How To Embrace Slow and Low Spending in 2025

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Welcome back to My Jamaican Vignettes. I am wondering if this weekly greeting hurts my SEO but I won’t stop. If your TikTok For You Page was anything like mine then you would have been flooded by no-spend 2025 content in December 2024 and January 2025. Now I admire those people who decided to only spend on essentials and needs and give a big middle finger to capitalism but that can’t be the case for a lot of us, for whatever reason (family, work, community obligations we need to buy stuff). But how about we go about it a little more mindfully. Let’s embrace slow spending in 2025. Let’s discuss how.

How To Embrace Slow and Low Spending in 2025

So I have already shared my favourite money tracking and budgeting app with you guys last year but in late 2024 I started making lists. Now this goes beyond wishlists on Amazon or Shein. I create notes in my Keep Note app where I consider things that I like, want or would like to add to my life (home decor, clothing, fragrances, accessories). My method or practice is simple, put some distance between when I first see something and like it an when I finally decide to buy.

I also created spending categories such as online shopping and home decor and maintenance in my YNAB money plan each month for shopping. There is a dedicated budget and if there is a month where I don’t intent to buy anything then I freeze the category instead of adding additional funds to it.

I try to wait at least two weeks between first seeing something and liking it and then assessing if I should actually buy it. The fact is a lot of we buy (I buy) does not qualify as an essential, it isn’t adding significant value to our lives, it is really just more stuff. (Come back in March for a few tips on decluttering, I am still mulling it over).

Now we are only on our second month of 2025 so I can’t say this is a surefire way to spend less. But it does encourage more intention, thought and planning surrounding purchases.

Now bringing it back home to Jamaica and our use of freight forwarders and the current geopolitical space we are in. It might be a good time to think carefully before you hit checkout while the United States of America new administration settles into its new trade policies. Now is the perfect time to adopt a low and slow spending philosophy.

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Were you influenced by the no-spend trend on TikTok? Are there other factors driving your consumption of commercial goods or fast fashion? Let’s chat about it.

My initial content plan for February included a meal planning and recipes idea but I don’t feel like following up with that plan, so next week’s post is still undecided.

Thanks for reading and see you next week. I hope February has been good to you.