themselves in the New Year. Could you do a no shopping challenge? To help you think about it, here are the things we talk about.
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Transcript of this podcast episode
Intro  0:07  
Welcome to today's episode of The Declutter Hub Podcast, your channel for super easy, no nonsense advice on how to declutter and organise your home. Please welcome your host, professional organisers, Ingrid Jansen and Lesley Spellman.

Lesley  0:27  
Hello, listeners and welcome to Episode 13 at the Declutter Hub Podcast. Today, I'm absolutely delighted to welcome my two very best friends in the world and Julie and Christine to talk about their shopping behaviours. So, welcome, girls. 

Julie  0:43  
Hi, Lesley.

Christine  0:44  
Hi, Lesley.

Lesley  0:45  
I'm gonna say girls, but maybe that's a little bit of a loose terminology for extras. We're not girls anymore. But anyway, so yeah, I'm excited to do this podcast today. So I wanted to do want to talk to our listeners about shopping behaviour, some of the psychology behind shopping. And I know that you too, embarked on a challenge a couple of years ago, which we're going to come to in a little while. And so first of all, why don't we talk about what you how you've grown up and where your shopping? Kind of behaviours have come from, Julie?

Julie  1:17  
well, I suppose Lesley. If I think back, it probably started when I was a teenager. And I used to like sort of quite quirky clothes, quirky 80s clothes, and I used to wear some outrageous outfits from a local designer from our hometown.

Lesley  1:36  
I think we've seen the photos. 

Julie  1:37  
Yeah, they're really bad. They really do look homemade as well. And then when I became a student, I used to love going to Edinburgh schools, secondhand shop, it was in the shadows of the art school. And I used to go there all the time and find really lovely quirky buys. But then when I started to work, I had a bit more money, so secondhand shop and went out the window and I light designer labels then. And when I moved to Manchester, I had a friend who owned a boutique in Manchester. And we used to meet at the cause of business every Saturday night, go out for drinks, but I'd have half an hour in the shop. And I try on all ollar clothes, and of course light some and bought them. And those were, you know, expensive designer, brands labels. And I guess I did that for quite a few years. Liked nice labels and spent a lot of money on it. And that's probably pretty kid to say, Oh, definitely bought kids came along, habits changed. I guess I sort of moved away from expensive labels and moved more towards cheaper high street fashion. But was kidding myself because I was buying a lot more rather than buying, you know, a couple of items or buy lots of cheaper items and thought, Well, I'm not spending as much money anymore on clothes. But actually I probably was. 

Lesley  3:17  
So the volumes went went down, the costs went down but the volumes went up.

Julie  3:21  
Yeah, definitely. You know, I used to love just wandering around the shops with the kids, when they were younger. It was a leisure activity for for me. And in fact, one box Sunday, when I had a four year old, a two year old and a 10 month old baby. And we went to the Boxing Day sales and the thought of that knows it's just madness, no way we would have contemplate that. So I suppose my husband and I started to think about family finances a bit more. And I did a an analysis of it saw just how much money I was probably spending on clothes that I shouldn't have been doing. I thought things might need to change. And I'll come on to that in a bit.

Lesley  4:14  
Yeah, no, that's really interesting actually. Definitely talks about some of the psychologies that we'll talk about a little bit later on. So Christine, tell us about your journey with shopping. Hi, Leslie.

