Stacey Vanek-Smith

But almost right away, people started following Alicia in droves.

She now has more than 100,000 followers, and they direct message her all the time, saying things like, I'm doing a no-buy challenge too, or you inspired me to do a no-buy challenge.

Alicia says it's been incredibly helpful and incredibly inspiring.

So that is our takeaway number one.

Find a community.

The community can be social media, but there are also all kinds of support groups from mindful consumption, minimizing waste, shopping addictions.

Some are in person, some are online.

Pick whatever works best for you.

Now, the community you choose should align with whatever your goal is.

So maybe a no-buy challenge is not for you.

You can try something different.

That's our second takeaway.

Find your challenge.

This comes from Aja Barber, designer, journalist, and author of the book Consumed, The Need for Collective Change, Colonialism, Climate Change, and Consumerism.

Aja also runs her own online community oriented around mindful buying.

Other ideas?

Do a low-buy month or year where you set a spending budget and stick to it.

You can also try delayed gratification shopping where you save all the things you want to buy until the end of the month and then decide, so you're less likely to make impulse buys.

You can also challenge yourself to mend your clothes.

In fact, we have an episode on how to start up a mending hobby so you can extend the lifespan of what you wear.