135. Consumerism - Having More By Shopping Less
Voting with Your Dollars Doesn’t Mean Spending More
Many people resist the call to vote with their dollars because they assume it will cost more or that they’re being encouraged to buy more.
But spending intentionally, with businesses and brands that align with your values, can actually save you money in the end.
Erica and India discuss how minimalist practices have changed their relationship to spending and consumerism from where they buy their groceries to using the “good” china.
In this article:
How minimalism can counteract consumerism’s scarcity mindset
Why making intentional purchases can save you time and money
Questions to help you consider what to let go of, and what to bring into your life
Keep the dialogue going: Concepts are better explored in community. Actions are more lasting when taken alongside other imperfect allies and changemakers. Connect with a cohort of professionals and entrepreneurs at the intersection of values and visibility.
Join us at pauseontheplay.com/community
This article is based on a Pause On The Play® podcast episode called Consumerism - Having More By Shopping Less
Minimal-Ish
Erica says she calls herself “minimal-ish” and credits India’s influence for not only shifting where she spends her money but also what she chooses to keep and surround herself within her spaces for herself and her family.
Minimalism for Erica is about not having worry be the motivation for overbuying. She wants the objects and products that she brings into her home and business to have a purpose. She also asks herself if she already has something that does or could serve that purpose.
She has also implemented periodic check-ins with herself about what she has that she could let go of.
“What I'm trying to do is not to have stuff around me for the sake of stuff. Like, does it make my job easier? Does it make me more comfortable? Does it make me happy? Does it bring me joy? And if it doesn’t, then it probably needs to go.”
India notes Erica’s “awareness around the systems and strategies and the tactics [that] fuel people into a consumer society to buy more, have more, spend more, do more.”
Spending Better
India says “one of the things that I have found comes up whenever we’ve had a conversation around voting with your dollars [is]...this assumption that we’re asking them to spend more money, we’re asking them to buy more things.”
But in shopping less and spending less, Erica is able to be very intentional about where she spends her money and what businesses and brands she supports with her dollars, including where she buys groceries and everyday staples.
“It's not about, oh, you have to spend more. It's just spending differently, spending better. Because again, like I am buying things [at the local organic market] that actually end up costing me less,” than going into a traditional grocery store where by design, it’s easy to end up overbuying or making impulse purchases.
And while this particular conversation for Erica has focused on where she buys her groceries, India says “one of the things that’s shown up for me is streamlining where I shop, period, whether that be the grocery store, a clothing store, a place to get hair products, skin products.”
The result has been streamlining the amount of time she actually spends shopping, from having her CSA box delivered to the organic market for one-stop shopping, to buying clothes directly from brands she knows fit her well and share her values and ethics.
“When I think about that, I think it's important to see, where does this translate for you and other areas of your life?”
Organize It By Minimizing It
Erica says that she was taught the mindset of always needing choices and wanting to have options, which creates a cycle of buying, needing to care for those, needing to store those things, buying more things to store the things.
But as she’s pared down what she keeps and what she buys, “I don't need so many places to store stuff if I have less stuff to store.”
She has also stopped saving the good things for “this imaginary time that we’re going to finally use it.”
Both India and Erica have stopped separating things like their dishes into “good” and “everyday” categories and saving the good ones for special occasions. India says “It can be a special event every day. My life is special.”
Erica adds, “the only things that are put aside are things that are maybe just not getting used on a daily basis. I use my Instant Pot a few times a month, but I don't use it daily, but that's as close as that's going to get.”
Consumerism and Voting with Your Dollars
When Erica thinks back to where she was with her relationship to shopping and consumerism when she and India met, “I really can't think of too many things at that point that I bought that I still have, or that I would want to have.”
She says, “The beauty of being minimal-ish for me is that it does make me more cognizant of what I'm doing. And what a lot of us know from grocery shopping of reading the labels. I'm reading the labels of all the things that I'm doing. What does this support? Do I want to give you my money? It really has shifted me voting with my dollars in a way that supports my life outside of money. ”
Keep The Dialogue Going
Concepts are better explored in community. Actions are more lasting when taken alongside other imperfect allies and changemakers. Connect with a cohort of professionals and entrepreneurs at the intersection of values and visibility.
Join us at pauseontheplay.com/community