The 30-Day “No Spend” Challenge
I’m sure my husband read this subject line and went, “Heh, this won’t last as he glances at the J.Crew box I still need to return.” Well keep reading dear.
One of my inspirational reads is the Man vs. Debt blog. He writes about his world travels with under 2-year old daughter and wife in tow and how getting his finances in order has allowed him to be location independent. I read for the travel inspiration, but ocassionally some of the financial points stick too. The author Adam also writes for Untemplater and recently posted this 30-day “No Spend” Challenge.
Now my finances are probably in more order than 90% of people my age, but I like forcing myself into challenges just to see if I can do them, if the outcome of that challenge would be important to me. Given the nice change I saw in cash-flow during my no-spend day I figure a 30-day challenge will have a big impact in the travel fund.
My version of the challenge:
NO SPENDING on anything non-essential. Things like:
- clothes/accessories
- electronics
- lunches/dinners out
- online purchases
- “good deals”
Allowed discretionary spending
- investments
- Auto-paid items (Netflix, cellphone, Weight Watchers)
- shared non-lazy experiences
A note on shared non-lazy experiences: Just like a diet, the whole family isn’t going to suffer. I will make an exception to the challenge, for instance dining out, if my husband suggests it (he rarely does, its always me) and its because he genuinely wants to treat us and not because we are being lazy, ie. we haven’t thawed anything to cook that night.
Challenge starts now and runs until the 7 April. Anybody want to join in? What are you cutting back for?
March 8th, 2010 at 20:20
Oh man, this sounds painful! It’s hard enough for me to be happy on my meager stipend, but then to eliminate the few pleasurable discretionary purchases I make completely (like my recent $10 splurge on a ZhuZhu pet… unnecessary yet the little mechanical hamster is so entertaining!), I can’t do it. But I’ll root for you. Good luck!