The Two Orders Per Month Rule

I spend a lot of my time browsing the web, and therefore have a lot of contact with the online shops that make our life easier. Unfortunately, they made it a bit to easy, and sometimes we lose track of how much we spend. So as of this year, I am following a new rule, the two orders per month. Why two? Well, one is a bit hard to follow and I am a true believer in trying to follow loose rules for a longer period of time, rather than very strict ones that you will drop within a month.

Like many of you, I have a huge list of favorite items that I monitor to see when they are at their best prices, also on this list I have a bunch of nice to have’s in case I place an order. At the end of the month, I realized that I spend a lot on things that I don’t really need because I am addicted to clicking that Order Confirmation button.

My name is Juliana and I am addicted to online shopping! I am getting anxious when I am not expecting any orders and I always turn to online shopping when something isn’t going as planned throughout the day. But I am trying to get better, so I am setting a monthly limit to my shopping addiction.

Leaving the joke aside, online shopping can be a real pain if you don’t want to live from one paycheck to another if you want to travel and also pay the debts you have. Finding a way to cope with the desire to buy new things and the monthly budget, is hard, yet acknowledging a problem is the first step towards solving it. For me some days it’s all about me being bored, other times it’s because I just want to find the relief in buying something new, both scenarios are signs of an issue that will not get solved by shopping.

The first four months from this year passed and until now, I’ve only cheated in one, since it was my birth month I considered it a free pass, but I will try not to do it again. Therefore I am doing my best to stay away from the fast fashion temptations and focus more on the experiences I want to have this year. Going to a concert, travel somewhere new, taking a road trip is far more important than new pieces of clothing.

Another important aspect that I am working on this year, is related to the items that I purchase. Fast fashion comes with a  huge price, mostly paid by undeveloped countries and by the entire planet. Employees that are paid with scraps, chemicals are released into the rivers, there is a huge number of people who die because of the exposure to toxic substances, those are all consequences of the greed to sell more and have people buy more. Even if we don’t do this ourselves directly we are a part of the problem, so for me, it’s important to know the origin of the item that I am buying and I encourage everyone to do the same. Perhaps we will no longer buy items at 3$, but we will be considerate of those who touch of clothes and their sacrifice.

Nowadays everything is moving online and even if it’s a great thing that makes our lives a lot easier, it’s also a way for us to de-focus from what really matters and start buying a lot of junk just because we can, or because it someone says it’s on sale. Clearly among the offers there are good deals that will make us save some money, but those are isolated cases and more than 90% of the time is just an addiction. For the the detoxification started in 2019 and I am working on changing my habits when it comes to online shopping.

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