New series
Last year, I read Cait Flanders’ book The Year Of Less: How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings, And Discovered Life Is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy In A Store (Hay House, £15.99) and loved it. At 28, Flanders found herself $30k in debt and decided to set herself a challenge: not shop for an entire year (apart from food and basics). Inspired by her book, this month, I decided to create my own spending ban to slow down any ‘fast spending’ and gratuitous consumerism. First, I had to keep an inventory. ‘Write down everything that you buy. The more you write things down, the more you realise whether or not you’re happy with the fact you’ve spent that money,’ Flanders advised.