I managed losing 20kg within a year without major exercise using a combination that fit me. Baseline calories about 2000kcal/day, so restricted to 1300kcal to give me some room for error. Next was switching to Keto, so I could manage hunger a lot better. Next I wrote everything in my food tracker app, often planning my entire day in there. Put the sauces away, found a good low-carb curry ketchup and used that a lot, was also low calories. I made lots of mistakes, often hidden calories, salad sauces, remoulade alternatives that just weren’t, and what hurt the most were sugar alternative products. If you want to lose weight, there is no alternative.
What helped me get through was adding a “cheat day” every sunday, which was not a sugar cheat day, but one with 2000kcal more in keto stuff (only the basics, not any of these replacement thingies) and some protein puddings which was the only exception.
Throwing out lots of stuff right now, I am absolutely shocked and disgusted by myself with how much trash I accumulated with such a low long-term value. I’ve switched to that japanese mindset: If it does not bring joy or has actual value, it’s getting removed from my life, either as trash or sold on.
So would I buy things I want but don’t need (i.e. not daily necessities like food, petrol, etc.) from now on? It highly depends. I will look into renting or borrowing stuff first if possible, then used stuff. Only if those are not an option, I will really REALLY think about where that thing will be in a year from now. If it’s most likely in storage or already binned and will have lost most of its value, I will choose not to shoulder the burden of owning it. There’s nothing to be gained but loss in such a thing.
On stuff that appears to keep value, boy do you need to evaluate a lot. General rule of thumb: Do you use it almost daily and similar items only slowly lost their value in the last years, consider buying it. Else avoid owning it, reduce cost.
On Tools, go for a base set of tools and a set of preferably multi-use tools on top. Everything else: Rent it. Why buy that special repair kit you will use once on your car when you can go to a hobby car workshop and just rent that thing? Sure, the rent is gone, but it’s way less than what that repair set would’ve cost you, which you will not sell on until it has lost most of its value, is outdated and whatnot.
Same for cars. Buy a cheap used one that’s easy to maintain and simply gets you reliably from A to B. Rent a beautiful car once in a while or for long trips. By numbers (including value loss, maintenance, etc.) you will most likely come out cheaper than owning an expensive car - without the risk of high repair costs on it appearing out of nowhere - as long as you keep it down to a few times per year. Something like once per month for a full weekend usually is fine, but this calculation is VERY country specific, so calculate your own total cost of ownership of a nice car and compare it to owning a cheap, easy to repair get-me-around car with occasionally renting really nice cars. Just be realistic with time frames.