Fancy a new challenge? Try going a set amount of time without doing any spending aside from the essentials…
The No-Spend Challenge
There is a trend of ‘underconsumption core’ where individuals are encouraging others online to buy less, reuse what they have, and be mindful of their consumption.
The no-spend challenge is a part of this, where people are choosing to go for set periods of time without spending any money aside from their essential costs.
Who Would Benefit from the No-Spend Challenge?
The no-spend challenge could be just the trick to help you curb any impulse spending. By proving to yourself that you can go a whole week or month without all those little spends you normally indulge in, you can start to work towards cutting down on impulse spending in the long run. This is particularly handy if you are someone who:
- Struggles to say no to things
- Spends without thinking
- Is struggling to see where all their money is going (find out more about invisible spending with our personal budgeting mini-course!)
- Wants to save more money
Personalising Your Challenge
One of the important points to remember is that this challenge is for you; you can personalise it to fit you and your life. The amount of time you challenge yourself to go without spending is completely up to you, as are the rules you choose to set.
You could choose to spend nothing outside of the essentials, such as household bills, your weekly food shop, transport costs, etc. However, what you class as an essential spend is ultimately up to you. For example, some may also cut down their transport and food costs where possible, such as walking rather than getting the bus if the journey is not too long.
Some of the main ways in which people’s no-spend challenges differ are with time and spending on food:
- Time – you could try going for a week or a month, or maybe even just try out the no-spend challenge for just a few days each month
- Limiting your food spending – you might choose to set yourself a limit for your food shop, if you think that’s a setting where you spend more than you need to. Or maybe you could try to use what’s already in your cupboards so that you only have to buy the odd extra ingredient. The average person in the UK wastes the equivalent of 140 meals a year, so the no-spend challenge is a really good way of managing our consumption.
Some people choose to allow themselves a set amount of cheat passes for if they have prior commitments or if something unexpected crops up. Whatever you go for is up to you – have fun with it!
What Will I Gain from This?
In an age of mass consumerism, taking away our spending can be really tough. Everything can be bought at the touch of a button, the tap of a phone, ready to take home with us immediately or be delivered to our front door, sometimes the very same day. However, this no-spend challenge can really help make you aware of, and identify, the mindless spending decisions you make every single day.
The no-spend challenge is also useful for helping us learn how to differentiate between our needs and wants, and to give us perspective on what we are trying to achieve by buying. Many of us turn to buying to make us feel better, often without realising it. Ever heard the term ‘retail therapy’? Well, many of us are participating in it daily. How exactly are you feeling when you go to buy something? Identifying the feelings that provoke you to spend when you don’t need to is the first step in dealing with them.
This is also not to say that spending is the devil. We deserve to spend money on things that make us happier. However, you are the one that should be controlling your spending, rather than your spending controlling you.