Since discovering Minimalism I have always been enthralled with this idea of a No Spend Challenge. To consciously decide not to spend money on certain things for a set time sounded like a challenge. Something a minimalist like myself needs to try at least one. I was certainly curious about whether I could survive a month without any impulse shopping.
After reading Cait Flanders My Year of Less last month I figured now was as good a time as any to give this new challenge a shot. As April 30th rolled around I grabbed my notepad and scribbled (literally as you can see below hehe) down a few rules on what I was allowed and not allowed to spend on during the month of May on my No Spend Challenge. I wanted to challenge myself to go without the things I knew I would try in the moment, to convince myself I needed.
Setting the Rules of my No Spend Challenge
Allowed Purchases:
This list consisted of pretty much anything consumable like food or grocery items as they needed to be replaced.
- Groceries
- Petrol
- Medicine
- Budgeted Outings
- Approved List of Items (anything I had already noted on my wish list)
- Bills
- Current Subscriptions
- Experiences
- Gifts
Non-Allowed Purchases
This list was mostly focused on anything outside the budget or impulsive. If I hadn’t thought to write it down on my approved list, or grocery shop each week than I knew that I should be able to do without it.
- Clothing, unless urgent to replace something
- Non-budgeted Outings
- Unapproved Shopping not on wish-list
- Groceries not on our shopping list
As you can see, there were no extreme limits imposed for my No Spend Challenge, I wanted to keep my goals realistic. I figured if I wanted to, I could always make things a bit stricter next time I attempted the challenge. I wasn’t trying to deprive myself of things that I enjoy or that add value to my life, so there was no ban on dining out or any pausing of current expenses like my Spotify Subscription. The main aim of this No Spend Challenge experiment was to work on achieving my goals of being a more mindful consumer and see how I would ‘survive’ a month with small limitations placed on my actions and spendings. Not to curb all spending, but to focus on curbing any impulse spending.
Approved List of Items
As listed in the Allowed Purchased list I did allow myself to buy some pre-approved items during the No Spend Challenge period but they had to be on the Approved List of Items. They key was not to add any once the 1st of the month had ticked over.
These are the items I decided I was allowed to purchase during the No Spend Challenge. Most of these were items I had had on my list for a few months that I hadn’t found quite what I was looking for or hadn’t had a chance to shop for leading up to the Challenge. I certainly didn’t have to buy these items during the No Spend Month but if I did that was okay.
My List of Approved Items was as follows:
|
Approved Item |
Reason for purchase |
| 4 x new plants, bowl & succulents |
To replace dead plants outside and table feature |
|
Prescription glasses |
New prescription needed |
|
2 x Sunglasses |
To invest in quality sunglasses |
| Artificial plant x 2 |
For front entry way to replace dead plant & eucalyptus for dining area |
|
Dining Setting |
To replace sold dining table and chairs |
| Office Chair |
Replace current chair with something more suitable for long hours |
|
TV Tray |
For car (over wearing my lunch) |
|
Two guitar leads |
To replace broken and misplaced lead |
| Two storage boxes |
To store studio gear in |
What I bought during the challenge:
Out of the 9 pre-approved items I ended up buying 4. I found during the challenge, I was pretty happy to wait another month to buy items to do more research, particularly when it came to the higher value items like the dining setting. I even challenged myself with an IKEA visit looking for a new dining table and walked out with three approved purchases and nothing more.
We did have a couple of unplanned purchases, a set of wall plugs that we needed for our smoke alarm and a set of three foldable chairs for guests in the interim until we picked out our dining setting.
What we ended up buying:
- 4 x new plants, bowl & succulents
- Artificial plant x 2
- TV Tray
- Two storage boxes
Not on the approved list:
- 3 foldable chairs
- wall plugs
The rest of the items we do still need and will look at getting them over the coming weeks, but feels good to know that we didn’t rush and just buy everything on our list, even though they were pre-approved.
>> If you like this you may enjoy reading: How to Change Your Spendaholic Ways and Be More Intentional With Your Money
5 Lessons From My First No Spend Challenge
I’ve enjoyed my No Spend Challenge experiment and hope to do more of them in the future. These are the lessons I’ve had over the past month from the experience:
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- 1.
