The 30 day challenge involves no additional spends for a month and can be a great way to cleanse your finances. You will still pay all your bills and existing credit card debts, but you wont be adding any extra costs! I’m hoping you can see why to do the no spend challenge.
So lets get started!
Table of Contents
No Spend Month Rules.
This is going to be a little bit more in depth than the No Spend Year Challenge as we can achieve a lot more in the short time. If you are tempted by the No Spend Year Challenge have a look HERE.
If it is just a 30 or 31 day challenge you are after lets give some thought to the rules! A ‘go for no challenge’ should be well thought out and planned. But sometimes life can swipe the air from under us and force our hand a bit…..
So in theory this is a great first set of rules..
- Pay rent / mortgage and all bills as normal
- No cheating by quickly purchasing the things you want beforehand
- No shopping for a month! So things like make up, clothes, shoes, handbags! Seriously anything you know is your weakness!
- Meal preparation and planning ahead as now food or drink out!
Ideas for success!
Why are you doing this challenge? Are you trying to reduce existing debt? Has the fear of redundancy suddenly arose? Whatever your reasons keep them close to your thoughts at all times. I know why we started and it keeps me motivated!
Write a tracker
A 30 day no spend challenge tracker will help keep you focused! Think of it like a wish list, you can include prices as well. My first day I didn’t buy any gorgeous smelling pretzels and I was so full of smugness that I’m sure I wouldn’t have been hungry! It takes the pressure off if you think of it as adding items to your online shopping cart. Then you just don’t buy it! Ashamedly my no spend tracker shows our savings at around £1800 since starting two months ago, we are on the no spend year challenge!
Keep a community of no spend motivators
In Britain we just don’t talk about money. Full stop. No discussion it is vulgar or not the done thing. themoneycharity.org.uk puts the average UK debt at around £59,552 as of February 2019. This is not huge considering the amount of people with large mortgages but we do not discuss it as a nation, therefore we don’t address it.
I like that this no buy challenge makes talking about money easier. You don’t have to be specific but just say you are looking to tackle the challenge and then see how friends and family support you! IF you have a large family a family meeting to set no spend rules can be inspiring.
Watch 30 day challenge videos!
We have our own channel and share ideas and hopefully no spend challenge motivation!
Set goals
realistically we buried our heads in the sand too long. We had no idea how much we were wasting. Neither of us wanted to be the one who was bad with money. So we both ignored it. Then we tried this and didn’t realise how much we could save. So be aware once you save your first few hundred it is powerful! That is why we are now starting our no shopping for a year challenge. So what started as a 30 day no spend challenge very quickly became add another 31 day no spend challenge and now we have a new load of spending habits! We have a five year plan!
Tie other 30 day challenges together
So I love the 30 day health kick challenge and have now been using free YouTube videos rather than a gym membership! What about a 30 day wellbeing challenge? Look at ways to increase happiness by learning a new craft? Like making a rag rug, or what about making a Pom Pom Heart ?
Or even try making gifts for friends which are more laden with love? Something like my Peanut Butter Fudge with Chunky Chocolate go down very well! I have found that spending money can become the language of love with no real meaning behind it!
What about starting to grow your own veg? A 30 day health kick challenge? So combine the two and try to grow micro greens as they are tasty, cheap and nutritious!
We have set up lot of little goals for ourselves including reducing our household bills. No we make our own natural drain unblocker and save there, we also make our own Eco Friendly Scourer Pad’s and all of those little savings start to add up!
What if you want more than a 1 month no spend challenge?
Make a few tweaks to allow it be easier on yourself! By treating it like a financial fast you may be going too quickly into it, but unlike a fat cleanse we will be able to make the changes stick if we know how. Why not try something a little bit more adventurous like using apps to track your progress and start to build your savings? I have learnt a lot by following the tips from The Frugal Fellow and their article about apps! There is an app for everything, so why not use them to build your frugal, no spend habits?
I bought aBamboo Cup Reusable Coffee Cup for ten quid and saved around a fiver a day! So sometimes a little spend will save you money long term! Also kudos for being a zero waste no spend challenge winner! I invested in someSnap-On Airtight Lid 750ml Food Storage Container as I wanted to be able to microwave my leftovers at work as well as freeze some for the next few weeks. For more kitchen cheats have a look at Zero Waste No Spend Kitchen Wins.
Expand your one month no spend challenge
We now find it addictive. Be it couponing or getting free days out we love to challenge ourselves. One ace way to reduce costs has been to get a water meter and I have outlined how and why you should think about that here on our Cut down on household water use page. I love a homemade gift, or even a homegrown one! so something like our A Beginners Guide to Propagating Succulents may help you to think of ways to make gifts that people will cherish! Or even little gestures like our Peanut Butter Fudge with Chunky Chocolate are great no spend wins. So rethink the way you consume and start to grow/make your own!
It is funny the things you start to try and save money on, things like driving your car that perhaps you wouldn’t have thought about trying before.
30 day no spend challenge goals
Set them for your family and please share them with us all! You can join our Facebook Group –Zero waste no or low spend ideas and inspiration and we love to share our ideas for the no spend challenge as well as for zero waste! It is not a group for people to share their amazing wealth off but rather to share how they intend to make their money last longer!
Nothing to lose so please get this started and subscribe to the site for more information !
A few more ideas you may like to try
Thanks
A special thanks to TheFrugalFellow.com for allowing us to link to one of their great articles. A really good site to subscribe to for anyone looking to reduce their outgoings. Very much in line with our tagline of ‘making the most of what you have got’!