Shadowing Practice: Don't sleep on the "no buy" trend - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Every time we buy something our brain releases a small surge of dopamine, a feel-good chemical tied to reward and pleasure.
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But here's the kicker.
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The dopamine spike doesn't come when we actually get the item.
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It comes from the anticipation of the purchase.
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It's not owning items that makes us feel good.
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It's the pursuit of them.
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Because our biology is wired for the chase.
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Dopamine spikes not when we get what we want, but in the moments just before.
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So we're constantly left chasing the next thing in this sort of vicious cycle, like a hamster on a wheel.
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And that is the engine of consumerism.
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About three months ago, I did a no-buy month, and it wasn't the first time I'd ever done one of these, but it had been, well, years since I had done one, and it was a really humbling experience.
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It was so humbling that I did it again the next month, and I plan to do another one in about a month or two.
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I had so many aha moments and realizations during my no-buy month that it was life-altering.
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Is that dramatic to say that?
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Maybe, but it really was.
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In the past few years, I have found myself slipping into consumerism more and more, more than I like.
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And it is not easy to admit that online to a community of over a million people, but I'm not too proud to say that I am not perfect.
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Consumerism sneaks up on us because it feels normal.
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It's just one little purchase at a time, right?
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Like I need A, B, and C for whatever, or I deserve this because of X, Y, Z.
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We justify each little purchase, but we don't realize that each time we do it, it's tapping into our brain's dopamine reward system,
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wiring us to associate spending with pleasure or comfort or relief.
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Each small purchase trains your brain to seek that same dopamine hit again and again, and it can easily grow without us even realizing it.
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It's like the frog in hot water analogy.
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If you don't know, there's this analogy that says that if you put a frog in hot water, it will immediately jump out.
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But if you put the same frog into cold water and then you slowly heat it, it will not perceive the danger and essentially it will like get cooked to death.
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Pretty sure it's not factually correct, but it's a pretty good metaphor, right?
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Because it shows how we can become
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so complacent of negative trends in our life when they are developing slowly enough that they just start to feel normal.
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And it is a lot easier for consumerism to feel normal these days with mass production, making stuff easily and for cheap,
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combined with really smart advertising that literally targets you directly based on your likes,
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not to mention how insanely easy it is to make a purchase with one-click buying or credit made easy or pay-as-you-go purchases, we have hit a perfect storm of consumerism.
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And while I'm not too proud to admit
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that I have slowly fallen under the spell of consumerism and I'm trying to backtrack now, I know I'm not weathering this storm alone.
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No-buy-related content spiked 32% above average at the end of 2024.
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And the hashtag no buy 25 has over 10 million shares on just TikTok alone.
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Combine this sort of like anti-consumerism movement with rising prices.
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And it kind of makes sense why more and more people are jumping on this no buy bandwagon.
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Well, no buy months are definitely not a new thing.
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I've been doing them on and off for years.
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I think there is a resurgence of interest in them.
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You know, I know there was for me when I did this one after years and years of not doing them.
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And so I want to share how I do one, the benefits I find with them, and the pitfalls that you might fall into, as well as some of my best tips and tricks to be successful.
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So let's do this.
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Now, before you get started, you'll want a place to jot down your notes, thoughts, and so on.
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A Google Doc is fine if you work well on a computer, dust off some old notebook that you haven't used, or I'll put a link below to a printable that I created just for this that you can download for free.
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Step one, you are going to start by setting your why, the first thing that you want to do when you start a no buy month is to think about your why.
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Why are you doing a no buy?
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And my tip is to keep it a positive why.
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Your why is what is going to keep you going.
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It is going to use as sort of like your reminder when you're having a no buy month.
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Having a positive why is more motivating than a negative one because it focuses on what you're moving towards, not what you are trying to avoid.
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A negative why might sound something like, I'm doing a no buy month because I'm terrible with money or I shop too much and I'm embarrassed by it.
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Well, negative wise might spark some like short term action because of shame, they pretty much all end up leading to guilt or burnout
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or just self self-sabotage of the attempt to do no buy at all.
