Thursday, October 11, 2018

The No Spend Challenge

I recently came across 10 Tips For A Successful No Spend Challenge and although I may have mentioned in other posts some of these tips, I want to share again because I think this is a great way to budget one’s money.

If you are wondering what no-spend challenge is, it is a challenge to stop impulse buying and use what you are already have.  You can do it for a month, a week or just a weekend.  I try at least one week out of the month.   But remember, paying bills are not included. You must pay your bills (that’s not really impulse spending).

1) The first tip is the pantry challenge.  I wrote a whole post on this.  You can visit that post here.  Mainly, you are using up what you have in your pantry to prepare meals.  Waste not, want not.

2) The second tip is to plan your meals.  If you plan your meals in advance and purchase only what you need, you can cut your grocery bill in half.  When I plan my meals, I plan for more than two people and freeze the rest to enjoy it another day.

3) Free activities.  Great advice.  There are always something going on in the neighborhood that doesn’t cost money.  Last weekend, my wife and I went to a Rocktoberfest, which was free. We brought out lawn chairs, a cooler and listened to three local bands without spending a dime.

4) Stock up.  If there is a sale for something we need and use on a regular basis, I will stock up (especially toilet paper) and save money that way.

5) Unsubscribe from emails, especially ones from stores.  They’re nothing but advertising and they want you to spend money.  No emails, less temptations.

6) Be accountable to someone.  If this works with weight-loss programs, why can’t it work for money saving programs?  Let people know you are trying to save money and are keeping within a budget.  It helps.

7) Use up everything.  Not just food, but everything!  Don’t buy something at the store if it is a good deal when you already have it at home.  Kind of goes against #4 Stock up, but I get where she is coming from.  I don’t need two dozen pens, the same amount of markers or jars of salad dressing, etc.

8) Plan Family Fun At Home.  And we do.  Although there are no children at our home, my wife and I love to play card games and board games.  It’s fun and doesn’t cost more than the purchase of the game.  Of course, we’ve gone through three decks of Phase 10 since we play so often.  Okay, my wife did splurge on a Skee-Ball game, but she plays often and sometimes to relieve work stress.  Does that mean I can use it as a tax write-off?

9) Leave Money At Home.  That’s easy for me because I never have money.  But then again, I mainly use credit cards.  Not that this tempts me to buy things when I am out.  I also don’t carry all my cards when I go out.

10) The last on her list is to use up gift cards.  If and when I do get gift cards, I sue them. If I get Visa gift cards, I redeem them for Amazon gift cards and keep the balance in my Amazon account.  It also works if you have pennies left on a Visa gift card.  I use my Amazon credit to buy gifts all year long.

So, try a no spend challenge.  I did and it is a challenge but it is fun and we saved money or better yet didn’t spend money when we didn’t need to.

No comments:

Post a Comment