Ever since getting a decent paying job, I’ve been pretty good with tracking my spending. I’ve either been paying down debt or saving aggressively, so I’m always trying to decrease spending and increase savings.
That said, I found the biggest change I’ve made to my spending was actually after I adopted more of a minimalist lifestyle. I realized how many purchases I made that were frivolous, and how little joy that stuff was actually bringing me. It was then that I was able to cut another 15% of my spending fairly effortlessly.
I’m all for money saving tips, but most of the ideas that come up will save you $5 or $10 per month. Which is good, of course, but this is the only way I was really able to kick my saving into high gear. Questioning each and every purchase.
This was awesome, but I wanted to take it a step further.
NO SPEND
Have you seen the TedTalk about that woman who did a no-spend year? She saved over $35k CAD by only allowing herself to purchase the absolute necessities for that year. There was no eating or drinking out, no Ubers or transportation costs, and no shopping except for basic food and household supplies.
Now if you ask me, a year is TOUGH. All the respect to Michelle McGagh, but I can’t see doing this myself.
I loved the concept though. So last year I suggested to my partner that we do a no-spend month.
I thought it’d be a harder sell, but I suggested it after looking at our credit card statements after Christmas and he got on board pretty quickly.
We did it through February. The timing was perfect – our wallets were hurting from the holidays and shopping the January sales.
THE RULES
Not unlike Michelle McGagh, we had some loose rules which we established in about 2.5 minutes. We could buy food from the grocery store. We could buy necessary household purchases like cleaning products or lightbulbs. And we could pay our bills.
All other purchases were out.
This meant no takeout coffee or lunch, no shopping for clothing or household goods. And no entertainment purchases.
The one thing we did allow ourselves to buy was wine and beer, so that if we did want to see friends, we could still suggest a fun night in.
I’m all about adapting things to make them realistic for you.
THE RESULTS
Well here’s the thing – I didn’t actually track what I was able to save. It definitely was higher than usual, but I couldn’t tell you how much higher.
What I can tell you is that it went so well that we decided to do it again in October when we were feeling the pinch from a vacation. Even my partner was on board, despite the fact that I’m the frugal one in the household.
This year we’re decided to do dry January, so we doubled up and also made January our no-spend month. We figured we already won’t be going out as much, so the two work pretty nicely together. See the results of that here.
Socially, yes, this can be tricky. If you don’t feel like telling friends what you’re up to, you can always default to being “very busy” that month, but I’d actually recommend sharing what you’re up to.
My partner and I have shared what we do with a number of friends, and quite a few have come back to us weeks later to tell us we inspired them to do the same. Getting friends on board means you can even sync up your no-spend months to ensure everyone’s on board for low key hangouts that month!