20 Things I REFUSE TO BUY in 2026 It s Not Worth Your Money

Hey everyone, welcome back. Today I'm sharing 20 things that I refuse to buy as a minimalist in 2026. These are some of the things that I simply just refuse to spend my money on. Either because I don't think that they are worth the money, or I don't want the clutter, or I'm trying to be more eco-conscious in the way that I buy things. And I do find oftentimes trying to be more sustainable and saving money can coincide as well, because we're just not spending our money on things that aren't necessary. I think many of us are starting to feel a little bit fed up with all of these junk items that don't really add anything to our lives, or improve our lives in any way. And being targeted by ads everywhere we go, saying we need this, or we need that. Whether it is anti-aging stuff, or expensive aesthetic kitchen appliances, or so-called must-haves. As someone who's trying to be more intentional and mindful about these things, I've kind of just learned to tune out most of that noise. And by not spending my money on an expensive lifestyle, I get to spend it on things that actually improve my life. Like spending time with loved ones, doing fun activities, having time for hobbies, and using what I already have. As always, feel free to join me, grab yourself something nice to drink if you want, and let's talk about the things that I refuse to buy. All right, starting off with number one, which are pillows and blankets that you cannot wash. For example, those cute little pillows in the shape of a flower, or I don't know, some kind of other sort of shape, where the cover is not removable and you cannot throw the entire pillow in the wash. I do really like home decor, and some of these pillows are really cute, and I get the aesthetic vibe of them. But for me, I try to stay away from them. Because I know for myself, if I cannot wash it, after a while I don't want to use it anymore. It's just a matter of time before it starts to smell a little funky, or maybe you spill some kind of drink on it or something, and then what? So when it comes to blankets, I like to buy blankets that I can just throw in the wash that aren't too big or too heavy, or some kind of material that can't be washed. And with the pillows, I always go for removable pillow covers that I can throw in the wash, and also rotate out. Maybe if you want like two or three different kinds for different seasons of the year for example. It's just so much more practical. When I buy something for my home, I always just quickly ask myself, is this something that can stay in my home for a really long time? Am I not going to get like tired of it? Or if it's gonna just get a little smelly and funky and just not not great to have in your home anymore. And then I refrain from buying that. Number two are stickers, buttons, pins, those kinds of things. I've always been a kind of person who's very careful with my things, and I always try to make them last a really long time. And I remember when I was a kid, my parents would even comment on the fact that I would always make sure to immediately put the cap on when I was using my markers so that they wouldn't dry out. Like it's just something that I've always really paid attention to, to make my stuff last as long as possible. And for example, with pins and buttons, I don't like the idea of having to stick it through something and creating holes in the fabric. That just kind of, I don't know, it doesn't feel good to me. And with the stickers as well, there is like, I love stickers. I think that they can be really cute, and I used to collect them even when I was a little kid. So I get the appeal when it comes to stickers, but I don't want to stick it on something. Like I would never put a sticker on my laptop for example, because I'm too careful with my things. I like to try and make them last and keep them neat and things like that. So with stickers, buttons, pins, I know that these are very popular with merchandise and things like that. And they do look cute, but I refrain from buying them because I just don't know when I would use them. Because I'm careful with my things. Number three is gag gifts. Now, I have never really enjoyed gag gifts myself. I've never really found them funny or anything. But lately they have moved into the category of I actively dislike them. I just think that these are landfill fodder. Like a mug with a joke on it that's not that funny, and that no one's really going to be drinking from. Or a desktop punching bag, or a singing fish wall plaque, or a jar of unicorn snot. Like I just think that we can do better. I think with the amount of stuff that is already being produced every year, we should be more mindful now about producing even more things that don't even have the purpose of being usable, or useful, or lasting a long time. Giving someone a gag gift, like best case scenario, they find it really funny. And worst case scenario, it's like not even that funny. And then it will just sit in that person's house for a little while, causing clutter. And then eventually someone is going to throw it out, and it will probably end up in landfill. Number four is kind of in a similar vein, and that is silly badly made promotional items. Here in the Netherlands we have king's day, which is once a year. It's a national holiday, and everyone goes out wearing orange. Or not everyone, I usually stay home. But people who like it go out wearing orange, and that can be super fun of course. But the things that you can buy around king's day here, the orange clothing, the orange items, are usually such poor quality that they will fall apart after a couple uses. And people just throw it out and buy new stuff next year. And this can lead to overconsumption of this ultra fast fashion stuff that can only be worn or used for one day a year. Or right now, the world championships for soccer are coming up. And here in the Netherlands people like to celebrate that by buying all kinds of things that are orange. Like this bathrobe that you can buy right now. And I personally like, I don't own a bathrobe because I just never really feel like I want or need one. But if I did, I would 100% go for a