If you have been keeping up with my blog you will know that I have been doing a No-Spend November (and had been slaying until yesterday lol) but today is American Thanksgiving, which means that tomorrow is Black Friday and this entire month has been non-stop advertising sale after deal after sale and it’s been a lot.

And beyond the fact that I am doing No-Spend November I have always taken umbrage (I absolutely spelled that umbridge the first time, I am nothing if not a millennial) with the fact that literally the day after we spend time with friends and family being grateful for what we have we are back shopping and consuming and spending. It just seems insane. I think especially because when Black Friday was more in-person in the pre-cyber shopping world people would line up the night before outside Toys-R-Us, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, people used to literally die on Black Friday. The day after they had said, “oh I am so grateful for everything we have, so blessed” and then they die fighting over something stupid in a Macy’s???Like dude, stop it.

In-Person Shopping//

I have never been one to go shopping on Black Friday or Boxing day because my parents weren’t into it, and we have never lived close to a mall and now I don’t live anywhere near any kind of shopping so for me that’s easy to avoid. I also think it’s just the easiest to avoid in general, just stay home and wear soft pants and watch movies or read a book all day (but don’t scroll on your phone!).

Online Shopping//

Which is a great transition into the next point. Online shopping is much, much harder to avoid, which is why we are not scrolling on our phone. It is literally marketers, social media managers, and influencers jobs to get you to spend money and these businesses and people make the vast majority of their sales this time of year. They are just doing their jobs, but that doesn’t mean you have to make it easy for them. So if you are trying not to spend money, stay off your phone. Spend time with your loved ones and get off social media, just for the weekend. Or a method that doesn’t involve avoiding social media for an entire weekend is to unfollow or mute all your influencers/content creators/brands for the entire weekend.

The other step is to unsubscribe from marketing emails/texts. Email marketing is rampant for Cyber Monday, and the fact that all these companies also want your cell phone number to text you is wild to me. So unsubscribe from everything you don’t want to see. I don’t say everything because there may be something that you have been saving up for or wanting for a while and then you should absolutely take advantage of sale season. That is the ideal use of sale season (I bought a printer yesterday because it was on an early Black Friday sale and I have been thinking about buying a printer for months).

That’s all I’ve got, go eat mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and spend time with your loved once. Stay blessed,

Laura