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10 Things I No Longer Buy In My 30s !!!! (Money Saving Ideas)
In my 20s, I was mostly busy spending everything I made as fast as possible and the last thing that I was thinking about was saving and investing my money. But now I am in my 30s, a lot has changed. I am going to share the list of 10 Things I No Longer Buy in My 30s.
Recently, I reconnected with my best friends from college and we had a really good time reminiscing about our crazy antics and party days that we had in our 20s. I really think your 20s are a very special time because it is a lot of fun and you are just exploring and learning about yourself. But at the same time, nobody has any idea what they are doing in their 20s. Well ever since turning 31 at the beginning of this year. I am starting to see that my 30s are going to be very different from my 20s, especially in personal finance and what I spend my money on.
Compared to my 20s, my definition of being smart with money no longer simply means not over drafting my checking account before payday. Now it is about being conscious of my spending planning for my future building my net worth and being smart with how I spend my money. I think those are some good things that come with age so without further ado, here are the 10 things I no longer buy in my 30s.
1. Alcohol
Going out is expensive as you know and if you factor in the uber rides, the drinks, the round of shots as well as late night drunk food. Then the hangover food of the next day plus the cost of losing your phone, your keys or other things you do when you are drunk walking out the door on a Friday night is like hundred dollars right there. I used to go out for all night benders when I was 20s living in the city and just stumbling home at 5a.m. with a hundred dollars hole in my pocket. But this is not something I see myself doing in my 30s. The closest I have gotten to that is in Tokyo when we stay out with some cool locals and ended up at a sushi joint at 6am but I did not drink any alcohol in the entire night. Nowadays the most I will drink is a glass of wine or two at dinner and even that it will messes up my sleep and I wake up tired, so I do not really do it often.
2. Extra Makeup
In the past, I would buy all kinds of exotic bronzers blushes and eyeshadows but I would end up throwing most of them out because I would just stick to the same, look at the same basics every day. For example, you think you are going to try out that purple smokey eye look one day but do you ever really? At this point I know what kind of makeup, what brands work best for my face and I have just one of each type of thing such as one mascara, one eyeshadow palette, one foundation, etc. I do have a few lip colors but that is the only thing that I really mix up and all my makeup fits into one small travel bag. Besides, I found that the best makeup is just to drink a lot of water, get some good sleep and eat well. If you do that, you really will not even need a lot of makeup to look your best. Most days I do not even wear makeup anymore, literally I just put on makeup and styling my hair only when I am filming YouTube videos. I guess the nice thing about being your 30s is that you feel more comfortable with yourself and you do not feel as much of need to try on all these makeup looks and improve yourself because you are pretty comfortable with who you are.
3. Souvenirs from Travel
I really love travelling and flights, it is an unforgettable memories and trips. These are something I will be buying more of in my 30s. however I will no longer be taking back souvenirs from my trip. I remember so many times when I go somewhere and walk into a cool shop in wherever I am travelling and I would say “ I will absolutely use this hand woven basket when I get home or I will totally wear these wooden hand-crafted earrings all the time”. But you come back and then those things just collect dust and add more clutter. If you really want to commemorate your trip, write in a journal. I have an entire stack of mole skins for my travels that I wrote in since I was 18 years old. Reading through them is just so amazing because it brings back all the memories more than any souvenir ever could something else you can do is to do a travel photo shoot. I have uses the service called Flytographer and it is a really handy online booking platform that connects you to local photographers wherever you are what better thing to bring back from your trip than a bunch of gorgeous professionally taken photo in an exotic location.