Christine  4:23  
Yeah, minor probably stems from Well, it definitely stems from mom, daughter time with my own mum. I'm one of four children. I've got two older brothers and a younger sister. And my dad used to take the boys off to watch his beloved football team. I don't think I should probably my mom would take me my sister shopping on a Saturday afternoon we're getting the bus into town and we don't wander around the shops and it was definitely a girl mum bonding session. And that is probably how it's always been for members such as shop with tend to to always shop with somebody as well. Azure treat time. Even when my mom used to when I left home school to college, my mom would come and we would go shopping. I used to take a shopping any opportunity. So when we had I had the children and if I had any childcare where I could have a couple of hours off, I would then use that time to go around the shops. We live near a big sparkly shopping centre that opened up when the kids were little. So I used to go there and again, just meander and and see what took my fancy. I'm a bit of a lazy shopper. So I don't do the whole TK Maxx kind of shopping. But if I see something like that, that I like or beautiful displayed to me, it's a nice thing that I you know, would would acquire. So that's kind of how it's standard them also a Christmas Day, Baby. What's that got to do that. When your Christmas Day baby, you get all your presents on one day, and my mom was brilliant. I have lots of come from big standard Irish families and my mum would gather all the presents from aunties and uncles, we'd have a Christmas Day opening presents in the morning, and then I'd have my birthday presents in the afternoon. So I'd have a day of pure opening gifts. And so I am I, you know, I did tend to still be that way. I'm sure Julia will agree that I was a bookshop route, when I would go in syllabi and one pair of jeans, I'd buy four. And that was something that I knew was not what everybody else was doing is a bit crazy. And again, it was that kind of, I don't know when the next shopping trips going to be because you've got a whole year to wait till your next birthday. And that's a long lesson. That's not to say, everybody has 12 months with their birthday, but a 12 month between getting a gift. So I didn't have a Christmas and then summer birthday, it was a whole it was all on one day. And so I've also been a bit of a bulk shopper, which is not a good thing to be so my youngest daughter was leaving home and I realised that I would have a bit more time and didn't want to spend it in the Trafford Centre or any other in Manchester city centre shopping. So that's how it all kind of came about.

Lesley  7:17  
Brilliant. Well, thank you. So two slightly different journeys that and but I think what brings it together is some of the psychologies of shopping and clothes. So first thing I want to say now that we've you've got a deep psychological problem with shopping, you're both quiet on the normal scale in terms of your sense of your relationship with clothes. But nevertheless, there are psychologists that are not deep and not problematic, but they're still calm, and they're still important to understand. So some of the things that you spoke about that I wanted to sort of talk about this thought process that you want to treat yourself sometimes and so you know, and for you, Christine, then it was also about treating your mom. So it's not necessarily just about the buying the the clothes, it's actually it's a treat, to go shopping and to spend that family time. 

Christine  8:02  
And I still do that, you know, I'm still did that when my daughters were at university, I'd go in and visit them and take them shopping, even if I didn't buy Yeah, for myself, it was a treat part of day. 

Lesley  8:02  
So it becomes a thing for a lot of people as well. Shopping is part of their routine. So every week, then, you know, you might go shopping with him on a Saturday, and then it's hard then not to buy anything isn't certainly because that's just part of the process. So I think routine definitely plays a part in the psychology as well. Buying something for a special occasion, I think we all have that thing where if you're going to a wedding or a christening or some or Christmas Day, you want to have something new. And so that's definitely a psychology that plays a part as well. And keeping up with fashion as well. Obviously, if you want to keep up with the latest fashions, then that means there's going to be regeneration of your clothing as you go through things. And then the other thing that I think is psychological is this, sometimes if you're disappointed with the way that you look, sometimes you think that a new item of clothing is going to somehow fix that. And so it's to kind of make yourself feel better, that psychology of making yourself feel better. So those are the psychologists some of those form part of your journey. So you've you've said that you realise then that actually, you were buying quite a lot of things and you wanted to make a small change. So tell us about I can remember it very well. The precise, rundown table. And so all of a sudden, my two best friends came up with this idea. I backed off very quickly in my role as the clutter fairy and they decided to embark on a shopping challenge. So it was your idea, Christine. So do you want to tell us a little bit more about what that shopping challenge entailed?

Christine  9:41  
Yes, I'm sure. Again, you'll all agree that I'm quite a spur of the moment lady. So I had this idea of no a very spur of the moment decision or maybe I just will won't shop for a couple of months and then that was well I might as well do 12 months because I'm a bit of off A bit of an all or nothing, girl. So and then, Julie? 

Julie  10:06  
Well, the challenge was was out there, so I just ran with it.

