Feeling stretched financially? You aren’t alone. So many of us struggle with staying on budget. A no buy month is an easy way to kickstart good financial habits, save money, appreciate life’s simple pleasures and become more appreciative of what you have.
Read on to learn about how to successfully complete a no buy month.
What is a No Buy Month?
Firstly, what is a no buy month? It’s exactly what it sounds like – buying nothing for a month. However, it doesn’t mean you’ll completely forgo spending altogether. Life costs money! You still need food to eat, a roof over your head and gas to put in the car. A no buy month means you’ll completely avoid buying any non-essential purchases, including but not limited to:
- Takeout
- Non-essential clothing
- Coffee at tea from the drive-through
- Nail salon treatments
- Sports, movie and concert tickets
A no buy month takes some work to implement, but once you get going, you won’t want to stop. Why? This challenge will help you in many ways, both personally and financially. Let’s get into the top reasons why you should strongly consider doing a no buy month.
Benefits of a No Buy Month
Save Money
The first and most obvious reason behind participating in a no buy month: saving money! If you’re short on cash or need to quickly save for a financial goal, doing a no spend month is a simple way to stockpile some savings.
Let’s say your car breaks and you need to take it to the mechanic. While you recently had a fully-stocked emergency fund set aside for unexpected expenses, you blew all of it on another repair and you haven’t had time to replenish it. A no buy month is a quick way for you to pile up some cash to cover the expense without resorting to a line of credit or putting the expense on your credit card.
Reduce Anxiety and Stress
Shopping malls can be overwhelming. When you less time – or no time at all – in a mall or other retail space, you won’t be exposed to the constant barrage of stuff. While there’s nothing wrong with indulging in a little treat every once in a while, learning how to stop buying things you don’t need – even for a month – is a great way to purge your mind of temptations.
Become More Grateful for What You Have
Aside from saving money, a no purchase month can give you time to focus on what you have. If you’re anything like me, when you spend a lot of time in the malls or focused on buying the newest latest and greatest gadget, you can become restless and unhappy. In our consumeristic culture, it’s so easy to lose focus on what we have – and we have so much! When you spend less time in the mall and aren’t able to spend any money, you’ll be able to focus on what you already have.
Appreciate Life’s Simple Pleasures
In addition to practicing how to be happy with what you have, a no spend month is a chance to appreciate free or low-cost activities and experiences. Here are just some of life’s simple pleasures that we often forget to focus on:
- The smell of fresh flowers on a spring morning
- Tasting freshly-brewed coffee made with fresh coffee beans
- The smell of freshly-cut grass
- Hearing a child’s laughter
- Opening the blinds and feeling the sunlight on your face in the early morning
- Enjoying the smell of the pine and trees in the forest during a hike
Here’s a challenge for you: every time you are tempted to spend money during the no spend month challenge, choose one simple pleasure to focus on. Before you know it, you’ll have rewired your brain to focus on free or low-cost activities. You’ll be less tempted to throw down some cash on that new pair of $100 jeans you don’t need!
Rules of a No Buy Month
So you’ve decided to do the no buy month challenge. Hold on! Before you dive into a whole month of forgoing spending on non-essentials, you’ll need to set yourself up for success by creating some no buy month challenge rules. Here are the essential steps you’ll need to take when implementing a no buy month.
Determine Your Reason for Doing a No Buy Month
You need to have a solid reason for doing a no buy month. What is your reason for going frugal extreme by cutting out all non-essential spending for a while? Aside from saving money, choose one more reason from the following ideas:
- Becoming more grateful for what you have and learning how to live with intention instead of worrying about buying the latest and greatest gadgets
- Saving up for a short-term goal
- Reducing or getting out of debt
Even better: choose more than one reason as to why you’re doing a no buy month. When you have more than one reason, you’ll be a lot more likely to stay motivated to achieve your goals.
Choose a Financial Goal
While a no buy month simply means spending $0 on non-essentials, you should have a goal in mind. What do you want to use the money on that you’ve saved from doing the challenge?
It’s important to choose something to work towards. As humans, we are reward-centric. When we receive a treat, our brain remembers and we are likely to stay on track with good habits.
If you have debt, you should most likely focus on paying that back first. Any type of debt like credit card or loan debt should likely be paid back as soon as possible. Note: I am not a financial advisor – be sure to consult a financial advisor before making any decisions regarding debt repayment.
Don’t have any debt? Choose a short-term financial goal you’ll allocate the money towards you otherwise would have spent on takeout, clothing and electronics. What about a trip to a baseball game or a takeout and games night with the family? The possibilities are endless.
Alternatively, if you want to save for a longer-term financial goal, transfer all the money saved from your no spend challenge to a designated bank account. Regardless of your goal, the benefits of saving money cannot be understated. When you have cash on hand to pay for everyday and emergency expenses, you won’t have to rely on credit and accrue interest.