bathrobe that is well made, that can last for a really long time. And not something really cheap just for the world's championship soccer. I get that these things are fun, but when I buy something, I like to just consider the journey of an item. Like why is this made? How is this made? How is it going to hold up over time? And where will it eventually end up? Which is, in this case also, I fear the landfill. Number five of the things I refuse to buy are products that are designed to take advantage of women's insecurities. So many products nowadays are designed to first make us feel insecure about something, and then they can sell us a solution for it. Where before it wasn't even a real problem. I really don't like it when companies try to make us feel bad for very normal things that our bodies just do and are supposed to do, just so that they can take our money. With me turning 38 soon, I feel like I'm the prime demographic of all of these anti-aging ads. Because I keep seeing them everywhere, all kinds of anti-aging products that are being pushed to me. And it goes even further than that. Like there are now like opposite invert bras that you can wear in between your breasts, like the cleavage part, when you go to sleep, so that you won't get wrinkles here. There are sprays that you can buy that you can spray on your face, and it'll show these little tiny fuzzy hairs that we all have, that we are supposed to have, so that you can shave them off. Where if you don't spray it with that stuff, you won't even see anything. And there are now supplements that we can take to make our vajayjays taste better. And so many more things. Gita Marie Johansen has a great video about these kinds of things, I will leave the link to her video down in the description box in case anyone is interested. But my point is that it really makes me feel icky if I can tell that I'm being pushed something to just make me feel bad about something that my body is supposed to do, that is completely normal, so that I will then buy a solution for it that I really don't need. Number six is paying for extra fast delivery or shipping when you order something online. I personally don't really think that that is worth it. And I also think that there is something good about waiting a little bit longer. I think that we've become so used to instant gratification, wanting something, clicking, buying, and getting it like the same day or the next day. I think there's something nice about waiting. Like if I order something from another country, then I think it's okay to wait a week, you know? I think that's perfectly fine. I'm not gonna pay more for extra fast shipping. Number seven is clothing with a visible logo. It does help that I'm naturally already usually not very interested in the kinds of brands that do that, that have like the big visible logo. But it's also something that I try to stay away from if I can. When I was younger, I used to love buying things with a big logo, because it was just a thing like, oh I have the thing that is popular right now. And I didn't buy like truly luxury designer stuff or anything, because I didn't have money for that. But just like the more affordable fast fashion kind of stuff with the big logo. And now I really don't like it. It feels a little bit icky for me to wear a big huge logo for a brand that everyone else can recognize. It feels like I'm advertising for that brand, even though I'm not being paid for it. In fact, I paid them to do that. I don't think that it looks that good. And oftentimes the quality of the item is also not high enough to really back up the price. The price is just really high because of the brand and because of the logo. And that's not something that I'm interested in. Number eight is anything that I will only wear once. So I'm thinking of special events or costume parties. It's also really common now to shop for a festival, to have like one or more outfits that you can wear on the festival and then just not wear them again. If I was ever to go to a costume party, I would like to buy one costume and then just use that every single time I have another costume party or something like that. And there are also services now where you can rent clothing for special events or things like that, and I think that that is a much better solution. We already have so many garments that are being made and produced and thrown away each year that I don't want to add to that if I can help it. Number nine is buy now pay later, Klarna type of services. These are everywhere now. You can finance basically everything into like three or four payments and they make it sound like it's a really good deal because it's interest free. But it is definitely a very slippery slope and it can be very dangerous. The thing is that it can become really difficult to see how many payments you still have, especially if you financed a bunch of little things. Then you can still have money deducted from your bank account like three or four months after you purchased the initial thing. And then if you have a bunch of them moving at the same time, you're still paying for stuff and you don't even know what is still being deducted from your bank account. This is called loan stacking and it can be very dangerous. And if you do end up missing a payment, then you do run the risk of having to pay extra fees. The reason companies do this is to lower that threshold to get us to buy things easier. Because it lowers the pain of having to pay for something. So instead of you know buying a new phone for a thousand dollars, you only have to pay 250 right now. And it's like the rest will come later, it's interest free. So people are more easily convinced to buy things. For me, I always pay things in one go immediately. Because I want to feel that pain of paying. Because that's how I can judge for myself whether or not I think it's worth it. Like do I really want to be spending a thousand dollars on a new phone right now instead of 250? And I heard that Klarna is now available on DoorDash even. So you can finance like a burrito. So you're already paying way too much for your food because you're using DoorDash and they add all of these extra fees. And then you're also financing