When Sonya McIntyre-Reid told friends and family she was not going to buy anything she doesn't need during the month of October, they were surprised.
"I did have a lot of them laugh at me and say 'as if' and 'you're the biggest consumer there is'," she said.
It was the marketing agency owner's recent 30th birthday which sparked the realisation she wanted to overhaul her life.
A self-confessed enthusiastic online shopper, she said she had parcels arriving at her Albury-Wodonga home on the NSW-Victoria border frequently.
McIntyre-Reid said she got into the habit of hiring a new frock for every event - including for all her 30th celebrations - and didn't want to re-wear them.
Scrolling on her phone while watching on TV in the evening saw her regularly purchasing clothes and make-up. A lot of the time, it was just a "distraction", she said.
Eating and drinking at cafes and restaurants was also a habit she started after the end of COVID-19 - but never stopped.
But since the start of the month, McIntyre-Reid has not spent any money on anything that's not essential.
She is even saying no when her colleagues ask her if she wants to go and get a coffee, instead using the machine in her co-working space to make her own.
She hopes to put the money she saves towards an overseas holiday.
So far, she hasn't slipped up.
"It's going really well and I feel like I've found my way around," McIntyre-Reid said.
"It's been a mindset shift.
'I've probably saved maybe $300 so far."
If McIntyre-Reid feels she needs a new outfit - such as for a glamorous event - she's going to rent it.
She said scrolling through rental sites such as The Volte gives her a similar hit to shopping - except she gives the item back.
A rental website, The Volte, is backing the "buy nothing" initiative.
It allows fashion fans to loan out their designer clothes to other people.
Not only does it help cut consumerism but it allows fashion fans to start a side hustle and make money from their outfits.
Australians buy 56 new items of clothing each annually with a similar amount discarded each year according to the Australian Fashion Council.
Over 200,000 tonnes of clothing is sent to landfill annually, fuelling climate change.
Australia is the second biggest consumer of fast fashion after the US.
The use of workers who are not properly paid plus the amount of dumped clothes shipped overseas are also related issues.
The Volte CEO Bernadette Olivier said shoppers must look beyond buying fast fashion in particular.
"We also can see through the growth of The Volte that Australian consumers are looking for alternatives to buying new clothes, especially for special occasions where a dress is bought and goes on to be only worn once or twice," Olivier said.
"On average a dress is rented out nine times on The Volte."
Campaigns to cut down on buying unneeded items isn't anything new, but is likely compounded by the cost of living crisis.
Aussie woman Tamara DiMattina set up Buy Nothing New Month to run each October more than a decade ago.
She says it's impossible to say how many people have joined the in initiative since then.
DiMattina claims she hasn't bought anything new for 20 years, relying on second-hand items in an effort to do her bit to combat climate change.
She urged other fashion lovers to also look at renting clothes rather than buying.
"Renting is fabulous. We need to get as much use from our stuff as humanly possible," she told 9news.com.au.
