Many personal finance bloggers participate in “no spend challenges” or count their “no spend days” as a way to rein in the budget and save more money. I once tried a version of a no-spend challenge / shopping hiatus (it was called C.A.S.H. and focused exclusively on clothes, shoes, and accessories) back in 2008, but gave up after 4 months. I have never tried a completely cold-turkey no-spend challenge. Lately, though, I’ve been feeling a little disillusioned and discouraged with the long road to financial freedom, and as I look around my apartment at the hundreds of dollars worth of items that are unused – or, gasp – never used, I’m wondering if I should give this no spend challenge a try.
Will it turn me into a better saver? A more thoughtful consumer? Or will is it a stop-gap measure that will just drive the shopper in me crazy and won’t lead to any lasting change?
So, of course, I made a pro / con list as I think about embarking on a NO SPEND CHALLENGE…
Pros:
It challenges you to, well, NOT spend.
It’s kind of a game – how many days can I go without using money?
It forces you to look at other, potentially less appetizing options, aside from just whipping out a credit card (for example, I may actually be forced to eat the wilted head of lettuce and old bread in my fridge instead of going out for Chipotle. Less appetizing, indeed!).
It makes you become more conscious of often you go without buying something.
It discourages thoughtless, throwaway purchases such as a pack of gum or popcorn.
It encourages planning-ahead-spending.
Cons:
It can encourage “binge buying” behavior. If I just rush out after a no-spend challenge and buy $500 worth of merchandise, that really is no better than spending $10 a day for two months.
It’s unsustainable.
It forces you to pass up really great deals that can save you money over what you would have normally spent.
It doesn’t necessarily help people become more conscientious consumers.
From what I can see, it doesn’t really hurt to try a no spend challenge. Maybe that’s what I need to kick my personal finance butt into gear.
What do you think of no spend challenges? Do they work for you?
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I think you make a good point but forget to mention that it wont really be a no spend. Eventually, you'll have to break it or give yourself some slack on some needs, like cleaning supplies or whatever, that you'll need but still have to spend money on (or make them yourself). I think they do work and can be good, but you need to be aware that you could just be pushing some spending into the future – which isnt a bad thing.
Although I don't really like the gimmicky nature of no-spend challenges, I think that they can be very beneficial for two main reasons:
1. Saying no to Starbucks every single day used to be an agonizing and painful decision. Now it's not even a question. Sometimes you just need to break the habit. For me, this applied to many areas of my spending. I don't spend very much, but I don't feel deprived because I'm used to it. You may well be miserable during the challenge itself, but now it's second nature to me to eat groceries before eating out.
2. After getting used to cutting back, the things that used to feel routine feel like a luxurious indulgence. I go to a coffee shop twice every week, and both are often the highlight of my day, because it's something I love so much, but don't have all of the time. It never used to feel that way. The same goes for buying cheese when I grocery shop. It used to just be something on my list, but now it is a big treat.
Of course, this just worked for me. My competitive nature is well suited to a no-spend challenge because I'm competing against myself. It also helps me sort out wants vs. needs and shows me that coffee is not something I need. Everyone should figure out what works best for them. If it's not going to help you, it's not worth doing, in my opinion.
The no spend challenge thing doesn't work well for me. In some ways, I feel like my entire life is a big no-spend challenge! In order to really make things work, I kind of need to take advantage of great deals when they come my way. I try really hard not to pay full price for anything. I also take advantage of shopping through my credit card websites to get the maximum cash back bonus.
That was my first reaction too – my entire life is a no-spend challenge! I guess I think that either I need something, in which case I'll buy it, challenge or not, or I don't, in which case I likely wouldn't be considering it. I also think it's a little ingenuous to congratulate yourself on going X days without "spending" money, when in fact you have just paid for what you consumed on those days in advance or will pay for it in the future (rent/mortgage, food, electricity, gas) – related to the "binge" con above, I suppose.
I guess my version of a no-spend challenge is a targeted fast for the particular item or category of items that I feel might be out of control. I am much more apt to do this with my time (timewasting websites!) or food (peanut butter!) rather than with money, though.
Ditto on my whole life being a no-spend challenge.