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And so doing a positive why reframes your goal around growth and freedom and purpose and makes it far more successful.
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So you might want a positive why, like I want to feel more in control of my finances, or I want to make space in my life for what really matters to me,
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or I am going to work towards being debt-free, or I'm going to get debt-free.
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This kind of motivation is empowering and that means it's sustainable.
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It reforces your positive identity, right?
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I'm becoming more intentional with my money instead of tearing it down.
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I am bad with money.
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And when your why excites you, you are way more likely to stick to the process because it feels good and not punishing.
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Step number two, set your rules.
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There are about a million ways to do a no buy month.
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There are no buys, there are low buys, there are no buys in different categories.
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And so you need to get crystal clear on your rules.
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So when something comes up during the month, you're not left wondering, is this a no buy or is it not?
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So personally, when I did my no buy, I make it just super black and white.
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If it's not essential, it doesn't count.
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The definition of essential can be tricky, but ultimately ask myself, can I survive without it?
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Or can I survive this month without it?
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If the answer is no, then it's probably not essential.
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Now I did my no buy alongside my husband.
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And so we did it together, which made it a lot easier because we had somebody
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that we could check in with and we were able to discuss what and weren't essentials for us.
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So I do suggest if you have the ability to do it alongside somebody, it is really helpful.
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For us, it mostly just came down to food, utilities, healthcare costs, childcare, and gas.
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Pretty much everything else was on the no buy list.
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The key is definitely be crystal clear and super black
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and white about it all up front so you know what's allowed
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and what's not going into it so you don't get hung up in the middle of the month.
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Step number three, remove temptations ahead of time that you can.
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So there are a couple things
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that I suggest you do to prepare yourself for your no buy month before you do it.
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One, I definitely suggest deleting all the shopping apps from your phone.
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I ended up keeping them off.
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I don't have any on my phone anymore.
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But even if you just take them off for your no buy month, it is going to help decrease the chances of impulse purchases.
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You're sort of creating a barrier to purchase when it's not right there on your phone.
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It also really helps to unsubscribe from the retailers
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that send you like sales and notifications to your email or they send you texts just to decrease those temptations.
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I also let people close to me know that I was doing a no buy month.
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So they didn't expect me to make purchases or to go out to eat with them.
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It was sort of like a community effort.
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I let everyone know we're doing a no buy so we can't do that this month.
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You can still invite people over to dinner.
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You can still make a to-go coffee and go for a walk, but it's easiest if you include your inner circle on the no
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so they can help you be successful and they end up being your cheerleaders
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and maybe they decide to do it with you.
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Step number four, staying engaged.
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Okay, so there's a very good chance that when you do your no buy, the first week's going to go great.
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But as the days wear on, the temptation to slip will become a little bit bigger.
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You might be more likely to say, well, I'm just going to do this one, whatever.
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So here's my best tips to keep you engaged all month long.
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One, consider no buy journal.
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Again, this can be a piece of paper, it can be on your computer, but simply you are going to write down anytime you almost bought something and the price of it if you can.
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You will be amazed at how many little purchases you almost made.
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A takeout lunch you almost bought, a new shirt that you almost got influenced into buying, a cute whatever that some Instagram ad almost sold you.
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Maybe you almost bought a feed from the Wunzler.
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Pop quiz.
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What book is that from?
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A thneed.
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A thneed is a find something that all people need.
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If you guess the Lorax, you get a hundred points.
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Also, I just realized that I haven't played the Lorax movie for my kids
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and maybe we're gonna watch it for our next movie night.
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Imagine if you acted on every single one of those items.
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If you're like me, it could easily be hundreds of dollars every month that you almost spent on impulse purchases, but by writing them down,
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by writing down every deed that you almost bought, it can be super motivating to keep going when you're like, oh my God, last week alone,
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I almost spent $120 on impulse purchases.
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Next, try to define your main reason to shopping and replace that habit.
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We all shop for different reasons, right?
