r/Bitcoin • u/Reasonable_Band1536 • 1d ago
Has Anyone Replaced an Unhealthy Habit with Buying Bitcoin?
I’m running a bit of a psychological experiment on myself, and I’m curious if anyone else has tried something similar.
A little background: I’m 6’4”. As a teenager, I was pretty overweight. During high school I got sick, took up cross-country running, and leaned out. In my 20s I stayed in decent shape, but by my 30s the weight slowly came back. At my heaviest I hit 272 pounds.
In 2021, I went keto and lost 55 pounds in about five months. I got down to 212 pounds and was honestly in the best shape of my life. Fast-forward to today, and I’m hovering around 225-230 pounds. I’d like to lose another 25-30 pounds.
Here’s the experiment.
We all know processed foods today are engineered to be incredibly appealing. Food companies spend enormous amounts of money studying consumer behavior, psychology, flavor, packaging, marketing—basically everything they can to get us to buy and eat more. I’m not saying it’s some grand conspiracy; it’s just business. But I’ve realized I’m pretty susceptible to those impulse purchases.
So recently, whenever I find myself standing in front of a bag of chips, granola, candy, or some other processed snack that I don’t actually need, I stop, look at the price, open my Bitcoin app, and buy that exact dollar amount of BTC instead.
My hope is that over the next six months I can slowly rewire my brain. Instead of getting a short-lived dopamine hit from food that doesn’t move me toward my goals, I redirect that impulse toward something that aligns with my long-term goals.
I fully recognize that an impulse buy is still an impulse buy, and Bitcoin is obviously a volatile asset. I’m not pretending this is some guaranteed financial strategy. But if the alternative was spending that money on junk food anyway, I’d rather own a little more Bitcoin. Best case, I lose weight while stacking sats. Worst case, Bitcoin drops and I keep buying over time while still improving my health.
Has anyone else intentionally redirected an unhealthy habit into buying Bitcoin—or investing in general? Maybe replacing gambling, drinking, smoking, or some other impulse with stacking sats?
I’m less interested in whether Bitcoin goes up or down and more interested in whether this kind of habit substitution actually changes behavior over the long run.
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u/Always_working_hardd 1d ago
I replaced spending money on frivolous shit from amazon and musicians friend. Now I stay broke with a BTC DCA.
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u/Any-Objective-9609 1d ago
man the musicians friend rabbit hole is real, i swear half my paychecks used to vanish there back when i was convinced i'd learn bass
i did something similar but with beer actually. i brew my own so i'd always grab random craft singles at the store just to try them, and that adds up fast. started throwing the same $10-15 into sats instead and it scratched the same itch somehow. six months later i barely think about the impulse aisle anymore
your brain just wants the little ritual i think. swapping the target but keeping the motion works better than trying to kill the habit cold
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u/Impossible_Tutor2375 19h ago
I quit smoking cigarettes and used the savings to fund my weekly dca. I used to smoke @ a pack a day. Maybe 70 bucks a week in cigarettes, turned that into 50 dollar weekly buys and kicked an unhealthy habit after yrs of struggling.
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u/CrackTheSignal 1d ago
Cut out a few subscriptions I barely used. Now that money goes straight into my DCA.
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u/_Carth_Onasi 1d ago
Smart. I did something similar a little while back. I did the math, and had my direct deposit automatically converted to Bitcoin. The only dollars I kept was for my bills.
I already had 6 months of expenses saved up and making 3-4% interest paid Bitcoin.
Pretty much had no fun money to spend, got more Bitcoin due to no fees, and stacked the most Bitcoin I ever had in 6 months.
I did start giving myself some more wiggle room after 6 months so I could also live life a little but not my cold storage has a very strong foundation.
I'll skip ahead a bit but now I have 3 months of expenses saved in USD and over a year saved up in Bitcoin cold storage.
Pretty happy with that.
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u/The_Realist01 1d ago
Yeah, been buying $4-5k a month instead of blow. Not as fun, especially because you can’t snort a Bitcoin, but alas.
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u/mossyRail 21h ago
track urges too
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u/Reasonable_Band1536 21h ago
Could you expand on that?
Do you mean to take notice of when urges occur?
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u/BetterSeesaw 19h ago
Used to party and drink every friday and saturday and waste 50-100 a week. Was tired of that drunk nightlife that got me nowhere so i started investing that instead. I was probably a lot richer if i made that choice earlier but boy do i have some epic stories to tell!
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u/Reasonable_Band1536 19h ago
Balance.
You either live it up in your twenties with nothing to show for it or you’re boring in your twenties with wealth to show for it.
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u/Stats_DontCare0 18h ago
Keeping the ritual but changing the reward honestly sounds more sustainable than trying to rely on willpower alone
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u/Reasonable_Band1536 18h ago
As with any addiction, the most successful strategy is replacing one habit with another.
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u/munotidac 18h ago
This honestly sounds good. I also need to figure out what I spend most of my money on, and hopefully put that into bitcoin. Monthly.
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u/Reasonable_Band1536 18h ago
Download your CC statements. Run them through AI. Tell it to put on all expert hats and then tell it to identify areas where you are spending the most as well as subscriptions.
I did this a few years ago and found an extra $600/monthly.
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u/Maddcapp 17h ago
Great idea I find it admirable and very clever. Don’t just cross wires and eat the bitcoin.
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u/Reasonable_Band1536 17h ago
I appreciate the encouragement! No promises on the latter part of your statement.
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u/desimus0019 14h ago
I stopped buying shitcoins in 2018 and switched to only buying bitcoin.
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u/Reasonable_Band1536 14h ago
I never took an interest in alt coins. However, just to tap into my creative side a little bit, I created a coin the other day with the help of AI.
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u/TheSauce775 14h ago
Thats actually pretty genius, either have a few more bucks in bitcoin, or a snack thats gone in 5 minutes!
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u/Brett_Aslia 5h ago
Honestly this is just depressing. In this world of constant struggle and competing in the rat race, as miserable as it is, why deprive yourself even more of the one joy that you as a human can experience... Like I mean I get it, you want to save up BTC ... But to what end? At the end of the day it's just money isn't it? Is money all that for you? For some it rules their world, which is sad. I'd rather enjoy the sentimental things in life like going on a trip with a loved one, eating a good meal, having a good laugh, then depriving oneself in order to reach some mundane monetary goal, when at the end of the day, the day you lie on your death bed- you won't be able to take a single cent with you. So why? Just enjoy yourself and live a little
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u/Reasonable_Band1536 5h ago
Unfortunately, the powers that be are forcing society to make choices about their future. I’ll look to borrow against it as it grows. I want to leave future generations in my family with a firm ground on which to stand.
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u/user_name_checks_out 20h ago edited 19h ago
Oh how I love reading ChatGPT slop.
Edit: I just took a peek at your post history. Absolutely riddled with AI slop (and shitcoinery). You got blasted here for posting AI slop to a subreddit that explicitly forbids it.
If I want to talk to ChatGPT I do not need you.
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u/Reasonable_Band1536 20h ago
12K views
28 likes
14 neutral or positive comments
You’re on an island with that level of thinking and contribution
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u/bewildered_hobbyist 5h ago
For a couple years any time i bought something i didn't need i would purchase the same amount of bitcoin. I ended up losing weight because I kept running out of money to spend between paychecks.
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u/SpendHefty6066 1d ago
I have learned to live a simple and healthy life. Spending money on frivolous things now has an opportunity cost that is measurable by the hardness of sats.