I think the point is to make an adjustment to your habits/expectations. There was a time when I would agonize over a $30 purchase because I really was keeping my budget that tight. There was a time when my grocery bill was really really important to me. Now, not so much.
I find if I let myself buy everything I desire, my desire only increase. If I talk myself out of "needing" this or that, I don't miss it, and my overall patterns of buying are adjusted. Also "good deals" seem to always come again. It is rare that you miss one and can never find a similar deal. Just delaying purchases saves money.
Will it help you? Yes, if you stick to it and you really want to save. But is it "worth it" to you? Maybe, maybe not.
By "no spend" I'm only referring to no spending on non-necessities, so groceries or cleaning supplies or whatever I just buy when I need and when I'm at the store. No point in making life complicated just to have a no spend day.
Usually no spends don't work for me because I very much have the feast vs famine binging afterwards. That being said, I am doing one right now with a group of other bloggers. I'm finding that having others do it with me makes it feel more like a challenge than a punishment, which is beneficial. Will I do it again next month? Probably not. I'm avoiding paying for things and running on reserves at home, and those reserves will eventually run out. It's been good for evaluating my money habits, but as you said, it's not sustainable in the long term.
I see you're getting into the Allie Brosh/J Money Paint drawings, hmmm?
I don't personally think there's any value in no spend days – I don't tend to spend during the week anyway, although I know others have issues with small, here and there purchases that add up.
However, I am embarking on a no new clothing/beauty purchase year. I think it's doable. I don't wear much makeup or do much to my skin and should have more than enough to keep me going through 2012. Clothing wise I may need to replace my ballet flats as I wear them through really fast, but again, unless I change jobs which I don't expect, I shouldn't need any wardrobe additions.
My two cents…
I'm one of the bloggers who has just recently embarked on No Spend challenges.
This month I'm pledging not to shop during the week. My office is next to a mall. My colleagues and I try to get out of said office for lunch — however, since we all bring our lunches and lately it's been too cold to go outside for an hour at lunch to walk outdoors, in December and January we all found that we were coming up with things to buy at the mall as an excuse to go outside. Come the weekend when I am "allowed" to spend, I barely have enough time for groceries, gas, spending time with friends, etc. to go to a mall, home decor store, bookstore, Michaels, whatever my usual weakess and blow wads of cash.
Motivations for participating in/coming up with No Spend Challenges will be different for everyone, so I think it comes down to identifying needless spending, and creating a fun challenge to attempt.
A very timely post for me. I decided to do a three month no-buy challenge. One month was okay because I was paying off my shopping bills from the month before. This month is getting to be damn hard. It is a cold turkey withdrawal for me because I NEVER went one month wihtout buying at least something for myself. I feel like I on the edge of dropping everything and running to the store. Today is especially bad because I feel stressed and tired and need a little pick-me-up.
I enjoy no-spend challenges, but I like low-spend month challenges even more. I have an iPhone app where I can set a deposit $ at the beginning of the month and enter every purchase and it shows my new balance. Not tied to any bank account or anything, which I like. One month I gave myself $300 for everything except set-in-stone bills (rent, electric bill, student loan payment). It was tough but I definitely learned to prioritize groceries and gas over this-and-that. At the end of the month, I was shocked to see how much money was in my checking account, and how quickly I had adjusted to stopping the random spending. Those habits stuck.
I have never done no spend or low spend challenge. I don't think I will try either. Like you said, I think I will end binge spend.
Yeah, I've never tried the no-spend challenge because I think of spending more in monthly terms. I have lots of days where I don't spend any money, but that doesn't really change my finances if say the next day I spend $ on gas, groceries, etc. I could see this being a good mind trick if you like to buy stuff like daily coffees or boba teas
. My danger zone is more the mall and plane tickets!
Within reason – yes they can be great to learn / practice discipline & break bad habits. But without some treats now & then, they can end up making life feel very boring & monotonous. After doing one for a year – with a set goal of saving $20,000, I'd advise to budget some spending money monthly to fritter away on social life or the odd treat. Budgeting isn't that difficult if you've broken down what your outgoing costs are & how much you're left over with to spend / save. It's then where the motivation has to set in – a set goal to achieve – is always a good one!