It’s not as hard as I thought
I considered the idea of doing a No Spend Challenge some time ago, but never went ahead with one as I didn’t know if I had the will power to get through a month or longer period of spending restrictions. Even as someone who strives to be a mindful consumer, I wasn’t sure if I could resist buying anything for that long. The No Spend Challenge has shown me that I can set myself spending limitations and stick to them. It is something I can implement in the future when I feel the need to reset my spending habits or save a bit of extra cash.
2. The importance of making the No Spend Challenge your own
I knew that I was never going to go on a No Spend Challenge where I couldn’t spend $1 the entire month or had to eat at home 24/7. Those restrictions were just not conducive to my lifestyle as we can’t always be at home at meal times and I didn’t want to turn my life upside down in order to trial the experiment. Those restrictions certainly made me think I couldn’t try a challenge of my own.
Instead of attempting a challenge I would have failed miserably or skipping the No Spend Challenge all together, I made it my own. A Challenge that matched the goals I had for myself to be more mindful and stick within our budget. It wasn’t about depriving myself every day but to be more conscious of my spending choices.
3. It made me feel more grateful for what I have
The No Spend Challenge helped me realise that I don’t really need that much to be happy. I found myself thinking often of how I have everything I could ever need. Whether it was my throw blanket, warm socks or my newly repaired beanie. I had enough. I had clothes, candles, food and water, my Netflix subscription, blankets, a phone and laptop. I really didn’t NEED anything. The one thing I didn’t have was a dining table and chairs and although it was inconvenient at times we managed without it.
4. You need to communicate your goals
Although I did my best to resist impulse purchases when grocery shopping, I couldn’t really stop my husband from grabbing extra items he wanted (luckily they were mostly extra vegetables so I wasn’t too upset ;)). I mentioned the challenge to my husband before I started it, but never discussed how it might impact him, or what I would need him to do to help me stick to my goals. Something as simple as discussing grocery shopping and how I wanted to resist impulse buys. So next time I would definitely discuss that in more detail before jumping into it. But that’s what these Challenges are about learning how to make them better and more successful next time.
If you are planning to do your own No Spend Challenge establish whether your partner and family are on board, or if not, make an approved purchases items list for things that are in your control.
5. I learnt what my spending impulses are
The No Spend Challenge highlighted my impulse habits. With the challenge there was no where to hide, I knew what was approved and what was not. The Challenge taught me that my main impulse was not clothing, decor or make up (though, at one point it would have been!) it was impulsively buying snacks!
I found myself a handful of times grabbing a chocolate from the office or servo and realising halfway through it’s tasty contents that I had just broken my commitment to not make impulse grocery decisions. Although this is still a work in progress, I at least became more aware of it and tried to set myself a goal of only buying one snack in our grocery shop but that is something this confectionery addict will need to work on 😉
How you can start your own No Spend Challenge
You don’t have to wait for a new month to start your own No Spend Challenge or ban yourself from buying anything non-essential. Try these tips to create your own No Spend Challenge:
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- Work out your why – be clear on what your goals are for the challenge. Are you aiming to curb drinking or shopping for clothes you don’t need? Maybe you simply need to save some money for your emergency fund. Identify your why to help you stay focused at achieving your No Spend Challenge goals.
- Keep things flexible – don’t feel the need to wait for the 1st of the month to come around, start whenever you like.
- Pick a time frame for the No Spend Challenge that suits you – Maybe you want to try a No Spend Challenge for one day a week, or attempt a No Spend Week rather than a whole month version of the challenge. Pick any time frame that suits you. You can always challenge yourself next time by making the challenge longer.
- Utilise focus areas – Don’t feel the need to be too restrictive with your No Spend Challenge if that is a barrier to you trialling your own. You don’t have to limit all spending. The No Spend Challenge can be used to reduce one area of expenditure you want to focus on. You could set yourself a goal of not buying coffee for the rest of the month, or focus on keeping within your grocery budget rather than worrying about banning all spending. If clothes is your problem spending area maybe that can be your spending ban for the period or pick something else that you know you could use a little help cutting back on.
- Grab a friend to join you – having a friend can help you both stay accountable and have someone to check in with on you on your No Spend Challenge.
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This weeks comment Question: Have you done your own No Spending Challenge? What lessons did you get out of it? Please share them in the comments below 🙂
[Photo: STIL on Unsplash]
