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June 2, 2024 13 mins

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Hey mamas! ✨ If you're looking to save money, reduce waste, and build a supportive community, this episode is for you.

Join me, Katie Kurpanek, as I unpack the secrets behind the Buy Nothing Challenge and share practical tips to help you start saving today.

Discover how this powerful movement can drastically reduce your monthly expenses, build stronger bonds with neighbors, and lower your carbon footprint.

Plus, get a sneak peek into what I teach inside The Eco-Minded Mama Collective, our vibrant online community supporting sustainable living...
 
Tune in now and transform your spending habits! 💚

Pssst--
🌟 Welcome to Jumpstart June! 🌟 June is my favorite month because there is so much I'm personally celebrating, and I'd love to spread the joy by gifting YOU a FREE month inside our Eco-Minded Mama Collective! ➡️ Use the code JUMPSTART at checkout to receive one free month and let's jumpstart your sustainable living journey with instant access to everything you need to start saving money & reducing your stress levels + carbon footprint!

code expires at midnight on June 30th, 2024

Support the show

P.S. Be sure to subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode and follow us on Instagram & TikTok @ecomindedmama to stay connected! ✨

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Katie Kurpanek (00:00):
Hi mamas! Welcome back to the show. So if

(00:02):
you are trying to save money inany capacity, maybe you are
trying to get out of debt, oryou're trying to just build up a
basic savings account, if youare trying to save for like a
vacation, whatever it is, ifyou're trying to just reduce the
overall cost of your monthlybills, I have the ultimate money
saving hack for you. And don'tbe thrown off by the name it is.

(00:23):
It seems simple, but it's calledthe Buy Nothing challenge. Okay,
buy nothing challenge, really?
Does that mean like buyabsolutely nothing? How is that
even possible? I thought thesame thing when I first heard of
it, and I was like, Okay, thisis not going to work for me. So
it really is a thing though,this is something that people
are embracing all over theworld. And there is a basic

(00:44):
framework to it. Today, we'regoing to unpack the overall
structure and framework and giveyou some tips so that you can
get started with a Buy Nothingchallenge and start saving your
money today. Hi, I'm Katie, ifwe haven't met yet, I am a mama,
a coach and a podcaster, who isempowering eco minded mamas like
yourself to live sustainably,which basically just means
living a life that is savingmoney and reducing waste so that

(01:07):
you can live with overall lessstress in your life. And who
doesn't want that. So let's getinto it. So I'm going to give
you a little glimpse of what Iteach inside The Eco-Minded Mama
Collective. This is an onlinemembership program that I have
created. And we have an entiremodule dedicated to this inside

(01:28):
the collective. We're actuallycurrently at the time of this
recording, going through a BuyNothing challenge together. But
I am going to give you a glimpseinto what I teach and why this
matters. So three reasons whythe Buy Nothing challenge could
really matter to you. Numberone, obviously, it is like the
ultimate cost saver if you arebuying nothing, or at least,

(01:49):
you're not buying as much as youused to with things that you
really don't need, or, you know,you could make do with what you
have, or you could get it forfree somewhere else, right. The
second reason that this canmatter to you is that it builds
community. So we will get intothis exactly. But this is
actually a really great way tojust get to know your neighbors,

(02:10):
or to do something really funwith your friends or your
family. And it is so much morefun and community, I will tell
you that. And then the thirdreason why this could really
matter to you, it reduces youroverall level of consumption,
which is then reducing yourpersonal carbon footprint. And
imagine if everybody was doingthat, if everybody was just
trying to reduce their carbonfootprint by buying a little bit

(02:32):
less stuff that they didn'tactually need, like what a dent
we would make. So a littlebackground, the official Buy
Nothing challenge was started bytwo friends in Washington back
in 2013. They basically justwanted to design a space where
their community could shareresources with each other for
free with absolutely no stringsattached. Like just say thank

(02:52):
you. That's it. That's all theywant. And it has now taken off,
the movement exploded sincethen. And now there are Buy
Nothing groups all over theworld, there is an app for that.
So you might have seen like aBuy Nothing Facebook group in
your neighborhood, they'repopping up all over the place.
And so basically, you can giveor request material items, even

(03:14):
services. So I have seen orrequested or given away like the
most random things, anythingfrom food, to clothing to home
goods, even like sourdoughstarters, or gardening help and
services, containers that I haveno use for and I don't want to
just toss them in the recyclingbins, but somebody else could

