How long could you go without buying anything new?
Yerdle is challenging people to make a commitment to stop buying new things for 30 days (or however long you decide works for you!) by taking their Unshopping Challenge.
They want to encourage people to unclutter their lives, save money, and create less waste.
If you decide to take the Unshopping Challenge, you can make your own rules. Yerdle encourages you to still buy food (of course!) and consumable items, but what they really hope to do is to challenge people who have a shopping “addiction” or who just shop as a recreational activity, to break free from excessive shopping and spending in order to save money and simplify your lives.
Here’s how they encourage you to consider setting up your Unshopping Challenge:
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For 30 days, buy nothing new (except things you can’t re-use like food and gas).
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Sign up for a Yerdle account (it’s free!), go through your stuff, and post pictures of items you no longer need, love, or use.
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If someone is interested in your item, they can purchase it with Yerdle credit and you’ll earn Yerdle credit when you ship it out.
- You can use your Yerdle credit to “buy” items from other sellers on Yerdle. You pay shipping on the items you “purchase”.
This is a great way to not only clear your home of clutter and save some money, but by taking the Unshopping Challenge, it will likely help you evaluate your spending habits in a new light. And maybe you’ll end up forever changed as a result.
Sign up for the Unshopping Challenge here.
Tip: When you sign up for Yerdle, you can grab your referral link and share it with others. If others sign up through your link, you’ll earn 10 free Yerdle points and they’ll get 10 free Yerdle credits, too!
{This post was underwritten by Yerdle. See my disclosure policy here.}
Just a heads up, They charge shipping. I signed up and was going to get this small shelf until they wanted my credit card info for the shipping. While I realize this may only be a draw back for people like myself, I figured I should mention it. $6 shipping on a shelf I could find for 3 at the thrift store does not a bargain make. (for me anyway.)
Thanks so much for mentioning this! They said on their site that shipping was free on the first item… is that not the case?
If it is I didn’t see it. Someone will have to go farther than the credit card info, as that is where I went NOPE! 🙂
🙂
so what am I missing? don’t buy NEW for 30 days but it’s okay to buy from Yerdle because it’s USED? I don’t see how that helps break the shopping addiction or cut back/minimize. thoughts? ?
I am taking the challenge WITHOUT signing up with anyone for anything. Just a good little discipline for me.
Great point. I think I’d rather not buy anything new and sell some of my superfluous items instead for my vacation fund. ☺
Lol! You are right; that makes no sense at all! 😛 I’m not sure what they were thinking. They should have encouraged people to sell things on facebook and craig’s list instead.
You totally can choose not to follow their plan and instead just try an Unshopping Challenge where you sell your extras on Craigslist, etc. — which I think is a GREAT idea!
They just wanted a fun way to encourage you to use what you already have or find it used from someone else, instead of going and buying it new. Plus, if you “shop” on Yerdle, it doesn’t cost you any money. It’s a trading site so a fun idea on a way trade what you have and don’t need for something that someone else doesn’t need but you could really use.
I hope that helps to clarify!
But you do pay shipping and handling on the things that you buy, so it does actually cost you something. That’s why I thought Cheryl’s remark was spot-on. 🙂
I can definitely see where it would be fun, but they aren’t actually encouraging you to spend money on nothing except food and consumable items (if you do the trading thing), and I really don’t see how this would help someone who has a shopping addiction? I mean, even if you’re spending just small amounts (although shipping and handling is rarely small now-a-days! 🙂 ), you’re still spending money to buy things. Does it somehow not count if what you are paying for is shipping and handling? I don’t see much difference between that and buying from my local thrift store?
Anyway, I do think it sounds like fun, but if you’re actually trying break a spending habit or not spend extra money that part doesn’t sound helpful at all. 😛
Well, I’m still not sold on the trading idea of Yerdle, but unshopping for 30 days is a great suggestion and i LOVE the craigslist suggestion!! Not sure why I didn’t think of that 😉
They are a site where you trade items — similar to PaperBackSwap. However, you don’t have to trade anything on their site. It’s just a fun idea if you want to be encouraged to get rid of things and find things that you may really need.
Nope :-p we are renovating an old house (we paid cash!!!)
I should do this after we finish 🙂
Count me in!
How awesome! I’ve actually been posting daily no-spend challenges to my blog, and have and will continue to do so every other month (continuing in August, October, and December) this year on my site. I have thus far been able to save close to $4,000 this year so far!
What is the name of your blog? A daily no spend challenge would be great!