NAVIGATION
What Is The ChallengeHow LongRulesTipsWhat I Learned
In a world where everything costs far more than it should, doing the no spend challenge may sound difficult at first. However, trying the no spend challenge for myself was easier than I expected and helped me reframe the way I think about money habits.
Hi, I’m Ryan
Spending virtually nothing for an entire year truly changed my relationship with money and helped me to rework my spending habits even after my no-spend year ended.
What Is The No Spend Challenge?
In a nutshell, the no spend challenge encourages you to spend almost nothing for an entire week, month, or year, on anything but life necessities. This challenge is different from the low buy year, which encourages you to spend less, but not nothing.
To be honest with you, the no spend challenge sounded incredibly tough at first. Even though I live in a tiny house and follow a mostly minimalist lifestyle, the thought of buying absolutely nothing for a stretch of time was a lot to consider.
However, the challenge ended up going a lot more smoothly than I initially expected. I chalk a great deal of this up to my mindset during my no spend year.
The no spend challenge isn’t meant to stop people from spending money because it’s somehow bad or wrong to buy what you want — there’s nothing wrong with shopping itself. It’s all about the thought process behind the spending.
Buying becomes a problem when we spend money we don’t have on items we don’t need. Sometimes, we expect our purchases to bring us happiness, friends, freedom, or other rewards they can’t possibly deliver. The no spending challenge helped me overcome this.
Why I Decided To Try The No Spend Challenge
My reasons for doing a no spend challenge had a lot to do with my own personal life goals. Spending money on extraneous items was holding me back from accomplishing my biggest goals and creating a barrier between myself and the life I wanted.
Once I realized my “why,” keeping myself focused on my no spend challenge became much easier. No way am I going to pass up my big dreams for a temporary convenience or splurge. Spending money now in lieu of a bigger, better future just isn’t worth it.
What Is Allowed During A No Spend Challenge?
Know that the no spend challenge doesn’t require you to spend absolutely zero dollars, that would be next to impossible. There are things you need to live that would be a little more than crazy to sacrifice, just for the sake of living like a minimalist.
The goal of the no spend challenge is to help you reframe your relationship with the way you spend money by testing if you truly need the things you buy.
Here’s what is and isn’t allowed when doing the challenge
What You CAN Buy
- Food
- Medication
- Daily necessities (toilet paper, toothpaste, shampoo, etc.)
- Gas / transportation (walk where you can!)
- Bills (phone, rent, car insurance)
What You CAN’T Buy
- Fast food / coffee shops / going out to eat
- Entertainment devices / physical books
- New clothes or impulse purchases
- Hair or nail services
- Amazon orders / streaming services
How Long Should A No Spending Challenge Last?
The length of the no spend challenge is ultimately up to you. Some people do this challenge for up to a year, like me, while others get just as much value out of trying it out for only one week or a weekend!
Trying A No Spend Year
When I did the no spending challenge on my own, I started out with six months then decided to keep it rolling for the full year. As the months progressed and I got more of a handle on what the no spending lifestyle felt like, I knew I could stick it out.
I personally really liked doing this challenge for an entire year because it gave me a chance to face a good challenge, learning a lot about myself and my habits over the course of that year.
What A No Spend Month Looks Like
Doing a no buy month instead of a no spend year is an awesome middle ground when it comes to taking on this challenge. A month is an ideal amount of time to dive fully into the lifestyle for a solid amount of time, without the daunting timeline of a full year. The no spend month challenge is probably the most popular choice for beginners.
Trying A No Spend Week
If you’re looking for a quick taste of the no spend challenge without too much commitment, trying a no spend week or no spend weekend might be the move for you. Doing a no spend week every so often is also an easy habit to get into, because you can dive all in every so often without giving up a ton of time to the challenge.
How To Do A No Spend Challenge: Rules I Followed
I’m not a huge fan of strict lifestyle rules, to be honest. Still, when it came to the no spending challenge, I wanted to set up guidelines and parameters. I knew I had to clearly define the rules so I couldn’t exploit any loopholes.
Food Isn’t Part Of The No Spend Challenge
Everyone needs to eat, and refraining from spending money on food would be near impossible. Even if you were to grow your own food, you’d have to spend money on supplies. As part of the no spend challenge, I cut out all fast food and only allowed myself to eat out at sit-down restaurants on extra special occasions. The no spend challenge encouraged me to cook a lot more.
You Can Buy Daily Necessities
Consumable products are another necessity you’re totally allowed to spend on (like toilet paper and toothpaste). To make sure I didn’t find a way to exploit this no spend rule, I created an “inventory” before I started. I only allowed myself to keep those items and not add to the inventory list.
You Can Spend On Medicine
Prescription medications or other doctor-recommended spends are obviously allowed. You can also get over-the-counter medicine like pain or allergy relief, or herbal remedies if that’s your thing. As a rule, this situation hasn’t yet come up, because I’ve been lucky enough to stay healthy.
