What if the answer to overspending isn't willpower, but simply... buying nothing new for 30 days? Rachel chats with Angie Fitzpatrick on the Money Healing Club Podcast to discuss Ashlee Piper's book "No New Things: A Radically Simple 30-Day Guide to Saving Money, the Planet and Your Sanity." They explore why we have so much stuff we don't need, how the returns system is broken, and why borrowing your neighbor's rubber bands might be the key to building community. Plus: the surprising link between gratitude and impulse spending.
💬 "Only 2% of purchases were returned 25 years ago. Now we send back 3.5 billion products a year worth a trillion dollars. We are buying stuff that we're not even using, then we're sending it back."
Key Takeaways:
• Overconsumption affects your money, mental health, AND the environment simultaneously
• The average American has 300,000 things - no wonder we forget what we already have!
• Cultivating gratitude practice directly reduces impulse spending (backed by eco-psychologists)
• The SUPER acronym helps you find alternatives to buying new (Secondhand, Upcycling, Paying nothing, Renting)
• Tracking your triggers reveals the patterns driving your purchases
About Angie Fitzpatrick:
Angie is the program manager of the Money Healing Club community and returning podcast guest. You can catch Angie sharing about 🚺What the Wage Gap Doesn’t Tell You: The Hidden Financial Burdens Women Face
⏰ EPISODE BREAKDOWN
02:30 | What Makes This Buy Nothing Challenge Different
How Piper turns a simple challenge into a manifesto against hyper-consumption
08:00 | The Rubber Band Win: Community Over Commerce
Real stories of borrowing from neighbors and building unexpected connections
23:00 | The Trillion Dollar Returns Industry
How "no questions asked" returns spawned a reverse logistics nightmare
31:00 | Tracking Your Triggers
Identifying what drives you to shop and replacing it with actual joy
📚 Resources Mentioned
• "The Serviceberry" by Robin Wall Kimmerer
💬 Join the Conversation
What's the ONE category you could commit to not buying new for 30 days? Holiday decor? Clothes? Food? What childhood hobby could you rediscover instead of shopping? The Money Healing Club podcast wants to hear your "no new things" commitment - click the big orange button to tell us your story: https://www.moneyhealingclub.com/podcast
🎧 Your next listen: Check out our episode on impulse spending to understand the emotional drivers behind the urge to buy. https://www.moneyhealingclub.com/podcast/s1e1-hn73w
Full transcript: https://www.moneyhealingclub.com/podcast
