Are you wondering what a No Spend Month means? Simple! As the title suggests, I did not spend money for a whole month.
Say what? Okay, well I did not spend any extra money for a month. This girl still had to pay for rent and gas (among other bills)!
I did, however, say bye-bye to clothes shopping. And, of course, the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale was during this time period (go figure).
Overall, it was a great challenge. I learned a lot about myself and my shopping habits, and I’m hoping to adopt what I learned into my everyday life.
So here goes the recap of my No Spend Month.
How it all started
After the wedding, I knew I had to cut back on expenses. After all, Kris and I are trying to save up for a house.
While chatting with my friend, Laura, I learned that she would be doing a No Spend Month in July. She loves doing monthly challenges, and this would be a new one for her.
So I thought to myself “why not?” If anything, I’d be saving money that could go to our future home! And at that point, I decided to make my goal public and shared it on Instagram.
Luckily, I had Laura as an accountability partner (and boy was she holding me accountable!).
What I learned during my No Spend Month
During this No Spend Month, I realized how many unnecessary items I buy throughout the month. From clothes I don’t need, to jewelry I’m certainly never going to wear.
My closet has rapidly expanded, all because I’m obsessed with fashion and want to buy everything.
I also learned that it’s possible to prep all of your meals and not eat out for a month. I did, however, go out a few times with Kris’s family. But, I did not actually spend a single dime!
Challenges I encountered
With Kris’s family from Poland still visiting, it was difficult not going out. I didn’t want to tell them we couldn’t try Giordano’s because I’m not spending any money.
So instead, I would eat at home before going out, or went out, ate, and enjoyed a nice free meal from Kris.
As I mentioned earlier, the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale was in July. As a cardholder, I get early access. Which honestly meant nothing this month because I couldn’t buy a single thing!
I added tons of items to my cart, imagined myself wearing them, and then removed them immediately. It was definitely an added challenge.
I also gave up my beloved smoothies and sushi, but learned that I can make some darn good smoothies at home! Just take a peep at my Insta if you need proof.
How I hope to incorporate this into daily life
During my No Spend Month, I realized I actually can survive without buying unnecessary things. That’s definitely something I’m hoping to incorporate in my everyday life.
With a house purchase in the near future, I’m definitely hoping to save as much as I can!
Laura’s no spend month
I thought it would be a great idea to include Laura’s experience in this post as well. After all, she was the reason why I decided to do this challenge, and I’ve always been a fan of multiple points of view. So here it goes:
First off, I am so excited to be writing a guest blog post for Dear Moscato. Thank you to Monica for offering me this opportunity and hopefully I can contribute something to her wonderful post!
To make things easy, I decided to answer the three questions I received most often throughout the month.
Why did I do a No Spend Month?
When people heard that I was doing a No Spend Month, their first reaction was to ask if I was trying to save money. While that was a great perk, that wasn’t really my motivation.
In May of this year, I decided to start doing 30 day challenges every month. I like the idea of setting a goal and working all month to complete it. Plus, it creates new habits that I can take forward with me after the 30 days end.
I had heard about people doing No Spend Months (which I later learned are also called a “fiscal fasts”) and thought that would be a great challenge as well as a great way to become more aware of my spending habits.
Was it hard/What was the hardest part?
The key to a NSM is planning. I didn’t have the option of “I don’t feel like cooking. I’ll just pick something up on the way home.” And, as many times as I wanted to, I couldn’t just “pick up coffee on the way to work.”
Sundays were key for meal prep and planning out the week. I needed to make sure that I brought everything I needed to work so I wouldn’t have to buy something unexpectedly.
What did I think was going to be IMPOSSIBLE? No Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks coffee. My day typically includes a black coffee in the morning and a black iced coffee from a drive thru in the afternoon.
I knew I wasn’t going to be able to cut out the afternoon coffee, so that was the first habit I had to change. I started making iced coffee and keeping it in the fridge at work.
This concept was so simple that I couldn’t believe that I had been buying coffee this whole time. This is one major thing that I plan to keep doing and is going to help me continue to save money in the future. It is also the first thing that happened last month that made me think: “huh, that’s one area where I spend too much money.”
Also – sushi. The sushi cravings were REAL.
I usually eat sushi about once a week and, unfortunately, that was not something I could recreate at home. The first dinner I had on August 1st was… SUSHI. That was essential and it was delicious.
Another unexpected thing that came up for me was that I was invited to last-minute plans with friends that I wasn’t able to participate in. Most of them I postponed until August so that I would be able to actually hang. There were a few times I went with friends and just drank water or didn’t do any of the things that cost money.
I still had fun, but also learned that sometimes you have to sacrifice some funds for fun – and it’s hard to avoid that.
So… What did I learn and what will I change moving forward?
Having to focus on every single thing you can’t spend money on really puts your spending habits under a magnifying glass. And, honestly, a lot of the things that made me think: “man, I really want that, but I can’t spend money this month!” it turns out I didn’t even really want anymore at the end of the month.
Let’s be honest, I had a lot of things waiting for me in online carts at the end of July, but I ended up not buying most of them.
Moving forward, I think I will try to avoid impulse purchases by putting things in carts and then returning a few weeks later to see if I still want them. I think I will avoid a lot of unnecessary purchases this way.
Because I became so used to planning every single thing I needed to bring with me to work, it will be easy to continue this.
I always meal prepped, but I usually left some room to eat out if I didn’t want to eat what I had made. I didn’t have that option during NSM and I ended up saving money.
Also, my body appreciated not eating last minute take-out food. I’m not saying that I will never go to a restaurant again, but I am way more prepared to tackle a week without that safety net.
Lastly, I want to tell you the story about my first purchase after No Spend Month ended. It was the first time I handed over my credit card to buy something that was just because I wanted it (not groceries or gas).
No surprise that the first thing I bought was an iced coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts. I didn’t expect to be so emotional when ordering and handing over my card.
I had a big smile on my face as I thought about how I had made it through a whole month without buying anything extra for myself and I almost didn’t want to do it. Paying for something with my card had been so common before July that I used to hand it over without much thought.
This was not the case on August 1st.
Now, I am more aware of every time I make the choice to purchase something that isn’t a necessity. That day, handing my card to the cashier was not a mindless everyday activity.
Guys, iced coffee has never tasted so good.
If you’ve done a No Spend Month, or are thinking about doing one, let me know in the comments below!