Still, health is too important to not add this caveat. Of course, this part of the challenge will be different for everyone depending on their own personal medical needs.
Fix First, Replace Second
All I really have in my house are necessities, which means if something breaks, it’s an item I truly need and can’t just get rid of when it breaks. When doing the no spend challenge, I set a rule for myself to try to fix broken items first, then if I couldn’t, I was allowed to replace it.
Read Digital Books With No Spend Challenge
This was one of the hardest rules for me to follow over the course of my year without spending. I love reading and do a lot of it, and one of my main perpetual goals is to read at least two books a month.
When doing the no spend challenge, I downloaded audiobooks to my phone. If I wanted a physical book, I used the library.
Helpful Tips When Trying The No Spend Challenge
Even as a pretty avid minimalist, I found the no spending challenge to be, well, exactly that: a challenge. While the daily ins and out of minimalist living encourages you to live with less, buy less, and get rid of what’s not really necessary, not buying anything at all is a totally different ballgame.
Keeping these tips in mind helped me stay on track during my no spend year. I also think that these five tips can still apply to your life even after your no spending challenge is up.
Remember The Why Behind No Spend Days
As I mentioned before, keeping in mind your reason for trying the no spend challenge as you endure the process will be vital to keep your morale up and refrain from giving up.
Again, the no spend challenge isn’t about getting people to stop buying for a year because buying is bad. It’s about implementing plans and purchases to ultimately make your life better. If an item doesn’t make your life better or move you toward your larger purpose, then it’s probably not worth the money.
Ask Yourself
- Why do I want to take on a no spend challenge?
- What are my larger goals?
- How will this challenge move me toward the goals I want to achieve?
Ask Yourself What You Can Afford
Perhaps the most obvious and easiest aspect of spending less is one we often overlook. When making a purchase during the no spending challenge (or in your life after you finish the challenge), ask yourself: Do I actually have the money for this?
The world of credit has skewed our view on what we can and can’t afford. At the end of the day, if you don’t have the money right now, don’t buy. It’s that simple.
If you’re facing a need you can’t afford, look at the other areas where you spend beyond your means. Are you renting a space that costs more than you can afford? It may be time to move or downsize. If your grocery bill seems exorbitant, try out different money-saving methods like shopping only for items on sale or using coupons, and always build your list around what you already have.
Use A No Spend Tracker
Using a no spend expense tracker can be a very helpful tip to keep an honest account of your progress. With any kind of new challenge, whether it be a diet, fitness plan, or no spending challenge like this one, it’s easy to fall into the trap of lying to ourselves about how we’re doing.
The positivity bias is the tendency to remember and report more positive views of reality, especially when it applies to ourselves. With the no spend challenge, the positivity bias could manifest as telling yourself you’ve spent a lot less than you actually have.
A great way to combat positivity bias is to use hard data to refute any skewed perception about our progress. A no spending expense tracker keeps up with exactly how much you’ve spent and can be your new best friend.
Delay Your Gratification
Intentionally delaying my gratification with a list of items to buy later was one of the best things I did when I tried the no spending challenge, and it’s still a practice that helps me manage my finances today. Basically, every time you feel the need to make a purchase, instead of rushing to the store, just write it down.
Keep your list with you and reference it the next time you make a trip to the store. The majority of the time, the urge to buy will pass before you even go back. This approach works with online shopping too. Whenever you want an item, add it to your cart and leave it there. Then the next time you shop, if you still want the item, it’s there and ready.
Spend Less While Still Satisfying Your Needs
Sometimes when we buy a physical item, what we’re often buying is an answer to a feeling, something to fill a void we’re experiencing, or a solution to a problem. Only some of these purchases are necessities.We buy food because we need to eat. Medication curbs symptoms or illnesses that impair our ability to function normally. We pay rent to keep a roof above our heads and protect ourselves from harm.
However, many of our other purchases — clothes, decorations, exercise equipment, appliances — we buy because we’re purchasing an ideal or concept that isn’t actually a necessity. When you decide to buy something new, ask yourself: What am I trying to satisfy by spending? Oftentimes we purchase before exploring alternatives like neighborhood exchange pages or thrift stores.
What I Learned After Not Spending For One Year
Overall, I think one of my biggest takeaways from doing the no spend challenge for a year was all of the room I still have to grow in my own minimalist journey. It surprised me how susceptible I still am to the hype of consumerism, even after being a minimalist for more than 10 years.
As I went through the no spend challenge keeping an active list of all the things I decided not to buy right then, it was interesting to look back at the end of the challenge and realize how much I would have purchased on impulse, even within the parameters of my minimalist lifestyle.
At the end of the no spend challenge, I was genuinely glad I didn’t buy the things on my list. My only splurge after waiting for the challenge to be over was a nice pocketknife for all my homesteading and off-grid adventures.
Your Turn!
- What stories have you told yourself when you bought something you didn’t need?
- What things will you refrain from buying while doing this challenge?
Tags: Minimalist, Money And Budgeting
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