Lessons From a No-spend Month

Enjoying more free activities, such as hiking or visiting the park, are a great way to keep spending down. Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock

As January drew to an end, Mike and I realized that the month had subtly allowed our spending to creep to a surprising amount. Our grocery bills, eating out budget, and medical expenditure categories all were among the highest in a while.

Since we’ve been married, we’ve been mindful to adapt to a frugal lifestyle and have worked hard to keep leisure spending to a minimum, while still allowing ourselves to enjoy some of life’s pleasures, of course.

Strategies such as applying the 48-hour rule with non-essential purchases and sticking to a meal plan were helpful ways we’ve learned to keep our expenses lower.

But with the rising grocery prices, demands of our growing children, and the ease of online buying, sometimes it becomes too easy to make those purchases that push our spending limits.

We realized that we needed a reset. In order to meet our financial goals, we couldn’t keep up with this pace.

Our plan for the following month was this: To challenge ourselves to see how we would make due with less, simplify our spending, be more creative with what we already have, and set an example for our children that many times the answer isn’t to buy more.

Despite this being pretty challenging in several different ways, we’ve learned various lessons that have allowed us to analyze our spending habits and determine what areas of life matter most to us. If you’re curious to hear more about how we did this, check out our No-Spend Month post (with a free monthly tracker).

5 takeaways from our no-spend month

1. Generosity is foundational

One value that we aim to live out and teach our children is to give generously (with our time, abilities, and money). After grocery shopping one morning, my daughter and I stopped into the craft store to pick up a few items for a missionary family who would be arriving in town soon.

With an armful of stickers, pipe cleaners, and pom poms, my daughter asked me, “But Mommy, if we’re doing a no-spend month, why are we buying more craft supplies when we have things at home?”.

I was both impressed and happy to hear her question. I told her that giving to others is always a top priority, and one way we can keep doing this is by limiting our own non-essential spending to make money for more meaningful causes.

2. It’s okay to be uncomfortable 

We don’t like to be uncomfortable. I’m pretty sure I speak for most of us in many areas of life. But there’s something eye-opening about not having all your need/wants met immediately. It allows you to keep a healthy perspective with how many others around the world live and resist a consumerist mindset.

There were many times this month where we had to fight the desire to spend as a means of satisfying our boredom, hunger, or pleasure…and it was hard!

We both realized that once you allow yourself to live at a certain threshold of pleasure, it’s difficult to take a step back. Feeling the restrictions of not eating out, not buying those nicer items at the grocery store, or planning a free activity rather than one that costs money are actions that take willpower to do– ones that will probably take several months of our efforts to make sustainable.

3. Stick to a grocery list

This month, I tracked every dollar we spent at the grocery store in order to keep on track with our set grocery budget. I never realized how much impulse buying I did until each dollar was tracked!

One way I’ve learned to avoid extra spending in this category is to stick to a grocery list. Plan your meals before heading to the store. Take inventory of what you already have. Then stick to your list. Even if something is a good deal and you’ll likely use it eventually, I’ve found that this is the main culprit of my high grocery bills.

4. Impulse buying is too easy 

I have a love-hate relationship with Amazon. They’ve made it so easy to purchase anything with the click of a button. We always try to apply the 48-hour rule, where we wait 48 hours before purchasing a non-essential item to determine if we actually need it, but even that rule can fall short sometimes.

A lesson I want to keep reminding my kids is that we don’t need to satisfy every impulse, but rather have patience and see if we can make-do or be creative with something we already have.

5. Be realistic, but enjoy the journey

At the start of any new habit, we tend to have this Herculean effort that drives us forward, feeling as if there’s no way we can fail. Motivation is high. Why else is January always the top month for gym memberships?

But when challenges set in during the course of that first month, our motivation changes and the habit we had great intentions of sticking with fails. We’ve found that starting small by making sustainable, realistic change is a much more sustainable approach to starting a new habit.

So instead of having a super low grocery budget, I’ve learned what a reasonable (yet frugal) amount is that can be maintained month to month, where I’m still able to be creative with cooking (which is one of my favorite hobbies), feed my family on a healthy diet, and not be too stressed out about the rising costs of buying groceries each week.

Don’t let unrealistic goals keep you from enjoying the journey. Start small, make sustainable changes.

Moving forward…

Doing this no-spend month was an eye-opening experience, and I recommend doing one for yourself whether it’s to stick with a budget or just examine your spending habits.

Although it came with its challenges and restrictions, that month inspired us to do a “low-spend year” for the remainder of 2022, as we saw great benefits and potential lifestyle changes from it.

Here’s our simple game plan for the year…

• Determine a set amount in each category- Pinpoint the main spending categories, such as grocery, home maintenance, entertainment, travel, etc… Create a realistic (but frugal) budget for each month. Take a look at your bank account to see how much you spent in these categories the past few months to get an idea.
• Use visual trackers– Our grocery and family fun categories tend to be our higher ones, but ones we most value. We have our set amounts each month and as we spend, we’ll track every dollar to make sure we’re sticking to our budget (nothing fancy, just a good old paper and marker chart on the fridge!).
• Replenish as needed- Instead of buying new clothes, shoes, or home decorations just for fun, we’ve decided to use what we have and replenish as needed (ex. If my running shoes get holes in them I can purchase new ones, but if my wardrobe meets all of my needs, I must hold off on any new items that don’t need to be replaced).
• Borrow books instead of buying- We both love to read but most times our local library has what we want. For this year, we’re committing to using the library instead of buying new books for our collection.
• Limit non-essentials and focus on pleasures that are meaningful- We recognize that family adventures/trips and going to restaurants for our occasional date nights are what we most enjoy. In order to be able to continue doing them, we need to limit other non-essentials that aren’t as meaningful, such as home decor, clothing, or new toys for the kids.

If you’ve done your own no-spend or low-spend month and have helpful tips or insights from it, we’d love to hear your thoughts! We always appreciate feedback from our readers.

This article was originally published on This Evergreen Home.