it. It's just, I think it's better not to go down that road. The next one is obligatory gifts. I love giving people gifts, but I much prefer to just do it spontaneously out of the blue. Because I happen to know something or find something that that person would really like, or give them something homemade or whatever, instead of doing it because it is the holidays or because it's their birthdays. And if I do want to give someone a gift on their birthday, I will just ask them what they want. I know it kind of like spoils the surprise a little bit, but I would just much rather give them something that they actually want and can actually use. Instead of having to think like, oh it's this person's birthday, I don't know them very well and I'm just giving them a scented candle or something. That's just going to sit in that person's home. It's better if you can do it a little bit more mindfully, if you ask me. Number 11 is upgrades that I don't need. It does happen sometimes that I will change something out or upgrade it before it's like officially dead. That happens sometimes, but I try not to. I try to just stretch the things I have for as long as I can. For example, our tv is now 13 years old. And yes, it's not like as as good as the tvs are nowadays, but it's still perfectly fine. It still works, it's sharp enough, like I can see the things on there. So I'm not switching out our tv unless it actually breaks. Especially when it comes to tech items. These are really expensive, so usually you're paying for like an upgrade that is maybe five percent better than the one that you already have. But you have to pay like a thousand dollars for it. It's just not worth it in my opinion. Number 12 is a dryer. So we only have a washing machine and for us that works perfectly fine. I always line dry our laundry. It has two really big benefits. One, it's going to make your clothes and your textiles last a lot longer because you're not drying them. It's just less strain on your textiles. And I just hang them up, give them like a day in the summer, sometimes two days in the winter. It takes a little bit longer to dry and then, you know, it's fine. It's what I'm used to, it's what I grew up with. My parents also didn't have a dryer, so when I was still living with my parents and I would help out with the laundry, I was just used to hanging everything up. And yeah, it just works fine. Second big benefit is that dryers use a lot of electricity, like a lot. So line drying is better for your electricity bill and for your footprint. Of course it helps that it's just the two of us, so we don't have that much laundry. I can definitely imagine if you have like a bunch of kids or something and you have a lot of laundry to do, a dryer could definitely be helpful. So yeah. Number 13 are special chargers for your phone. The ones that you can just put your phone on and it charges it. Adhesive chargers, power banks. I personally just have never felt the need for one of these items. I'm sure that if you travel a lot, then a power bank could be really useful, but I don't really travel that much. So for me, just the normal charger that came with my phone many years ago, I still use it, it still works. I've never had like a reason to to want one of those items. Next one is anything having to do with tanning. So I'm talking like tanning lotions, tanning beds, tanning salons, things like that. Or self tanners also. This is very much a personal thing, but I used to really be very insecure about the fact that I am very pale and I don't get a tan in the summertime. And people would always comment on the fact that I should get a tan because I'm too pale, blah blah blah. So I used to go to the tanning salons, nothing happened, I just don't really get a tan. I used to use self tanner as well and that was back when self tanner was a lot less good as it is now. So it was always very streaky and would get on my clothes and on my bed and everything. And I would sometimes just be scared to go out in the summer not wearing that many clothing, just because I knew that I was so pale. So this is just a self-acceptance thing. After a while I was just like no, I'm pale, it's fine, I don't need to tan, I'm not going to be spending any money on that stuff. And also yeah, with tanning we know now that there's no such thing as a healthy tan. It is always dangerous to go out in the sun and not protect your skin with sunscreen, so that's another thing obviously. But if you do enjoy getting a tan, then I do hear that self tanners nowadays are much better. So that can be a great option I think. Novelty items for your home. So for example, glass spoons that are like wiggly, or plates with holes in them with a certain shape where you can put like something in there and it will stay in that shape. Or ice cube trays with funny shapes and all those kinds of things. Usually you will find those in the stores and they will all look funny and cute. And usually they're not that expensive also, so it is very tempting to buy them. But I do like to ask myself like, is this something that I'm going to really like for a very long time? And yeah, so far the answer has always been no. So I prefer to kind of just like stick to the basics. Have it be kind of like classic, timeless, instead of all of these kind of like weird trends where the glasses are shaped like pineapples, or you know. Number 16 is a paid Duolingo subscription. I've been using Duolingo for a very long time now. I'm currently at a 1416 day streak. I'm using it to learn Spanish and Japanese and usually I just do one lesson a day. They now have two versions, Super Duolingo and Duolingo Max, which is even more expensive. And I did hear that they are using AI more and more now to generate content and lessons, which gets me even less excited to pay for the subscription. For me, the free version works perfectly fine. I don't mind the ad at the end of my one lesson a day. I just mute my phone for a little bit and then skip the ad, it's fine. And it still allows me to, you know, keep learning my languages. And it's just something that I don't personally see the value for in paying for the subscription. Number 17 is a wedding. This is obviously also a very