4. Fast Fashion
When I look in my closet today, none of the fast fashion items that I bought from Forever 21 and H&M of these are still there. So I spent a lot of money on stuff that I would just wear a couple of times or maybe for a year at the most, then I will get rid them because it got really ragged after a couple of washes or it just went out of fashion. Now I have learned my lesson and when it comes to clothing nowadays, I am much more about quality over quantity. If I find a piece that fits really well and looks really good, I will buy it even if it is a bit pricier than what you would find at Forever 21 or any of these fast fashion stores because if you do math it is actually more economical to buy good quality clothes that will last you a long time the end that you will wear a really long time. Recently, I bought a pair of comfortable and awesome boyfriend jeans at Nordstrom. And they cost a little more than I am used to paying for jeans – a couple hundred dollars, honestly is more than I have paid for jeans in my life but they are so comfortable and I just knew I have to get them because I knew I would be wearing this for like the rest of my life, at least for several more decades. Literally I have been wearing them almost every day since I got them. So fast fashion purchases and impulse shopping, I do not do anymore. I know it is tempting to walk into an H&M and just grab all things off the rack because it is also cheap but a lot of time you end up with a bunch of stuff that you don’t really wear. These days whenever I go shopping, I just go with a list of things that I need to further build out my capsule wardrobe. My capsule wardrobe is basically just a brunch of really versatile quality pieces that you can mix and match and that all go with each other and with that you can just build as many outfits as you will ever need.
5. Expensive Gym Membership
For a couple years in my 20s, I had a 200 dollars Equinox gym membership that I used maybe like 6 times a month. But for me now, I just cringe thinking about it because even though I only went to Equinox maybe max 2 times a week I still kept the subscription on because all my other co-workers went to Equinox and that was like the place to work out. Instead of cancelling the subscription I would just try to get my money’s worth the one or two times I went a week and use a bunch of their nice shampoo and body lotion just to get my money’s worth. Now I am a little bit older and hopefully wiser I have decided that I no longer want to pay 200 dollars a month for a gym that I barely use. I have also decided that I hate gyms, I would much rather just get some exercise doing stuff that I enjoy like dancing, hiking, yoga and if I ever want to do a real workout I can just find something on YouTube or find an online fitness class to stream at home. All this is the way cheaper and of course nowadays a lot safer than going to a physical gym when the pandemic is over, I do plan on maybe going to gym a little bit once again to lift weights. But this time instead of a 200 dollars gym, I am going for something cheaper like planet fitness or gold’s gym those are like 20 dollars a month because literally all the equipment is the same and I don’t really care about keeping up with the joneses and looking good in my peer group because honestly no one cares. They are not the ones paying my bills, they are not the ones who are going to help me retire early. Reminds me of this Dave Ramsey quote that I really like “We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.”
6. Expensive Hair & Beauty Treatments
I used to do eyelash extensions every month, gel manicures and pedicures every two weeks, perms keratin straining hair treatments twice a year and all the skin and beauty treatments on the regular. It was not only expensive, but it was super time consuming to go for all these appointments all the time. So, after a while I just could not be bothered anymore. I do it occasionally as a treat but no longer as sort of a recurring thing that I do just to maintain myself. Eyelash extensions are super high maintenance, I do not like them anymore, so I am cool with giving that up. Nowadays I do get my nails done occasionally to go in vacation or for special occasion or just when I want to treat myself and get all that nasty stuff scrubbed off my feet. I find that I am perfectly fine just having natural, no polish nails most of the time. If I really want some shiny looking nails, I put on a light-colored nail polish at home and that only takes me 5 minutes and does not cost me anything. Besides, I also no longer pay for expensive hair treatments to change the texture of my hair. I have wavy kind of straight hair and I used to try and change it all the time I would either get like permanent straightening treatments or permanent curly treatments. But you know what now I am just going to work with what I have got. Honestly, I am pretty much wearing my hair in a bun most of the time, I only style my hair for these YouTube video so this is something that I do not miss at all. I am just working with whatever mother nature has blessed you with is always going to be a lot cheaper , less time consuming and overall much more empowering but I will say the one thing I haven’t given up yet is coloring my hair because one sad truth about getting older is that you get some white hairs so I still get my roots done regularly.