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Some of it out of boredom, some of us shop when we're stressed, Some of us do it as like a treat ourselves.
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So think about what it is for you, what typically leads you to shopping, and then see if you can replace that habit with something more positive.
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If you're a board shopper, consider getting like a great book to pick up when you're feeling bored instead.
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If you stress shop, maybe you can try journaling or going outside for a walk or doing a 10 minute meditation.
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If you are somebody who likes to shop to treat yourself, how else can you treat yourself?
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I personally am a huge offender in treat myself shopping.
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I think that's probably my hardest.
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Like I'm the kind of person, whenever I have to go out to like run an errand, I would get myself a coffee as a little treat.
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Like why?
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Because I'm running an errand.
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So I literally just replace this with cute coffee at home.
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I have some cute little mason jars that I already owned
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and I would make it to go coffee and I would take it with me when I went shopping instead.
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So think about what your triggers are to the habit of shopping and how can you positively replace them.
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Next, keep a running wish list.
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So as you go through your no buy month, things are going to come up that you need but aren't essential.
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For example, when we did our first no buy month this year, it was in May and I realized that my kids were going to need some new summer clothes.
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Now they didn't need them right now had enough to get us through the month of May.
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So it was not considered an essential thing to buy in May, but they would need them eventually.
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My husband and I had a shared wishlist where we would like easily, we were just like jot things down when we thought of them that we might need.
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And then at the end of the month, we were able to come back to this.
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And I can promise you that many of the things
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that you end up writing down on your wishlist have turned out to be things that you didn't actually need.
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Sure.
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Some of it you will need.
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I did need to buy my kids summer clothes, but a lot of them aren't.
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And it is amazing how putting some space between things make you, makes you realize that you didn't actually need them.
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Step number five, I think.
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I lost count as I always do when I do these kinds of videos.
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Focus on the wins.
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I found that the further I went into my no buy month, the more and more motivated I got.
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Because my husband and I made sure to sort of sit down every five
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or seven days and just sort of check in.
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It was super, super motivating to chat about the things
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that we didn't spend on and to compare
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that month's spending to the prior months to see the hundreds that we were saving.
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I guess this is a good time for me to stop really quick
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and talk about what I saw as some of the biggest benefits to doing a no buy month, why we liked it so much that we did it a second month
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and why we plan to do it again in a month or two.
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Takeaway number one is I didn't need it.
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This was probably one of the biggest realizations, how many things I almost bought that I didn't actually need.
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I realized I had gotten to a habit of buying things in anticipation of needing them
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and then lots of things I never really ended up needing.
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Another version of this lesson was like, I didn't miss it.
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This one came up a lot with things like my to-go coffees or eating out.
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My month did not feel any less fulfilling just because I skipped restaurants and drive their coffee.
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I mean, say just hypothetically that you got takeout once a week and you got to-go coffees twice a week.
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That is easily like $75 a week with the cost of restaurants these days.
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That's $300 a month.
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For something that didn't make your month any better, just seems like a bad deal my next takeaway was it's more work than it's worth
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or my life is easier without it
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so this month also forced me to really reevaluate stuff i considered buying
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or that i already owned that was supposed to make my life easier
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but didn't and in lots of cases it actually did the opposite
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so i'm gonna give you two examples example one is something
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that i've mentioned in past videos
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and it is my wet dry vac i was sure this thing was making my life more convenient.
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I mean, it was a vacuum and mop and won, right?
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Sold.
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It's saving me time.
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I raved about it, but when I actually took a step back, I realized it was actually kind of a pain in the butt.
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Cleaning it was annoying.
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The maintenance was constant.
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I had to wash it out like every night and my regular broom and mop were faster and easier.
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In my opinion, just as effective, if not sometimes more effective.
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Example number two, I bought this cute little magnetic schedule board for my kids.
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I don't have it anymore to show you because I already got mad and threw it away, but it had these tiny little magnets for every task and activity.
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And listen, I'm an INFJ on the Meyer Briggs scale.