(03:36):
use them. Like you name it, youcould probably find it there. So
the thing is, we have anabundance of stuff in this
world. And really, we could besharing all of this with each
other, the world would be a muchbetter place because of it, we
would be so much moreinterconnected. And like
thankful for what we have,right? And we wouldn't be

(03:57):
producing so much excess wasteif we really just shared an
abundance of resources with eachother. So that's the ultimate
goal of a Buy Nothingexperience. Here's what might
trip you up though. And in themodule within The Eco-Minded
Mama Collective, we go fully indepth in this. But there are
three things that could trip youup. So number one is your
current spending habits. It canbe really, really hard. I know

(04:19):
from personal experience, tochange your personal spending
habits, especially if it hasbecome a habit like something
that you just don't even reallythink about. You're used to
making specific purchases orjust like scrolling on your
phone and something pops up thatlooks really cute. And you want
that and so you just buy it. Andthere is no shame or judgment
here like we've all been there.

(04:42):
So it can be really hard tochange your spending habits. But
if you are wanting to save moneyif for whatever reason, like we
talked about at the beginning,then changing your spending
habits is just part of thatprocess. So let's talk about how
to do this together. The secondthing that can trip you up is
having an all or nothingmindset, if you feel like you
are going to have to go fromyour current habits, whatever

(05:05):
they are to like, absolutelybuying nothing like taking the
name of this challenge at facevalue, and like really, you
know, full stop.
That's just, I don't thinkthat's really possible for most
people. And that's not even likethe goal of this challenge. It's
just a clever name. Okay, sodon't get hung up on that, it's
not all or nothing. And then thethird thing that could trip you

(05:26):
up is a lack of resources. So ifyou don't know how to even do a
challenge like this, what is theframework? How do you even get
started, if you don't haveaccess to like a Buy Nothing
group or some kind of communityin your area, then obviously,
that will trip you up. So we aregoing to address all of those
things briefly in this podcastepisode, and then I can point

(05:47):
you towards more resources atthe end. So a couple of tips
that I share within TheEco-Minded Mama Collective that
will help you if you are tryingto embrace a Buy Nothing
challenge for yourself. First,like just get really clear on
what it is exactly that you wantout of this challenge. Do you
want to stop buying items withina particular category, like,

(06:08):
maybe there are a lot of likemakeup items, or like personal
care items that you actuallyhave a lot of, and you really
don't need anymore, it's justbecome like, a very enjoyable
thing to go and buy more ofthem. So whatever that is, maybe
you want to like reduce or justbuy less of it so that you can
save more money, maybe it'sclothing, maybe for your kids,

(06:31):
maybe it's toys, maybe your kidshave an abundance of toys, and
they have really generous familymembers or friends who are also
giving them toys, and you justdon't need to be like buying any
more of that for a certainseason. That could be a
category, right? So hone in onwhat it is exactly that you feel
like you could give up buyingfor just a little while. And

(06:51):
that leads me to my secondpoint, you need to establish a
timeline for yourself that isactually realistic. So it
doesn't just mean cold turkey,you are never ever ever going to
buy these things again, right?
You could establish your owntimeline, is it going to be for
a week, start really simple? Isit going to be a whole month? Is
it going to be for a season,like what are the parameters of

(07:12):
your timeline? And once you'veestablished that, then the third
thing that you're going to needis some sort of a framework to
help you stick to that. So Ilike to recommend to my eco
minded mamas inside theCollective, to take an inventory
of whatever those belongings arethat fit within that category
that you're trying to reduce,right look through your home,

(07:34):
see how much of a certain itemor category of items you have.
And then when you are takingthat inventory, I want you to
create like a list of greenlight items, yellow light items,
and red light items, what arethe green light items that are
okay for you to be buying withinthis category, some of it is
going to be essential like foodor you know, some sort of

(07:56):
personal care that you reallycan't go without, these are
gonna be green light items,you're not going to worry about
that, you have to buy them.
Yellow Light items are like, ah,you know, maybe there could be a
reason but you're not reallysure if you need to buy these
things right now you might feelit out. Red light items are
going to be like, Absolutely notfor no reason whatsoever, during

(08:17):
the specific timeframe that I'veset for myself, am I going to be
buying these items. So then whenyou actually start the
challenge, because remember, youhave set a timeframe for
yourself. So you need to have astart date and an end date. When
you go through this challenge,then you have some parameters to
fill out. And it is so mucheasier, like I said before, to