7. Overpriced Salads, Green Juices & Smoothies
I am in my 30s, I have gotten a lot better with meal prep and knowing how to eat healthy at home without spending hours and hours every day doing it so that means I am no longer buying 10 green juices at juice press and 12 salads at sweet greens that leave me starving as soon as I eat it because honestly the markup on these things is ridiculous and it is not even stuff that is hard to me at home. Of course, it is hard to have a nice well-aged perfectly cooked steak at home but for something like salads smoothies and juices are relatively easy to make with 10 dollars you can buy enough organic produce at whole food to make three or more green juices. So why pay 10 dollars just for the convenience of having someone else wash and chop up and do the juicing for you? Besides, making you own juice at home or making your whatever at home often means it is a lot more nutritious because it is going to be fresher juices start losing vitamins and minerals the moment they are made. So, drinking and eating fresh will give you the most health benefits. I also make my own smoothies and salad at home as well because all it takes is a few hours of shopping and prep on Sundays to have a fridge full or fruits and veggies that are just ready to throw into a juicer, blender or a salad. Let try it out for yourself! It is good for your wallet and for your health and all it takes is a couple hours on a Sunday.
8. Packaged Food
I am no longer to buy packaged food, instant food, or any kind of junk food now. That’s not saying that I don’t sometimes have a craving for McDonald’s French fries once in a while in late night, it doesn’t happen often but its been known to happen but for the most part I really focus on eating whole foods as close to the earth as possible. I used to be able to get away with eating a lot of crap in college in my mid-20s but now when I eat that stuff, I don’t even feel good because my stomach will get bloated, my brain feels really foggy when I eat a of of crap. Nowadays I mostly stick to the perimeter of a grocery store where you get all the fresh produce and the meat and fish and avoid aisles that sell all the packaged food and the junk food which often have much higher markup. By the way, it is going to save you a lot of money and probably cause you a lot fewer health issue later on in life so I really do think eating this way avoiding packaged and junk food will not only save your money now but definitely down the road because you are going to be a lot healthier as a result.
9. Magazines
I am not talking about news magazines, but I am talking more about tabloids and lifestyle magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Self, Vogue etc. These magazines always have eye-catching headlines when you are standing in line at the grocery store but whenever I read one I inevitably end up wanting to just buy a bunch of stuff so I can look like the models in the magazines and try to have a life that looks like what I am seeing in these magazines pages. I find that I never actually learn anything that truly enriches my life plus how many articles can you possibly read about how to get flat abs in 5 minutes a day. In my opinion, these magazines are just one big marketing ploy that prey on your insecurities to get you to buy stuff. Nowadays I find myself reading content that makes me think or understand the world better where I can learn something such as the Economist, Times, New Yorkers etc.
10. Stilettos
Stilettos are obviously sexy and attractive, but they are uncomfortable. How many cheap pairs of heels can you buy from Aldo before your feet start to become deformed and you start having knee problems. Now that my clubbing days are long over for the most part, I am more about the comfort and the good orthopedics when buying my shoes. These days it is all about the flats, combat boots, flip flops, sneakers and maybe some thick heeled sandals. My philosophy is if you cannot walk around in them all day, do not even walk in them at all. So, when I am at the mall and I see a bunch of pretty shoes, I feel that temptation of I must buy everything. But when I get home, I forget about it and I am always glad that my wallet is at least still intact. However, how many shoes does one person truly need? I think it is about having this minimalist mindset and only spending money on what you really need. For shoes, I think you maybe need 10 at the most at least if you are a girl at the most so you have things to go with different outfits and I know that Carrie Bradshaw glamorized shoe shopping in the city which is my favorite show of all time but remember she would also max out her credit card to buy stilettos and Manolo Blahniks that she actually could not afford. So, stiletto is cute but there is nothing cute about being broke and maxing out a credit card, so a lot of stilettos is something I stopped buying in my 30s.
Conclusion
The common theme here is that overall in my 30s, I am a lot less concerned with looking good for the people and keeping up with the joneses so I spend a lot less money on things that superficially improve my appearance and that make me look good in front of other people not just appearance wise. Nowadays, my focus is more on actual self-care. Overall I feel that getting older has been good for my finances because I am a lot clearer on what my values are in life such as health and wellness, minimalism, family, learning etc. and this makes it a lot easier to send money intentionally so that when I do buy things I can feel good about it instead of feeling guilty so that is it for my list of 10 things I no longer buy in my 30s.