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So this very like structured aesthetic style really speaks to me, but it turned out that I was just constantly having to manage a ton of little magnets.
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I spent 10 minutes just like hunting them down at night, trying to put the magnets in the right order.
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And then my kids would just come down and move them all around.
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And it just became way more work than it was worth.
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It was basically didn't work at all because it was just me cursing about little magnets.
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It was sold to me as a convenience tool, but it was not.
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It was just making my life so much harder.
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Another really big one that's an obvious one to a lot of us is clothes.
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I think we all have realized that a small, well-curated wardrobe makes it way easier to get dressed than a closet that is overflowing with options, right?
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More doesn't mean easier.
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And so it really helped remind me that 90% of the things
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that I wanted to buy weren't actually going to make my life easier, even though they were sold to me that way.
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They were probably in many ways going to do the opposite.
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And what I really learned is that less stuff coming in meant less stress coming out of me.
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One of the most immediate wins was I just had less stuff coming into the house.
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fewer impulse buys fewer packages fewer boxes to break down
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and it felt really good not just because I was spending less but
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because it genuinely reduced my stress there was less clutter in
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my house it meant fewer things to manage fewer things to clean
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or trip over and boxes to break down
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and it made the house feel calmer
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and I mean like yeah duh like you think
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that this would be really obvious
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but I didn't really realize how many extra tasks came with buying things until I removed the step of buying things.
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Next win, I felt more in control.
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Budgeting and sticking to no buy and seeing it through will make you feel super, super empowered.
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It made me feel like I was calling the shots with my money.
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I loved being able to see the money I saved from prior months.
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It felt way better than any impulse purchase ever could.
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It was sort of the difference between pleasure and gratification where a impulse purchase is pleasure.
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You get immediate pleasure, but that pleasure is kind of over right away.
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Sticking with a long-term goal that's hard gives you long-term gratification.
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Another win was I found that I just focused on moments a lot more than things.
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It's one thing to be like, focus on the moments and not the things, but it's different when you actually are really doing it.
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When you take spending off the table as like a go-to boredom fix, you get kind of creative.
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You actually start living life a little more presently.
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I found myself focusing more on people and experiences
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and like the little joys instead of what I could just like add to cart to make my life better.
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Step number five, six, are we on six?
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I don't remember.
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The next step is to use mantras.
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I like having little mantras.
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You guys know I love a good mantra.
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They're really good when you're faced with an impulse purchase because you can kind of repeat your mantra to yourself.
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And maybe you're not a mantra person, just making sure you have your why super clear from step one, then you can lean on it when you wanna spend.
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But I thought I'd share a few of the mantras that I really loved that helped me through my no buy.
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So one is I have enough.
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Simple phrase to just remind me that this thing is not necessary.
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I have all that I need.
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Number two, do I wanna look rich or be rich?
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I love this mantra because so often we buy things because how we think it will make us look, which is hard to admit, but it's true.
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Do we wanna spend our money to look a certain way or do we wanna save our money and be financially smart?
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Next one is discipline now or regret later.
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I use this mantra for so many aspects of my life, but it works really, really good for a no buy.
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I can either be disciplined now about my spending or I can feel regretful later when I spent it already.
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And it's a pretty clear choice.
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The final step is don't let slip-ups derail you.
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As you go through no buy month, you may have a slip-up and accidentally buy something that wasn't essential
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or maybe something comes up that you need to spend on that you weren't expecting.
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Don't let these slip-ups derail you.
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I mean, if you think about somebody who's trying to eat a certain kind of diet and they've ate really, really great for 28 days and on the 28th day, they eat something that's not part of their diet,
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It doesn't erase all the really good stuff that they did for 28 days.
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And a no buy is the same exact way.
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If you have a slip up, you look at it.
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Maybe you write it down.
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If you're a journaler, you mark it in there and you move on.
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Really focus on what the wins are.
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If you have a slip up and you're really struggling with it, maybe look back at all of the other things that you didn't buy to sort of motivate you to keep going.
