One of my bigger goals this year is to ditch online shopping.

I have been down this path before, doing 30 day challenges and even a whole year of monitoring all my non-essential spending.

But you just reach a point where you realize something doesn’t work anymore. And as I take more ownership of my choices this year, I realize online purchases don’t bring me joy or accomplish my goals.

I want to buy local

Everyone says “buy local,” but what does that actually mean?

For us, it was buying tea at a local apothecary shop instead of the chain grocery store.

It was buying our refrigerator at a local appliance store instead of Lowes or Home Depot.

It was buying food from a local meal prep business instead of continuing with HelloFresh or other national companies.

These national stores and companies are not inherently bad, but the money I spend at these smaller local businesses stays in my community. The people running these shops and businesses live in my city.

And the service is often much better.

I want to see and touch the product I am buying

We had a couple snafus at Christmas time. One involved a necklace for my son that ended up being an enormous “superfan” necklace, not at all like the photo shown. The other being a box of beef sticks that were half the amount I ordered and they refused a refund or additional product.

Needless to say, I was discouraged by these two purchases and vowed that I wanted to SEE and TOUCH the product before I bought it. The best way to do that is to go to a store and avoid shopping online.

I want to spend less

I personally spend less in a store than I do online. If I have to physically put it in my cart, I think a little harder about it. If I just have to click “add to cart” I will likely spend more.

I want to be a conscious spender

Buying a smaller refrigerator last month made us realize we over consume a lot. I want to buy the right amounts and buy quality items.

Online shopping encourages me to buy excess or “stock up,” which is usually not good for my weekly budget, my waistline, or the planet.

Buying only what I need is best.

I want the buying experience

I hate shopping in general. In high school, my mom would have to drag me to the mall just to get me to try on a couple dresses for dances.

I am the last person on Earth you want to take with you to pick out an outfit or build a wedding registry.

That being said, if I HAVE to buy something I want the buying experience. I want friendly service and help when needed.

My husband and I went to a local store to look for gifts around Christmas time. The woman helping us let us try out the board game we were looking at. This allowed us to make a better purchase and it was a fun experience.

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Now, I also understand there are times you have to find things online.

Here are some examples of items we have bought online so far in 2024:

–Ryze mushroom coffee: In our long journey to cut caffeine (we are getting close!), we wanted to try this highly recommended product. We could only find it online, so we used a promo code to get a decent price and really love it! (not an affiliate link, just sharing if you are interested 🙂 )

–Beef sticks on Amazon: I know I just said above that I received the wrong beef sticks and vowed to shop in the store. But we can only find my son’s favorite beef stick on Amazon, so while we stocked up on his favorite we got a few of our favorites too.

I also occasionally do “store pickup” where you technically order the items online but pick up in the store. I mainly do this for time savings and view it a little different than online shopping.

Overall, I am happy with how we have started the year in this area. I am glad to be focusing on shopping in physical stores and local when it fits the budget.

I believe that less brown boxes showing up at my door this year will be a positive change in many ways!

-Brittany