Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. This is one way that bloggers make money, but it is at absolutely no extra cost to you if you choose to make a purchase based on my suggestions! If you would like to read more about how this works, check out my Disclosure Policy!
It seems like it has been absolutely forever since I completed my very first No Spend Month. I started with a month, because I had read about a few other bloggers doing No Spend Months (NSM) and I was intrigued. I was always up for a good challenge and I figured as a single woman (at the time) I might as well do it then! NSM to me seemed absolutely crazy at the time. I had a thousand questions.
I didn’t do a lot of reading before I just dived right in. “Winging it,” best defined my method of preparedness. Truthfully, that is how I best take action. If I wait too long and do too much prep, I never take action. That honestly best describes my debt free journey too.
After doing 4-5 No Spend Challenges, I really noticed that my content had started leaning more that way. I always get a ton of questions about how I do things and where to start. While I have a few blog posts scattered throughout my blog of how to have an AWESOME No Spend Month that will help you crush your goals.
If you want the FULL 39 page guide for your BEST No Spend Month (Including 4 printables to help your organize your thoughts), go grab it from my shop for just $5!
1) What is it
To me, a No Spend Month is like a diet “cleanse” or detox (even though I totally don’t support or recommend body “cleanses”) When you do a body detox, you are attempting to feel better by cleaning out the toxins and excess weight that your body is holding onto. When I do a No Spend Month, I cut out any “fun spending” and look at the fun things to do for free instead. I am cutting out excess spending to see what is more important.
This challenge does not include bills. When I say that I didn’t spend any money all month, guys. My bills are still getting paid. Money is still going to debt/savings. I am just not using any of my normal “spending” money. I am budgeting for fewer things than normal. This allows me to see what habits I have fallen into and where I can cut back on the budget.
For a FULL blog post description, check out my blog post all about What is a No Spend Challenge?
2) Why I track my No Spend Days?
I have read a few people who personally don’t like No Spend Months. Many people say that if you are sticking to your budget, then it shouldn’t matter if you are spending money every day. While that is true, I believe that NSM can be really beneficial to challenge you. They also bring light to which habits you could improve.
One of the first things I realized during my first NSM was that I spend A LOT of money, in increments of $5. Some of it was coffee or while I was at work at the restaurant. I wasn’t purchasing brand new TVs and fancy things, it was the $5 and $10 purchases over a long period of time that slowly ate away at some of my bigger goals.
3) Do I need a No Spend Month?
Is your spending absolutely out of control? Did something in your house/ on your car break and you need to save more money to fix it? Maybe you just want to start saving for the holidays because you know those are going to be expensive. Depending on your goal and your habits, you may or may not need it.
The challenge is time to reevaluated your spending habits. You get a better idea of what is really bringing value to your life and what things you can do without. It gives you a clear image of how you are spending your money and allows you to make the decisions if you want to continue to spend that way or cut back in other areas.
4) How Long
“But how long do I have to go without spending money?” is usually the first question that I get. Well, that honestly depends on your goal. I usually say one month. The longer you go, the more it will challenge you to evaluate your current finances.
If you don’t think you can make it a whole month, track your days for a month and see how many days you can not spend any money throughout the entire month. Maybe you have to spend money a couple of days because of prior commitments, but make it a goal to get 15 or 20 days that you don’t spend any money!
Some people will start for a week or they will set a goal to not spend any money during their workweek. So if you work Monday-Friday, they allow themselves to spend money on the weekends, but during the week, they stick to no spending. Even trying just spending one day a week makes you think about what you are spending money on and creates more of a delayed gratification All of these are good options for your very first challenge, but make sure that you don’t go crazy on your allowed spending days to make up for the days you didn’t spend! .
5) Setting a goal
If this is your first one ever, you might have no idea what your goal is. That is okay. I would still challenge you to set your basic goal for your no spend month. Pick one and focus on that. Ideally, this goal will be what the money that you aren’t spending will focus on throughout the month. When setting your goal, really think about why you want to do this challenge.
These goals can be things like..
- Pay off XXX amount of debt
- Save XXX amount of money for _____
- Spend less than XXX on (coffee, takeout, drinks, spending habit)
- Stop spending on (coffee, takeout, drinks, spending habit)
- Create a solid budget that works for you
- Pay the bills while income is lower (No shame in your barebones budget)
- Refill your emergency fund to XXX
6) What are the rules?
The great thing about a No Spend Challenge is that you can set whatever rules you want. Because it isn’t realistic to not spend ANY money at all, I am setting a few rules that I am allowed to spend money on during my No Spend Month. If you are going to try one too, your rules can be anything you want them to be. My rules are hard fast things that I am still going to spend money on. These include gas, groceries, medical expenses, car expenses, business stuff. These can really be anything that pertains to your life.
Setting rules makes it clear that there are things that do still require your attention.
Read my full blog post about how to set rules for your No Spend Month.
7) What are my exceptions?
Exceptions are included in my additional rules. You will never have a full month that doesn’t have something going on. I always have things every month that don’t count against the No Spend Month. There are always reasons to spend money, you have to decide that you are going to stick to your budgeted amount or find another way to celebrate. Some people want to give up on a no spend month because they have a (baby shower, wedding, birthday, holiday.. xxx) during the month. So they say.. maybe next month! But doesn’t every month have something going on at least one weekend?! If you continue to push it off, you will never give it a try! There are things that can be celebrated other ways and occasionally I will challenge myself to still not spend money.
For example, instead of spending money on 4th of July this year, I challenged myself to stick to our grocery budget and then did a pantry challenge for the rest of the week. We only spent our regular weekly amount on food for the party. Other people brought fireworks and drinks so we didn’t spend any “extra” money. Then, I just planned a pantry challenge for the rest of the week so we didn’t have to spend any extra on groceries.