personal one, but my partner and I a few years ago decided to go for a registered partnership which legally is almost exactly the same as being married, and not host an actual wedding. We didn't want to do the party, the dress, the food, the invitations, and all of that kind of stuff. So everything together, including the flowers that he got me and the vegan takeaway sushi that we got to celebrate later, the whole thing cost us 200 euros. If you've always wanted to get married and you find that to be worth it, then of course absolutely do it. And there are ways to keep it smaller and to keep the costs down. But for me this option was amazing because it was super quick, super easy, and super cheap. And I've just personally never felt like I wanted a wedding to host, or to pay for, or to do. And it definitely helped us save a lot of money. The next one is beauty filter apps. I personally never use them, I've also never used them for my work, and I would never pay for one. When I was younger, I remember trying to use the app Facetune for a little while, like the free version. And I was smoothing out pictures of myself where I was really young, like I was like 25, 26 or something. I did not have any wrinkles to smooth, I don't know what I was doing. And I remember smoothing out a picture and thinking like, what am I doing? Like what? It doesn't even look better, it looks weird and smushed. Like what am I doing? So I deleted the app and vowed never to use a beauty filter ever again. And also for my work here with Simple Happy Zen, if I post a picture of myself, it's really just me snapping a picture of myself with my phone and posting it. I just, I never do anything to like edit it, or put a filter on, or anything. Beauty filters are really normal nowadays, and it is one of the biggest reasons why so many people around the world feel insecure, and like they don't measure up, and they are comparing themselves to a edited photo of someone else. So this is just something that I don't want to be a part of. Number 19 is anything having to do with gambling. Gambling is everywhere nowadays, and it really makes me feel very icky. And this is not because I'm like against gambling, I don't feel like it is immoral or something like that. Like I understand that it can be fun to do it sometimes, so it's not that. It is more so the gambling companies that now feel so evil to me, that I just don't want to give them even a single cent of my money. Whether it is the lottery, or scratching tickets, or sports betting, or going to a casino, it's just none of it. It all makes me feel very uncomfortable. Gambling really is everywhere nowadays, especially the sports betting one, and the online casinos. And I really don't like how these companies actively try to get people to spend more money, and more money, and to take advantage of people's psychology like that. And to send them push notifications with like, here's a few free dollars, you know, come back. Like it's, it's so, you know. There's a reason they say that the house always wins. It makes me feel icky and I don't want any part of it. And number 20 is coffee capsules. We switched over to an espresso machine, just using ground espresso. And it is amazing, so much better. We used to do the Nespresso with the capsules and everything, and it was expensive. It did not taste that great, in my personal opinion. And also it's very wasteful with the capsules, that you can technically recycle. But I am very much doubtful how many people actually do. So we now have a very simple espresso machine, that also in the world of espresso machines, this is a very low-end one. So it wasn't that expensive. We've had it for about six years now, and it still works great. The coffee tastes good, it's less wasteful, and it's just much better in every way, in my opinion. Looking over this list, it just always amazes me how much stuff there is to buy, and how much we are being influenced from all different places, and all day long trying to get us to spend our money on things that we really don't need. It's actually like, it's so much noise. And of course I would love to know from you, like do you recognize some of these? Are there things that you just refuse to buy or spend your money on? I would love to know in the comments. Thank you so much for sticking around all the way until the end. I would love it if you enjoyed this video, if you could give it a thumbs up, and maybe subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. And also an extra special thank you to my channel supporters, who are helping me to keep the channel going. I make two extra videos every month for my channel supporters, and in return, the income that I get from that helps me to keep the channel going. Despite like ups and downs in the algorithm and everything else, this really helps me to keep doing this as my job. So a really big thank you. And if you would like to support my work as well, and get access to all the extra bonus videos that I've posted over the last, I think six years already, then there are links in the description box. You can choose to do that either on Patreon or here on YouTube memberships by clicking the join button, which is next to the subscribe button. And then it's basically the same, they're the same extra videos that you will get. So it's just a matter of, you know, wanting to join on Patreon or on YouTube memberships, whatever you prefer. So yeah, long story short, link in the description box. Next video I am planning on talking more about things that I've added to my life ever since I started simplifying and living a more minimalist lifestyle. Because I've been talking a lot recently about things I don't do, and things I don't buy. So I thought it'd be fun to talk more about the things that I've added to my life, for more happiness, more joy, things like that. So that video is coming up next. As always, questions, comments, conversations down below. Have a wonderful day and I will see you all again really soon with a new video. Bye bye! My arm muscles and my shoulder muscles are so sore because I didn't work out yesterday. And it's been a while since I did my arms and my shoulders, and now I can just barely lift my arms.