Personally, I don't think they really work. Once I start setting rules on myself like: NO SPENDING… it makes me want to spend even more.
That said, I do like that when I think about spending $100 on something frivolous, I stop myself and think: $100 in savings, that would be $1500 in the future, or this.. trinket?
It works most of the time.
I've never done a no spent challenge but I've been able to integrate spending controls into my daily life. My husband won't let me admit it and this is the first time I am sharing. I haven't shopped for clothes except lingerie in 7 yrs. I love clothes and fashion but I don't miss it. I was able to do this based on recognizing my personal priorities. The savings are immense when I took out my clothes allowance.
It helped that I started with a strict rule for how I bought clothes starting in grade school. (Learned from my mom.) I'm able to stay fashionable no matter what the seasons are with just what I own.
I also have a little game that I played with myself for years and slowly it trained me on how to spend according to my needs.
Mind you, I have no guilt spending on an absolutely frivolous dress or such. I just haven't found anything that wow me that much lately. In fact, I don't feel deprived about anything at all.
I personally am a fan of the no-spend challenges, but I always adapt them to fit my own circumstances. Often, if I'm working to have more NSD's, I'll really analyze whether or not I need to buy something rather than simply wanting to. NSDs have helped me come a long way in my financial journey!
I think it really depends on the person. For me doing a no spend year is a way of reseting my spending habits. Like Paige mentioned I used to agonise at denying myself my daily latte for a day. Now that I decided on not buying any for a year, I don't even think of it and don't crave lattes anymore. So the no spend I did for now soon 5 weeks was enough for me to break that bad habit. And there are more bad habits to break. I hope I will manage doing my year of no spend. I am also pretty sure I won't binge, it's just not my type of reaction. I am very competitive with myself and loves doing challenges – not sabotaging them
A few years back, I challenged myself to not buy shoes for an entire year. Initially, it was really hard because I love shoes, but I was able to go 17 months without buying a single pair of new shoes. I was really proud of myself, but I will never do it again. Reason? I had no shoes in the "pipeline" to replace the pair of black heels I wore almost every day to work. Usually, I like to scope out the new items and keep my eye on them until they go on sale, then I would strike. Since I wasn't keeping my eye on anything during my "no shoes challenge", I ended up having to pay full price on black heels because the old ones were so worn.
I think the best approach for me is to shop all year and look out for deals. I probably would fall into the feast or famine category if I tried to do a no spend challenge.
A few thoughts. It's not really no-spend, because all your major set expenses are still going out the door. If you're blogging about not spending, you're probably paying for high speed internet access. Just because it wasn't deducted on the no-spend days doesn't mean it's not a cost amortized over those days. Same with your rent/mortgage/utilities/car, etc. One problem with personal finance literature is it tends to focus too much on small variable costs when the big ones are the most important for financial health. Also, the easiest way to not spend is to not leave the house. I have some days like that (working from home) but I try not to have too many of them because they can get a bit, um, grumpy.
I feel like a "no spend challenge" is a little bit like a "no eating challenge". Sure you could stop altogether, but its just going to come back with a vengeance. I prefer to treat it more like an exercise routine. Through discipline and training, get your spending and saving under control.
I did a year-long Spending Fast followed by a year-long Spending Diet and managed to eliminate $23,605.10 in debt- which was ALL of my debt. Throughout the process I actually changed the way I thought about money and spending. I was able to change my habits and build a new history for myself. While I am still tempted to splurge sometimes since I'm still a natural spender it's NOTHING like it was before. Doing the Spending Fast and Spending Diet changed my life, in the expected ways and in a lot of non-expected ways too. I highly recommend it.
If anyone is interested here is a link to a Get Out of Debt pledge going on at my site: http://andthenshesaved.squarespace.com/get-out-of…
We're skeptical: http://nicoleandmaggie.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/w…
I have seen something really similar work with people who are "On the Compact" (where you can buy, but you can't buy anything new except toiletries, food, and underwear) … but the people who are doing that tend to be doing it for environmental reasons, and the saving tons of money is just a happy side effect. Maybe saving the environment feels less like deprivation than not spending does, so it leads to less binging.