This post addresses some important questions to ask after a no spend month, but that doesn’t mean it’s over! It’s not over til it’s over (though you may wish it was).
If you’ve made it this far, congrats! If you haven’t, that’s totally okay. Don’t look at it as a failure, but as a learning experience! Either way, let’s really start to think about the past 30 days.
Questions to ask after a no spend month
Can you live on less?
Did you find you really can survive, and survive quite well, on less money? Sure, some things may have pushed the envelope a little (in my case, food), but what did you cut back on that you didn’t miss at all?
Do you WANT to live on less?
It’s all about choices. You choose how you spend your money. You have to eat and have a roof over your head, but you can choose how and where to shop, as well as how much to spend on housing and transportation. What choices have you made about how much to spend in certain areas?
What did you discover about wants vs. needs?
Do you have more or less needs than you thought? If you went all in, you can probably answer this question fairly easily. Actual needs become very apparent when you’re trying not to spend any money at all.
What was easiest to cut back on? What was hardest to cut back on?
It takes around 21 days to form a new habit (though some say it takes up to 60 days). Either way, this means you’re at least halfway to developing some really frugal habits.
Analyze what worked for you and what didn’t. Continue doing more of what worked. Evaluate what didn’t work and why. Really hone in on the frugal habits you found enjoyable and figure out how to hack the ones you didn’t.
Check out Mystery Money Man’s last no spend update to see how he plans to continue his new frugal habits!
What did you learn about yourself?
Do you use shopping as entertainment? If you missed shopping, ask what you would have purchased and why. Does it meet an unfulfilled need? Is it a distraction?
Do you like to make homemade meals? Or would you rather have quick meals on hand to heat up?
Do you like to go out to eat for entertainment, or do you do it in a pinch when you don’t have a meal ready?
Do you enjoy staying home more, reading books or playing games? Do you tend to go out more when you’re stressed?
Did you spend more or less time with your loved ones?
It’s interesting to evaluate money spent in relation to time spent with friends/family to see how your spending and social habits are connected.
If you quit
Going all in is HARD!
If you stopped before completing the month, don’t be hard on yourself! You still learned something! Why didn’t it work for you? What was the moment when you threw up your hands and said, “uncle”?
Would you be willing to try again? Learn from what worked and what didn’t. Could you do it on a different level by just cutting out one thing for a month?
Just because this month didn’t work out, doesn’t mean you can’t try again. Maybe you need to start with a weekend, or just 4 or 5 days.
Moving forward
Once you’re through the month, I encourage you to sit down and write about your experience (I’d love to read it, or even publish it, if you wish to share!).
Answer these questions and process what you learned from this experience, even if you didn’t finish the month. You will have some great insight into your strengths and weaknesses, particularly when it comes to spending.
Moving forward with this new information can help move you toward your financial goals. Whether you are paying down debt, breaking the paycheck to paycheck cycle, want to save more, or have a goal of financial independence, what this month taught you is invaluable. Don’t leave those lessons behind.
Awesome thoughts. We certainly had some no-spend fatigue this week, which got aggravated by everyone in the house being sick. After5-6 days of watching my kid picking listlessly at her food, I broke down and bought her some pop tarts…and a McDouble. Oh, and incurred a $2.60 library fine by forgetting to turn in or renew my books. I don’t feel like we did awful, but I definitely noticed that as I was spending more time at work it got harder to stay on track with our no-spend goals and most of my others.
Thanks, Emily! Being home sick for several days straight can wear on you, that’s for sure. It sounds to me like your spending was still pretty minimal! I worked full-time for a while a few years ago and noticed our spending went up with my hours too.
I think the hardest part of this for me, and likely many, is do you want to live on less? The great thing about a no spend month is that nothing is permanent and it is a great test drive to see what live can be without things such as cable, shopping, internet and so much more. I recently just got internet back after 2 months, by force not will, and honestly, those two months were not as hard as many would think. However, it showed me that this is something I truly do want. During this time it also made me realize that there are a LOT of free things to do on the weekends to kill some time so this has changed my lifestyle for the better.
You’re right – the no spend month isn’t permanent, but a great opportunity to learn what you can live without. No internet for 2 months!? That would be an interesting experiment! 3 years ago, we went without internet for about 9 months. The kids were younger and I wasn’t blogging, so it wasn’t terribly difficult. It would be much more difficult now, but I like the idea of experimenting with no-internet days. Great to have you back, Stefan! 🙂
I’ve never officially done a no-spend month, but we were definitely spending less leading up to a large goal. And after reaching it, we did feel a little bit lot. We had some irregular expenses to “catch up” on and it felt like we were suddenly over-spending, when really it was all things we needed to do like home maintenance. All that to say, great questions–I think these will help people adjust after a no-spend.
You make an important point about “catch-up” and, ultimately, feeling like you are spending too much after a period of low spending. This is something I’ve been trying to think about – I don’t want to hit the grocery stores on Feb. 1 and spend $200 – awareness will help, I think. Home maintenance that needs to be done – that adds up. Anytime we have those expenses, I start to feel a little out of control.
I’ve never really done a no-spend month, but this week, I didn’t spend anything at all! I’m actually aiming for a really frugal year where I try to be as lean as possible.
Great job on a no spend week!!! 🙂 I have a goal to increase the savings this year, so we’ll be kicking in the frugality all year too.
Those first two questions hit the point hard – Can you live on less and Do you want to live on less. Most people defiitely can live on less, especially when you consider how much less many other people around us live on out of necessity. The Do you want to live on less is also a great question to ask. Yes, there are a few things we have to pay for, but even those things can be controlled to some extent. We don’t all have to spend the money on the things we spend it on. We choose to spend it.
Great point, FP! For most people, it’s a choice. And I think that’s a really important distinction to make.
February’s going to be our no-spend month. We do have to spend some extra money going to the third trimester baby appointments, but, our budget was blown in January as we needed to restock our food shelves and also had some other one-time expenses associated with our house.
Great questions for my wife & I to ask ourselves in a few days.
That’s great, Josh! February is actually a great month to do it since it’s a little shorter. Hope some of the posts will be helpful as you go through your month. And I’d love to hear how it goes for you.
I think the “Do you WANT” question is so important. That will largely make or break you. We did well. Grocery costs were average, but only b/c we went whole foods/juicing starting mid month. Entertainment costs topped out at $12.72. 🙂 We didn’t really spend anything we didn’t have to except I bought a flannel shirt for our son because it was on sale for five bucks!!! Couldn’t pass that up. Planning on continuing the trend for February. 🙂
Agreed, Laurie. That is “the” question! I’m glad you did well! Entertainment for $12.72 – can’t beat that! We did end up buying jeans for my son and shoes for my husband…which could have waited 3 more days until February, but it would have been delaying the inevitable. I plan to continue with low-spend goals into February too. Like you, we will be striving for healthier eating, so that will go up, but hoping to keep all other costs at the bare minimum. 🙂
Can I live on less? yes. Do I want to? at times.
No doubt I could still cut out a lot of the crap from my budget, but honestly we already run a pretty tight ship. Where I think I could see significant improvement is if I did a “No Waste Month”. The amount of food we throw out is probably pretty terrible. We leave lights on, cars running, don’t use things up, etc.
Now that I’m thinking about it … that’s not a bad idea. I think I’ll do my own ‘No Waste Month’ challenge. What do you think?
Same here…we have a pretty lean budget, but I still ended up saving, mostly by skipping going out to eat, home improvement shopping, and eating out of the pantry and fridge.
I love the idea of a “no waste” month, Ty! I would take that challenge!!! I noticed we used things up more over the course of the no-spend month – something I definitely want to carry forward.
I love the idea of a ‘no waste’ month too. I’m sure it would lead to savings as well. I read recently an area in the UK has been massively trying to cut food waste by weighing every bit of food thrown out. So that’s stuff that’s gone off, the crusts off sandwiches, even vegetable peelings!
“Actual needs become very apparent when you’re trying not to spend any money at all.” That’s one of the best advantages of going short-term uber-frugal. It really helps to define your priorities. There can be a lot of confusion about what is important if you don’t deny yourself anything – which is the norm. I didn’t take part in this challenge – but maybe I’ll give it a go in the spring : )
I couldn’t agree more, Ruth! That’s what it’s all about. Would love to hear about it, if you decide to give it a try! 🙂
I am going to save this post. I think you will really learn a lot when doing a no spend month challenge. Finding out what you like to do, what your preferences are and pushing your limits to see how high you can soar! Wants vs Needs. I am sure you learnt a great deal about yourself and your family while doing this challenge Amanda, so thanks a lot for sharing it with us! 🙂
Thanks, T! I did learn a lot – mostly about our biggest leaks and that we can save even more. I will share my answers to these questions soon. 🙂
Love this! We just challenged our readers/participated in our first “no spend work week” — I loved it! My next attempt will be a no spend month. I really feel like if you are prepared, its not that bad! Kind of fun to realize what things/expenses you just don’t need (or even want!)
What a great summary of your month, Amanda. Taking the time to assess your learnings is probably as important as the no-spend itself. Thanks again for the inspiration, and for including me in your updates! : ) I enjoyed following your progress!
Thanks, MMM! I’m so glad you joined in. And I love that you are carrying your new habits forward! 🙂