Christine  10:12  
And it was it have to say, the two of us doing it together was a big thing, wasn't it? Yeah. Kind of agreed that night. What that we're going to do? Yeah, I mean, no turning back then

Julie  10:22  
I did think could do it. Do I want to do it? But, you know, the challenge was there. So that was it. Yeah,

Lesley  10:30  
you had made your resolution, you did not fail by the end of January, I'm happy to say. So tell me a little bit about the I want to come back a little bit later to the accountability that you spoke about. But let's talk about the rules of the game. So you obviously defined some very strict rules. And what were those? It was

Christine  10:50  
quite funny, because this was like a constant source of conversation. Every time we're together, what was included and what wasn't included. So we agreed that we would, very basic items. So underwear, we both got dogs, and we do a lot of dog walking. So there were certain things that were what happens if we need

Julie  11:08  
a new dog walk in pair of shoes. So there was

Christine  11:11  
very, very specific limited things that we could buy. And then as the alphas as the year progressed, we discussed bikinis.

Julie  11:18  
Scar was no

Christine  11:20  
there was no bikini knows that. Everything was everything was out jewellery was out. Coats, nothing. So. So we were very strict where we weren't and yeah, which surprised?

Julie  11:31  
Lots of people. Yeah, they were really surprised.

Lesley  11:36  
Just I can remember one night when we were sort of girls night discussing. What about gifts? Yes. Yeah. And so because I think as a girls group from the outside looking in, we thought well, they've done without for X number of months. So the natural thing is, and Julie your birthdays first because you're you've got to wait a little bit longer, because you're not double the size. So remember, for that on your birthday, Julie, most of the girls when they were buying you some gifts wanted to buy your clothing items didn't then I think you that was allowed was yes,

Julie  12:13  
they did. And I was quite lucky, because I've probably ended up with a few new tops. And Christine didn't. Yeah.

Lesley  12:24  
Okay. So it's a couple of years ago now. So you did get to the end of your challenge. And you did do no shopping for a year. One of the things that we spoke about before was accountability. So you felt that it was really important and really useful to be accountable to each other. So no, use the chat about it when you're out and about. And so, you know, how did that happen? Then? Did you just as each other? Well,

Julie  12:49  
if I'm being honest, I probably wouldn't have done it for a whole year had not been accountable to Christine. And vice versa, I guess. You know, I probably would have given up long before the year. But I think because we were doing it together. You had to keep going yeah, no. Yes.

Christine  13:10  
Which is what people get? Yeah, lots of things. Lots of other dietary kind of

Lesley  13:18  
Yeah, absolutely. I think it's really important to have that accountability. So people who go to Slimming World or Weight Watchers quite often will deal with somebody. Yeah. And then there's someone when you're kind of falling off the waggon a little bit to just say, I'll keep on going and to sort of, you know, encourage it.

Christine  13:34  
Or sending you a text saying I'm really struggling. Yes. How for something like that. remain strong. Stay strong. It's

Julie  13:43  
time time of year it was that you had a bit of a wobble. Yeah. And at the end of it, we planned a huge shop in January. We were going to have a whole day out even maybe go to London, have lunch, spend everything that we'd saved in the year. We didn't we just didn't bother. Because the the excitement of it and the pool all that had sort of waned really.

Lesley  14:08  
So I think that's really important now to move on then to what you learn. So what do you think that you learned in that year about, you know, what did that process teacher

Julie  14:17  
and I guess I thought, I've got lots of my wardrobe already. And it made me look at my own clothes in a slightly different way to wear different combinations of things that I already had, and it made the outfit look new and fresh. I learned that I was a very visual shopper I like to see things and feel them. So if I didn't actually go near the shops then I wasn't tempted in the same way.

Lesley  14:53  
And what about you, Christine? So I remember at the time after you'd finished your challenge that you talked about, that it changed the types of things that you bought, you know? Yeah. So you went from more sort of throwaway items or cheaper items, and you bought things that were a little bit more a better quality. Yeah. So

Christine  15:12  
what what it's taught was it taught me is that I could use my time far more effectively in better ways than roaming around the shops for a couple of hours. So I used my free time better doing other things. So therefore, the things that I would purchase will be better quality that would last me so didn't have to go and keep replacing them. So that is definitely and that still with me. Now, I don't ever have a free afternoon, I do something what I would consider to be more constructive than spending it shopping.

Lesley  15:43  
And what did other people think of your journey? What did it what did people have to say about it?

