Social Media's 2025 Shopping Trend: Buy Nothing

2025 is the year of freezing your credit card in a block of ice, according to a new "no buy" trend spiking on social media. The Wall Street Journal reports that there's been a resurgence in the "no buy challenge," where people set rules to limit what they purchase for a fixed period. Google searches for the term are up 40% year-over-year, and searches for "no spend challenge" reached an all-time high. People dedicated to paring down on purchases report their progress on TikTok and Instagram, flipping the script on unboxings and other popular product shares on platforms by revealing how much debt they've paid off.

"When inflation was at an all-time high, cost-of-living was at an all-time high, I've never seen so many people telling me to buy things on the internet," Marissa Huertas-Crespo, who has made the goal to cut down on impulse buys, tells the Journal. "Those two things together have exhausted people." Her method involves screenshotting things that catch her eye and putting them in a folder, then deciding after a full quarter year passes what's still worth buying with a small budget she sets aside. Others choose certain categories of things to eschew buying in a year, such as new clothing, or committing to "project pan," the trend of not buying new makeup and beauty products until everything in the cabinet is used up.

These types of goals can pay off. New Yorker Elysia Berman tells USA Today she was able to pay off $34,000 in debt last year by sticking to her no-buy goals. This year, she hopes to pay down the remainder of her debt by limiting takeout delivery and forgoing a long list of new purchases, including clothing, beauty products, and books. Personal finance expert Kara Perez says in a TikTok video the trend can help people gain control of spending, but will only be sustainable when tailored to their values and lifestyle rather than what others are doing. "Letting go of letting other people define what's important to you is going to help you so much when it comes to not only just saving money in 2025 but living a life that you feel good about," she says. (More frugality stories.)