8) What habits are going to hinder me?
This was honestly probably the hardest part for me. I made a habit tracker and really paid attention to what I was spending money on. Now, I use The Savvy Budget Tracker to track all of my expenses and make sure that I can see where I am spending my money the most. If you know you have a habit of getting food on the way home from work when you work late, having a few things on hand that can be thrown together in 5-10 minutes can save you from stopping for food. Here is a full blog post on how to avoid stopping to get food and one for the staples that I keep on hand for easy cooking!
Knowing which habits of yours are going to trip you up allows you to be more prepared.When I was working outside of the home, snacks were a big habit that tripped me up. When I started packing snacks, I noticed a decrease in my miscellaneous spending.
9) How do I prepare?
To prepare for a no spend month, it is best to know what hiccups you might have for things you need in the home. Go through your cabinets and take an inventory of what you have. Look at the things that you might have to purchase this month. Simply having your goal, a list of rules and expections, and your habits is the best way to prepare for your No Spend Month.
Doing an audit of your home and your schedule can help increase your preparedness. If you know you have an event coming up, set a realistic budget for your event. Figure out if you have clothes that you can make work for it. Know ahead of time that you are prepared to not spend money.
Being prepared can also include letting your close friends and family know that you are doing a money challenge to not spend money for the month. Let them know ahead of time that you are excited about your goal and have a list of plans that you can do for free. Letting the people close to you know can help eliminate pressure in the moment when they ask you to make plans.
Here is my full blog post on preparing for your No Spend Month.
10) Do I have a budget ready?
If you have never created a budget before, I strongly recommend starting there before trying to stick to the budget. I have a blog post all about creating a budget and a FREE budget workbook to help you get started creating one that really works for you!
Try to challenge yourself, but I don’t make it impossible to live.
Things I don’t budget for during a no spend month: Coffee stops, eating at restaurants, clothes or shoes, books. If you plan on using already purchased (or gifted) gift cards to fight off the splurges, make sure your gift card covers your meal. You don’t want to go to a steak house with a $25 gift card and spend $100. Be careful with gift card spending if you are going to do it.
I always try to set my grocery budget a little higher for a no spend month though because I need to account for all of the meals that I am normally eating at restaurants. You might not think you are eating out that much, but you might be surprised at how much your grocery budget changes from always eating at home.
11) What am I going to do Instead?
You may be thinking, “If I can’t spend any money, what am I going to do all month?!” I would challenge you to make a list of alllll of the things that you enjoy doing that don’t cost any money. To help you get started, I wrote this blog post of 37 Free, Fun things you can do to save money.
There are also a ton of options for free/cheap self care things you can do. Sometimes breaking negative spending habits can create some time to really take care of yourself for a month. The month should not be a full month of doing nothing.
At the beginning of every No Spend Month, my husband and I sit down to create a list of things that we would like to do that month. Some of them are specific to that month or that season. I try to list out as many things as possible. Creating a list ahead of time can eliminate the in the moment “what should we do today” struggles.
12) How do I avoid restaurants as back up options?
If you are anything like me, restaurants are your biggest budget breaker. Things you ca
One of the best things I have done is cut down on fast food. The drive-thru very rarely means anything healthy and it usually adds up fast. Every time I talk to someone who is struggling with their budget, it usually boils down to spending too much money eating out, when money should be going elsewhere. If you spend even $5 a day on miscellaneous food, you could unknowingly be spending over $1,800 a year on it. That isn’t including the actual times when you eat out for special occasions or with other people. According to Reference.com, Americans as a whole spend 384 million dollars a year on fast food alone. That seems absolutely outrageous!
I have an entire blog post with tips to avoiding fast food restaurants.
13) What is it like?
I wrote weekly blog posts during my first no spend month about 4 years ago to give an idea of what I was doing and where I was struggling. It is what you make of it. If you make it a ton of fun, then it totally can be, but it can also be miserable and frustrating. If you turn it into a challenge and get creative with not spending money, you can do a lot with it!
14) What do I do with my extra money
In a perfect world, you set your goal and your budget and now you have leftover money. Whatever your goal is, whether it is focusing on a debt, savings goal, or just cutting back on spending, you now can throw money at your goal.
Because I am so focused on not spending money throughout the month, I try really hard to focus on brining in more money instead. Here are 10 ways that I make extra money!
15) How do I avoid derailing all of my progress once we are done?
A no spend month requires a lot of discipline, willpower, and motivation. It sets you up for a great detox of your budget. This allows you to take a step back and see where else you could cut spending in your budget. After putting that much focus on not spending, it can be hard to transition into intentional spending again. It can be hard not to completely blow your whole month’s budget in the first few days of the month because you may feel deprived after a no spend month.
I suggested that you create a reward for the end of the month. It should be something that you can look forward to during the month. Maybe it is a small home purchase or a dinner out, but I suggested setting a budget for whatever your reward is.
Here, you can read my entire blog post on not derailing your progress!
PROGRESS OVER PERFECTION
No Spend Months are great. They give you super focus on your money for a short period of time to be able to really make some quick progress, but they don’t have to be perfect for you to make progress. Buying one less coffee a week is still progress. Going out for lunch one or two less times a month is still progress.
Don’t be so focused on doing the No Spend Month so perfectly that you forget to enjoy it. Make it a challenge. See how many fun things you can do without spending money. Make a goal of putting extra money towards debt.
Have you done a No Spend Month! I would love to hear how you did and what you accomplished!
If you want the FULL 39 page guide for your BEST No Spend Month (Including 4 printables to help your organize your thoughts), go grab it from my shop for just $5!
Save this pin for later or share with a friend:
