[Ep. 140] Why You Should Try Out a No Spend Challenge

For my first Listener Series episode for Season 6, I’ve got not one, but two podcast listeners on the show to share their experiences and tips for doing a no spend challenge. Michaela and Dan are a couple, engaged and saving up for their wedding, and they got the idea to try out a no spend challenge by seeing someone do something similar on Instagram. Feeling like they never truly knew where the money was going, they embarked on this no-spend challenge that would mean they could only spend money on their essentials, and try to live as frugally as possible.

Their hope was that it would help them reign in their spending and focus their spending on this that really mattered to them in life. They also wanted to stop the endless cycle of consumerism that so many of us or on (and feel like we can’t get off). Well, they successfully did the challenge for a month, and now have continued to practice living below their means, saving the extra income, and just living a life that’s not as focused on spending and buying new stuff.

Talking with them, definitely inspired me to reign in my own personal spending and do my own version of a no spend a month. For all of January, my husband and I have been making all of our meals at home (save for one lunch that cost us $30) and have not bought any alcohol (though I did buy one beer with a friend, I’d made those plans back in December!).

Like Michaela and Dan, we realized that not spending all of our money on going out to eat or buying beer and wine like we regularly do, hasn’t actually affected our happiness at all. Instead, we replaced those two big spending habits with other things, like cooking healthy meals at home, and swapping alcohol for lemon water, tea or coffee.