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Decide on Your No Buy Month Rules
Aside from your reason(s) for doing a no buy month, you need to set some rules and boundaries for yourself, primarily around avoiding temptations that might derail your spending. Here are a few rules you should seriously consider adopting during your no buy month:
Refusing to Go Into a Shopping Mall
Going into a mall is one of the quickest ways you can derail your no spend month and your financial health in general. When you’re surrounded by walls and walls of beautiful clothing, shoes, electronics and other gadgets, it’s easy to quickly swipe your credit card without any thought. On the other hand, if you ban yourself from malls during the no buy month, you’ll automatically eliminate temptations!
Banning Yourself from Online Shopping Websites
In addition to avoiding shopping malls during a no buy month, you should consider banning yourself from online shopping platforms such as Amazon. While you might think there’s no harm in browsing online without intending to purchase something, it won’t do any good. Why? When you see a gadget on sale, you may quickly forget about your no buy month and before you know it, $100 worth of books show up at your door!
At the very least, going on online shopping websites may cause you to feel dissatisfied with your current situation. Remember: one of the key pillars of a no buy month is focusing on being thankful for what you already have. When you expose yourself to online shopping platforms, you’re setting yourself up to go off track.
Choosing to Pay for All Purchases in Cash
Another great way to set yourself up for success: pay for everything in cash. Using plastic to pay for purchases tends to make one forget about how much something actually costs. It’s so easy to swipe that shiny card. On the other hand, when you pay for everyday essentials with cash, you’ll think twice about whether the expense is essential or non-essential.
Choosing a Reward at the End of the Month
While no spend challenge rules are important, treating yourself is equally as important. Choose a small reward to indulge in – even if it’s a latte or new nail polish color from the drugstore. Choosing a reward to indulge in after a successful no spend month will keep you motivated to stay on track!
Write Your Goals Down in a Journal
Why should you write down your goals in a journal? When you put pen to paper, you’ll be lot more likely to remember to stick with good habits. Additionally, writing goals down and sticking them in a visible place such as on your fridge serves as a daily reminder. Every time you go in the kitchen, you’ll be reminded to only spend money on essentials.
Track Your Spending
Another essential tip for succeeding at the no spend month: you should track every single item you spend money on over the month. In the same journal you wrote your goals down in, each time you make a purchase, write down the following information:
- The item you purchased (name, brand)
- How much the item cost
- Whether it fell into essential or non-essential spending
Even if you spent money on something you shouldn’t have, be sure to write it down! Hold yourself accountable. Don’t be hard on yourself if you slip up either – we all make mistakes. The most important thing is that you’re honest with yourself. If you keep track of what you spent money on, you can better remember your temptations so you avoid spending money on them next time.
Find an Accountability Partner
No person is an island. A no buy month isn’t for the faint of heart. If you truly want a shot at succeeding with frugalism, you should find someone to hold you accountable. Do you have a family member or friend who also wants to participate in this challenge? Great! Meet once a week or so for coffee or lunch to review:
- What you spent money on
- How you’re feeling
- Any challenges or temptations you faced when going to the mall, grocery store and more
Drawbacks of a No Buy Month
While the benefits of a no buy month drastically outweigh the drawbacks, there is one major issue that you may encounter when doing a no buy month: unexpected expenses. For example, if you need to cover an unexpected hospital bill or other emergency expense.
Avoid this by stocking an emergency account with 3-6 months’ worth of living expenses first before doing a no buy month.
Variations on the No Buy Month
Successfully completed a no buy month challenge and are motivated to keep being frugal and thrifty? Here are several other challenges you can try to keep building your net worth and save for those big life goals:
No Buy Year
Feeling ambitious? Try a no buy year challenge for an entire 365 days. Extreme frugality by spending only on essentials for a whole year takes some serious commitment. If you aren’t ready for this challenge just yet, try a no buy quarter – go without spending money on non-essentials for an entire 3 months – or even 6 months.
Low Buy Month or Low Buy Year
Instead of completely cutting out non-essential spending for a whole year, why not just cut down on it? Choose to reduce your non-essential spending by a certain dollar figure or percentage. For example, if you currently spend about $500 per month, try reducing it by 80% per year. Therefore, if your original spend was $500, you’ll spend $100 per month during a low buy period ($500 x 20%).
No Buy Month or Year for One Category
If the prospect of cutting out spending on all non-essential purchases is overwhelming, start with one category. Take a look at one area of your spending you can live without. For example, if you absolutely cannot give up your weekly pizza order but aren’t a huge spender on clothing, cut out non-essential clothing spending.
A Final Word on the No Buy Month
Learning how to go a month without spending money is tough, but it’s well worth it. After you’ve participated in a no buy month, you’ll feel happier with what you have and your wallet will feel fuller!
Feeling ambitious? Try doing a 52 week challenge or taking your budgeting to the next level with the 30 30 30 10 challenge. There are so many ways to get creative with budgeting and saving money.
Experiment and have fun with it!
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Janita is a frugal living expert and owner of Frugal Fun Finance. With over five years of personal experience finding and trying out the best ways to make and save more money, she's eager to share her knowledge. Janita's strategies have helped her save thousands of dollars for funding investments and traveling to over 20 countries.
Janita completed training in personal finance at The University of Western Ontario and McGill University, two prestigious Canadian universities. Her expertise has been shared on GoBankingRates, Yahoo Finance, and NASDAQ.com.