Julie  15:47  
I think people were genuinely surprised. And they were probably even more surprised when we said it was for a year because I think he just assumed we weren't going to shop for a couple of months. And then when we said, but for the whole year, and it's no accessories, no, nothing, the couldn't quite believe it really is actually much

Christine  16:09  
harder than Yeah, then it sounds when you cause a year is a long time to make such a radical change. And I certainly think that my husband and my girls thought that that was a silly thing to do for 12 months, and it was too long, but you do. Because Because we live in a country of changing where you do have to do the year don't need to be ready to challenge because, you know, we were in a country where it changes a lot throughout the years, there's loads of temptations to shop.

Julie  16:38  
A thing I think is well, because we both got three daughters, each and our daughters know each other. And I think we also knew that we we couldn't cheat, because we couldn't get away with it. Because our doctors would have tall tails on each of us. So that was another. We don't have any cheating ourselves. Yeah. Yeah, really? Well, yeah. I think there was all these extra layers. Yeah.

Lesley  17:04  
So is it fair to say then that it made you more mindful of what you were doing?

Christine  17:11  
In terms of shopping? Yeah, definitely. Yes, yes, I would definitely say that, that. I mean, my I now with my mom, we used to get I mean, I still still do take her shopping every now and again, because she does absolutely love it. But we also will go for coffee maybe or will, you know, I'll take the dogs and we'll go for a walk. So I do do other things as well as whereas it used to exclusively be, it was mine and her shopping day if I had a free day where I was going to go and visit her. So that's definitely something that's changed and, and for the better rarely, because we get to talk more if we go for a walk than if we're shopping. And as she's got older, she can't physically do you know, as much. So it's just, it's nice. And it's different.

Lesley  17:55  
Yeah. Okay. And was money a factor in this? Did you look at how much money you saved over the year?

Julie  18:01  
Not really, it was never the initial intention. I think on reflection, I probably spent more money on household items than I probably would do in an average year. But then maybe some of that was displacement behaviour, you know, I can't buy clothes, therefore, I will buy a nice new candle or, you know, a nice guitars or just small items for the house. But nonetheless, it was, it was definitely more than I might normally have.

Lesley  18:36  
So you kind of fill in that need for shopping with something

Julie  18:41  
probably maybe at the time, I didn't see it that way. But when I look back on it, that's probably exactly what I was doing.

Christine  18:48  
I think the money thing is quite hard. Because I think unless you are actually putting the money away, you know, so people who stopped smoking and if they put the money in a turn, you can see it. But if you don't, you tend to just spend it. On other things. We have three at university. So our financial budget had to change anyway. So it's probably got swallowed up. I can't say that, okay, I'm away from the much wealth, you know, any more savings then I had before because, as I say things change anyway. So that's a,

Lesley  19:16  
it's a little bit more difficult to define isn't shopping and you know, smoking or drinking or eating out or whatever. It's a bit more defined in terms of what you would probably spend on an average week, whereas shopping, it's just a little bit more sporadic. So a little bit more difficult to save. And, well, I think that's really, really interesting, actually. Would you recommend it as a challenge to anybody?

Julie  19:40  
Absolutely. Yeah. Why not

Christine  19:42  
say yeah, yeah. And again, I think it's something that if you're going to do it has to be for a specific

Julie  19:49  
length of time. Yeah. But you know, maybe if you can't do clothes, accessories, bags, shoes, the whole lot. Maybe you could just choose one of the above Do you see how you get on? Take

Christine  20:02  
some control back from there?

Lesley  20:04  
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It's about taking that control back and being in control, you know, be back in control of your own life. And I think that's the important thing. So thank you, girls, I am so happy that you came to talk to us today. It was good fun. We all managed on the podcast, I think we just so thanks very much, because I know it's very it's quite personal journey as well. So thank you very much for sharing with us today. And it's new year. So Happy New Year to everybody, by the way, and it's New Year's resolution time. I really wanted to talk about this today to see whether anybody would want to go on a personal challenge of their own in terms of shopping. So as we said, it doesn't need to be no shopping for a whole year, but it might be just something. So hopefully, this has given you a little bit of food for thought going into 2019 and you can embark on your own personal challenge. So if you do let us know how you get on. And thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The declutter hub podcast. If you want to subscribe to us on iTunes and Stitcher. Please go ahead or find out more about us. Declutter hub.com Thanks very much for listening. Bye.

Outro		21:16  
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