How To Do A No Spend Month Successfully

Are you wondering how to do a no spend month successfully? Perhaps you’re not even sure what a no spend month even is?

I’ll go through the steps you can take to complete your no spend month and I’ve included towards the end of this post, a FREE printable calendar plus some extra worksheets to help you get prepared.

What Is A No Spend Month

You might be wondering what is a no spend month anyway? As the name suggests, it’s only spending money on essentials for a month or 30 days.

There are a few reasons that people decide to complete a no spend challenge:

• To save money
• Get out of debt
• For a simpler life
• To avoid a shopping addiction
• Live more minimally
• For a more sustainable life
• As a personal challenge

I did a no spend challenge for the entire year in 2021, to get out of debt. It does seem that doing a no spend challenge for an entire year would not necessarily suit everyone.

This is why I’ve put together some super easy tips to help you complete your no spend challenge and hopefully change your mindset around money.

How To Do A No Spend Month Successfully

Now let’s get to some tips on how to do a no spend month successfully. A no spend month might seem very intimidating but once you’ve gone through these steps you’ll have a better idea of how you can complete your no spend challenge and improve your finances.

What Are Your Goals

First of all I would recommend thinking about your ‘why’. What are your goals? What are you hoping to get out of completing a no spend challenge month?

For some people a no spend challenge might be necessary because they have a bit of debt so they are trying to live as frugally as possible.

Your goal might be to set yourself a personal challenge just to see if you can complete it. When I first decided to do this challenge at the end of 2020, my main reasons were to get out of debt and as a personal challenge just to see if I could do it.

Assess Your Budget

Once you have your goals and you have a clear idea of what you are hoping to gain from completing a no spend challenge.. then you should assess your monthly budget and expenses.

I like to put this information into an Excel Spreadsheet so I can see clearly the money I have coming in and all of my bills for the month.

This is a great way to see your finances clearly. Sometimes we don’t really think about how much we’re spending on various areas of our life but when you see the numbers in front of you.. you can see where most of your money is going and cut spending in these areas to save money.

Set Yourself Some Rules

My next recommentation would be to set yourself some rules to follow. You don’t have to do this necessarily but you might find it helpful to write down your essentials and exceptions for the month.

What Are Your Essentials

Your essentials are things like rent and utilities. Basically things that you will need to pay for that month.

Essentials could include:

• Rent or mortgage
• Water bill
• Council tax
• Energy bill
• Food
• Car maintenance and fuel
• Medication (if applicable)
• Vitamins or supplements (if applicable)

Do You Have Exceptions

Next do you have anything that would need to be an exception to your rules. For example I had clothing for my children down as my exceptions because it doesn’t really count as an essential item but if they grow out of shoes or clothes then I knew I would have to replace them.

If you have a hobby where you might need supplies then this could be something that you would put on your exceptions list.

Or if you have any equipment break then you could put that down on your exceptions list. Eg if you need a laptop for work then you would put that down as an item you would have to fix or replace if anything happens to it.

Do Not Buy

It’s also helpful to have a clear idea of what you won’t be buying, you could make a list if that’s helpful for you.

Some examples:

• Clothing
• Makeup
• Home decor items
• Jewellery or accessories

These are just some ideas but definitely have a think of what is more fitting for your no spend month.

For me I knew that I had enough clothing that I wouldn’t need to buy anything over the year. I did buy some thread so that I was able to fix anything if it got holes in it.

Tailor your list so that it makes sense to you.

Plan In Advance

It really helps to get prepared for your no spend month in a few different ways.

If you’re trying to avoid buying food when you’re out and about then you’ll need to make sure that you have a packed lunch, snacks and water bottle ready to take from home.

It would also help to do a bit of meal prepping as well. It’s much easier to shop when you know the exact ingredients that you’ll need for the meals you’ll be making.

I know some people like to take one day a week where they batch cook a few meals that they can freeze or put in the fridge to eat throughout the week. This is particularly useful if you know you’re going to be busy with family and work.

It’s a great way of ensuring you have nutrional meals that you only have to reheat when you need them.

The bonus is that this way of shopping and cooking will save you money. When you have a shopping list and you meal prep, you’re less likely to spend a lot of money on groceries and you’re less likely to spend money on fast food or takeaway when you know you can reheat something from home.

When I cook I make a bit extra everytime which I either freeze or save it to have for the lunch the following day.

Get Some Accountability

When you’re trying to think of how to complete a no spend month successfully, you might decide that you need a community to hold you accountable during the month.

You could let your friends and family know that you are doing this no spend challenge. This would be helpful so that they can support you in your decisions during the month.

Maybe you could find the community of people also doing a no spend challenge? On Facebook you can join a page or group with people that are planning to do a no spend challenge the following year.

That’s a really good way of connecting with other people that will be in a similar position to you.

You could also join a No Buy Facebook group for your area, when I did a No Buy year there wasn’t a group for my area in the UK. However, if you can find one this is a great place to get advice and also you can swap things for free.

Unsubscribe And Unfollow

Another tip to avoid temptation during the month is to unsubscribe from marketing emails.

I’ve heard that there’s a website where you can mass unsubscribe from multiple email lists, I’ve not tried this personally though as I just went through individually and unsubscribed from emails as soon as they came into my inbox.

Due to antispam laws in most Countries, it’s usually fairly simple to unsubscribe through the link at the bottom of the email.

It’s one of those tasks that might take you a long time if you have a lot of emails to go through. Right before I did a No Buy year, I went through my trash folder and unsubscribed from there and now I only have to occasionally unsubscribe when a marketing email comes in.

The same applies to social media, if you follow a lot of influencers who promote a lot of spending or brands, you might find it helpful to unfollow these people. So that you are not tempted to spend money and get distracted from your no spend month.

Find Free Activities

The best way to avoid spending money during your no spend challenge is to find some free activities to keep you and your family busy during this time.

I’ve included some free activities in the printable that you can access below.

I’ll give you some ideas below to help you get started:

• Picnic in the park
• Walk along the beach
• Visit a museum
• Go to the library
• Look for free events in your local area

I’m quite lucky that I live in the countryside so I’m not far from some beautiful walks and the beach is not too far from where I live either.

If you’re in a City or a Town you might not necessarily be able to go on as many nature walks but you will likely find more events and exhibitions that you could go to to keep busy.

Sometimes events like these offer a free buffet or tea and biscuits so it’s a good way to socialise and get some free snacks.

Reassess At The End Of The Month

Once you’ve reached the end of the month you can reassess and figure out what worked and what didn’t work.

When I did a no spend challenge, the first month was the hardest but because I had planned to do it for longer, it was much easier to continue. I realised after the first month that a lot of my spending habits were out of habit more than anything else.

Have a look at the goals you set yourself, did you complete them? If not, is it easy to figure out why?

If you had some days that you failed your no spend challenge, please don’t feel guilty. You can just try and see if it’s something you can avoid if you decide to extend your no spend challenge or do it again in the future.

I hope this has helped you know how to do a no spend month successfully. When you set yourself a challenge like this, you feel such a sense of achievement when you’ve completed it.

If you have a much bigger goal for your no spend challenge, you might want to check my post how to do a no buy year successfully, as it’s set up to help you complete a longer no buy challenge.

If you want regular sustainable inspiration that’s sustainable for beginners, sign up to my monthly newsletter below.

You can also follow me on Instagram, where I’m the most active or on my YouTube channel.