If the cold and dark season has left you in need of a little joy, it can be all too easy to give in to the temptation of the January sales. Or, perhaps your holiday season was filled with colour and wonder, but now you’re tired and need to take a break — with some relaxing online shopping. Let’s be clear: there’s nothing inherently wrong with buying things you need or want. Life should be all about appreciating lovely things when we can. However, the relentless marketing employed by businesses in January can leave you feeling like you need to consume, consume, consume!

Here are a few ways you can avoid filling your home with things you don’t need or want, and suffering that buyer’s regret! Plus, by purchasing less, you’re being kinder to the environment, too.

Curate Your Email Subscriptions

A simple one to start: If you’re receiving dozens of emails a day, unsubscribe to everything that’s not essential. Oh and, to be clear, essential means things you enjoy as well as mundane things you need. But all those sales emails that you don’t even remember signing up to? Look for the unsubscribe button at the bottom and click it. With some, you may have to click unsubscribe again on a web page once it opens. Always read the instructions fully to ensure you’ve done it right.

This is a digital form of decluttering, a practice often used in magical and spiritual practices to cleanse space and create space for new or more desirable energies to enter.

Make a List of Things You Actually Want

I use a service called Google Keep for this and it’s a “living document,” which means I keep the same one and simply add to it and take away as needed. If I’m gifted a thing or buy it for myself, I tick it off the list. If I see something I can’t do without, I add it to the list. Does this mean I’ll never buy anything “off list”? Ummm… no, I actually do impulse buy from time to time. But the list helps me organise my thoughts and desires, and keeps me from falling into the stressful debate of whether or not to buy something just because it happens to be on sale.

Make a habit, or ritual, of checking your list regularly, say, once a month to ensure the things on it still reflect your current needs.

Offset Your Purchases

Consumerism is one facet of our linear economy — an economy based on the produce, consume, waste pathway. Far better for the environment is the circular economy model — produce, consumer, re-use/recycle/remanufacture. You can contribute to the shift towards a circular economy by:

• Buying from second-hand/thrift/vintage stores (online options like Vinted and eBay count)
• Donating your own used items to a good cause
• Upcycling something you might have otherwise thrown away — I save large plastic containers from food packaging (think big mushroom boxes) and use them to start seedlings in spring
• Donating to an environmental charity
• Getting involved in conservation work, e.g., planting trees

As Pagans and spiritual people, many of us believe that the energy we put into the world multiplies in some way, either coming back to us or impacting those around us in some way. Raiding the January sales for bargains can be a great way to get a refreshed home or wardrobe, so no judgement on those that have the means to take advantage of the sales. Simply find ways to balance the energy — offsetting your purchases with actions that are better for the environment and reconnecting you to nature and the world.

I’ll be browsing the sales, but I’ll also be feeding the birds every day, donating to the Woodland Trust, and donating garments to our local initiative that helps families with limited means get clothes for their kids. I’ll also check that the companies I’m buying from operate sustainably, to minimise the impact of my purchases where possible. Becoming aware of the impact of your actions is the first step toward making changes that can genuinely change the world. Have a happy and hopeful new year!

Mabh Savage is a Yorkshire Witch, Pagan author, and musician with a particular interest in Irish spirituality, and folklore from all across the U.K. and Ireland. She’s also a member of the global Covenant of Hekate and has assisted in some fascinating collaborative projects such as working with members all over the world to create a song for Hekate.

Mabh is the secretary of the Pagan Federation Children and Families Team, a group that aims to make life easier for Pagan families in England and Wales. She’s also the current editor of Aether, the magazine for Pagan families.

She’s been a member of the UK Green Party for many years, and believes firmly that it’s possible to reverse the damage being done to our planet with the right focus and action now.

Learn more: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/moon-books/authors/mabh-savage