Have you ever heard of or participated in a 'No Spend Month' in order to save money? Here is how it works:You still pay your monthly bills, and allow the appropriate amount of money in your budget for essentials, such as gas and basic, essential groceries. (During a 'No Spend Month,' we try to use up groceries we already have at home in order to save money on groceries. We will purchase essential groceries such as milk, eggs, margarine, etc.)Other than the things mentioned above, do not spend any money for one month. No visits to restaurants, the movies, no shopping trips at the mall, not even a snack at the vending machine!It sounds tough, but really it leads to a much simpler, much less wasteful way of life. My husband and I tried it for a month and we really enjoyed it. It was somewhat of a challenge in order for us to not give in to compulsive wants at first (such as takeout pizza for dinner or a candy bar at the gas station), but at the end we enjoyed how simple it made our lives. For entertainment, we focused on the things we could do, rather than the costly things we could not do. Having family or friends over for a game night, staying in to watch Netflix, going for a walk, reading, going to the library for books, magazines, and movies, and simply spending time together were some of the things we enjoyed the most. We have done a couple more 'No Spend Months' since then, and we plan on doing them here or there in the future again!
I haven't but that's an excellent idea! I need to discipline myself in this area much more than I have. I tend to spend a lot of my money on fast food, so that's my weak area. But it'd be MUCH better to just spend strictly on bills and whatever else we need. Thanks for the idea, I'll definitely try to do this!
I've tried it once but not because my intention was to save money. Circumstances forced me. At that time I wanted to clear all my debts and after paying the last penny I owed I realized that I had very little money (left) to spend between then and the next time I'd be getting some money. Buy food and pay for utilities — that's all I could spend that money for. I've never tried that since then but should anyone try it I'm sure they certainly will have some decent savings by the end of the month.
It does sound tough but I think it would be an incredibly interesting project. I already do a food detox for a month once or twice a year, effectively applying the same principle of stripping out what I don't really need. I may experiment with it for a week, keeping a journal to see how well I do. No doubt there would be some very eye opening experiences..
Had my job been homebased instead of a regular office job, I would definitely practice No Spend Month. However, given my present circumstances, I really need to spend a portion of my income on food, transportation and other items for the house if not for my office consumption. I do adopt measures to lessen my expenses by buying only what I need and setting a budget everyday and sticking to it.
We call it belt-tightening. When we were in the apartment, we were hard up on finances so we try to think of whatever we can save on. It's funny to recall that even with soap and toothpaste, we were so frugal. Those were the times when I haven't seen the supermarket for months. We just go to the wet market because it is cheaper there although it was not air conditioned and dusty too. Fortunately, our belt-tightening paid off. After paying all our arrears to the bank and to friends, we were able to save some more to buy a used car. That was in 1996.
Yes I have done this before, and I learned a number of lessons from it - the main one being the fact that you really don't have to spend loads of money in order to have a good time. I know that spending time with my friends and family is the best thing in the world, and there are enough things that we can do for free which means that we don't ever have to spend too much money.
I never did it out of choice, but this time last year that's exactly what we were forced to do. We didn't exactly have fun with it, but it IS a very effective way of saving money. However, we much prefer to draw a monthly budget, that allows us some flexibility from time to time. Of course we never go crazy, as we're not flash with money, but we do like to go for a nice meal once in a while, when we feel we've earned it and can afford to spare the money.