Young Americans are hopping on the ‘no-spend’ January trend, in hopes of saving money and stopping overconsumption.
A NerdWallet study found that 26% of Americans have attempted the challenge, and ‘no-buy’ hit a five-year high in Google search results in December, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Influencers across TikTok and Instagram have been recording and promoting their month of spending only on essential items, like groceries, rent, and hygiene products.
Elizabeth, who did not want to share her last name due to privacy reasons, goes under the Instagram handle foxgrove_ and has 22,000 followers.
She had a no-buy month on her 2025 bucket list but never completed the trend, so she decided to start the new year with a challenge.
“I feel like it’s been a really good hard reset for me,” she told The Ticker.
Being a content creator online, with a lot of her content revolving around unboxings for around three years, she realized that she had begun to mindlessly consume items.
“I was looking around my space and realizing that I am just kind of mindlessly consuming things and not being intentional about like what actually makes me feel good when I look around my space,” Elizabeth said.
The small business owner also realized that her feed became flooded with ads of influencers trying to make individuals buy their product.
Elizabeth lives in Michigan and is chronically ill and disabled, causing her to be home frequently. Because of this, she has groceries delivered, but she explained that her biggest struggle was ordering in food, which is normally a quick fix, then making a home-cooked meal.
But keeping strong for the month, she did not buy anything she didn’t need. It made Elizabeth use more of the resources that she already had at home.
“I really haven’t missed a whole lot to be honest, like it’s led me to kind of look around the house and see like what I have to sort of keep me busy,” Elizabeth said.
She has read three books this year from her own collection instead of buying new books, and has used yarn from her bin instead of buying more.
This challenge taught her to be more mindful of items she already owns, and to take more time to decide if she needs a product that’s trending.
Elizabeth also explained that she will continue to focus on shopping locally and helping the businesses in her community flourish.
“I really want to be more intentional about where I’m spending my money and for me that’s been trying to like focus on local businesses,” Elizabeth said. “And I honestly feel like I might try to continue as much as possible into February.”