(08:39):
do this within community,because if you do it with a
group of people, you can all beholding each other accountable.
But you can also be sharing yourabundance of resources for free
so that you're not having to gobuy anything within these
categories. If you don't haveanybody who wants to do this
with you right now but you needa community to be sharing with
then you could check likeFacebook, for example, look for

(09:00):
your neighborhood's name and seeif there is already a Buy
Nothing group, you know, in theFacebook search bar. You could
also download the Buy NothingProject app and see if there's
anything in your area that youcould connect with through that
portal. But honestly, if youwant to go through a challenge
that is super structured, andhas a community of mom friends
who are already in it, and has awhole bunch of resources, then

(09:23):
The Eco-Minded Mama Collectivecould be for you. So I actually
created a spreadsheet, because Ilove organization. So I created
a spreadsheet for you that helpsyou to get all of this set up.
It helps you to identify yourgoals to write down why this is
important to you. It helps youto go through that inventory of
your items that we talked aboutthe red light yellow light green

(09:46):
light items, and then it helpskeep you organized throughout
the challenge. So that isalready created for you. You
don't have to do anything otherthan just like fill it out. And
then like I said we have a wholecommunity of mamas who are in
this together and can besupporting you in real time. You
could be choosing to do like acategory specific Buy Nothing
challenge. So like we saidbefore, it's just this one

(10:08):
category of clothing or toys orhome decor or makeup or
something like that. You couldalso just do like a monthly
buying nothing experiment. Soyou're just committing to one
month of limiting your spendingto only essentials. So you can
create whatever those essentialsare in your green light
category, and then put in youryellow light and red light

(10:28):
items. But it's a little bitmore like up to you on what you
want to do. You could do aseasonal buying nothing
challenge where you do thisevery single season. And just
figure out what makes the mostsense to you in the winter, or
what makes most sense to you inthe summer. However, that looks.
Some people really take this farand they commit to an entire
year of limiting their spendingto only their essentials, or

(10:51):
their green light items. Butwhatever this looks like for
you, whatever amount of dollarsthat you end up saving is more
than what you had before. So youreally can't lose here, it's at
least worth a shot. And if youare interested in trying this
with our community that isalready doing it for the month
of June, I have another piece ofexciting news for you. So the

(11:11):
month of June is personally myfavorite month because I have my
birthday in June, I have mywedding anniversary in June,
Father's Day, like there arejust so many things back to back
celebrations for me personally.
And so I absolutely love the joythat comes with this month. And
as part of that joy, I want toshare a gift with you. I'm
calling it Jumpstart June. Sothis is going to be a month

(11:33):
where I am offering a completelyfree month of membership to The
Eco-Minded Mama Collective foryou. I have no idea if I will
ever even offer this again. It'sjust something that I thought of
and was like you know what,we're going to do it right now.
So to help me celebrate myfavorite month with you, I would
love to have you join ourEco-Minded Mama Collective, take

(11:53):
part in this challenge and thentake part in all the other
awesome things that we havegoing on. We've got a digital
library of video lessons thatcan help you to live
sustainably. So some of it hasto deal with the Buy Nothing
challenge. But it also has to dowith all these other facets of
what it means to livesustainably as a mama. And then
there are other perks like wehave giveaways for the challenge

(12:15):
winners. We have Live Q&As withvarious experts. We support each
other in real time andbrainstorm our problems together
and build like an onlinecommunity of mom friends. It's
amazing. One mama member namedShannon, she recently posted one
of her small wins inside thegroup, because we celebrate each
other big or small a win is awin. And so she said, The other

(12:37):
day I popped into Target to geta prescription and I wasn't
tempted to buy anythingunnecessary. I just thought
about the effort it would taketo store it, how I might need to
replace it because it wasn'twell made, and how my money
could be better spent elsewhere.
It's so freeing. I absolutelylove hearing stories like that
and supporting each other inreal time. So if you want to be

(12:59):
a part of this, and start savingyour money and building a
community of friends whileyou're at it, then use the code
JUMPSTART at checkout, that'sall linked in the show notes for
you so that you can access onemonth for free for The
Eco-Minded Mama Collective andjust try it out. See if it's for
you. Again, all of this islinked in the episode
description. I hope that youwill check it out and I'll see

(13:20):
you on the inside. Next week, Iwill be back with more
sustainable living tips. I'lltalk to you then.
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