The past two months my credit cards have been racking up points like crazy but not for a great reason - I've been shopping way too much. Even though we pay our cards off monthly, our budget and savings goals are off track. I planned a no spend September but...you know how that goes so now it's a no spend October.
Since this is my first time doing a no spend month, I started to think about WHY I've been spending when usually I'm pretty good at not shopping so much. For one, we moved to a bigger space (1bd/850ft2 to a 2bd/1,050ft2). Even though we kept and used pretty much all of our old furniture and sold some in the process, I wanted to create a happy, cozy and personal space for us to spend time in so I've mainly been accessorizing with some furniture swaps and additions. Second, if I want to be completely honest I think shopping has been a coping mechanism and distraction from everything going on in the world.
While I'm giving myself a tiny bit of grace, I will say I can and should do this for a month if not more. Sometimes I need accountability to myself too. I need to consumes less, save more money and while searching for things is fun it's also addicting and a huge time suck.
Ok so now that we have the what and why down, here is the how:
1) No home goods. I'm not gonna lie, this will be hard but I'm going to avoid stores, stop watching home decor videos or looking at fees of home decor if it gets too tempting (I literally just stopped and looked, this is going to be hard). I'll use what I have and move things around to keep me occupied. I will spend more time creating and less time consuming.
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: HARD
2) No toys for Quinn. It was her birthday in August and she got way too much (IMO) from family but I went with it cause let's be honest, this year has been tough.
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: EASY
3) No clothes or shoes. Not really going anywhere anyways :)
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: EASY
4) No excess food. Let me explain this one. When I shop at certain stores (Hello TJ's) I tend to load up and overspend on frozen foods and snacks that probably aren't the healthiest options. Instead of them being our treat food they end up being our go to meals. I've only gone twice since March but I can feel the effects of my shopping haul last month so enough of that. One tip someone gave me was to bring a set amount of cash and my list so I only buy what's on it. I might try that or just develop some good old willpower.
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: MEDIUM
So there are the parameters for my no spend month. I will share my progress with updates on IG and here on the blog following the challenge. Have you done a no spend challenge before? What was your experience like? I'd love to hear about it!
Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash
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