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It is easy for us if we're sort of doing like a no buy month
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and we have a slip up that we think we messed up and we have to start all over.
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But you do not you just like hit refresh
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and you keep chugging along from that slip up all right my friends
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that is some of my best tips
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and tricks for going through a no buy month like i
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said it has been such a wonderful experience for me we
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really enjoyed it we really plan to do them more
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and more and i would love to share some more content around it
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so if you have any questions or anything else you would like to see
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when it comes to the no buy let me know in
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the comments down below like i said i will have a printable linked down below as well
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that you can download to help you through a no buy if you want.
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Obviously it is free because it is a no buy month, so I'm not going to make you buy something.
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As always, thank you so much for stopping by and watching.
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I hope you're having a fantastic day.
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Remember to be kind to yourself and others, and I will see you all in my next video.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Don't sleep on the "no buy" trend”. This video has 276 sentences and 3962 words to shadow. The speech runs for 17:24. The speaker talks fast, about 228 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| slip verb | /ˈslɪp/ | To lose one’s traction on a slippery surface; to slide due to a lack of friction. |
| mantra noun | /ˈmɑn.tɹə/ | The hymn portions of the Vedas; any passage of these used as a prayer. |
| consumerism noun | /kənˈsumərɪzm̩/ | A materialistic attachment to possessions with a heavy use of consumables; a lifestyle based on such tendencies. |
| impulse noun | /ˈɪmpʌls/ | A thrust; a push; a sudden force that impels. |
| dopamine noun | /ˈdoʊ.pəˌmin/ | A monoamine C₈H₁₁NO₂ that is a decarboxylated form of dopa, present in the body as a neurotransmitter and a precursor of other substances including adrenalin. |
| motivate verb | /ˈmoʊ.tɪ.veɪt/ | To provide someone with an incentive to do something; to encourage; to actuate. |
| fewer | /ˈfjuː.ɚ/ | Less; a smaller amount of something non-integral commonly expressed as an integer |
| magnet noun | /ˈmæɡ.nɪt/ | A piece of material that attracts some metals by magnetism. |
| habit noun | /ˈhæb.ɪt/ | An action performed on a regular basis. |
| temptation noun | /ˌtɛmpˈteɪʃən/ | The act of tempting. |
| spike noun | /spaɪk/ | A sort of very large nail. |
| boredom noun | /ˈbɔɹ.dəm/ | The state of being bored. |
| derail verb | /ˌdiːˈɹeɪl/ | To cause to come off the tracks. |
| errand noun | /ˈɛɹənd/ | A mundane mission of no great consequence, concerning household or business affairs (dropping items by, doing paperwork, going to a friend's house, etc.) |
| gratification noun | /ˌɡɹætɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/ | The act of gratifying or pleasing, either the mind, or the appetite or taste. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. |
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
| break down verb | To stop functioning. |
| write down verb | To produce or set (something) down in writing; to record something. |
| come down verb | To descend, fall down, collapse. |
| come down to verb | To reach by moving down or reducing. |
| fall under verb | To belong to for purposes of categorization. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- It's not owning items that makes us feel good.
- I've been doing them on and off for years.
- Why are you doing a no buy?
- I don't have any on my phone anymore.
- Step number five, six, are we on six?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have found · have hit · have slowly fallen |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is wired · will be amazed · was not considered |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | somebody who likes · look, which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 82 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, didn't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thneed /ˈθniːd/, aesthetic /ɛsˈθɛ.tɪk/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: temptation /ˌtɛmpˈteɪʃən/, gratification /ˌɡɹætɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/, realization /ˌɹɪə.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, anticipation /ænˌtɪs.əˈpeɪ.ʃən/, shopper /ˈʃɑ.pɚ/
- Long words — get the stress right: consumerism /kənˈsumərɪzm̩/, gratification /ˌɡɹætɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/, analogy /əˈnæləd͡ʒi/, realization /ˌɹɪə.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, anticipation /ænˌtɪs.əˈpeɪ.ʃən/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like slip, mantra, consumerism.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.