Saving money

[Poptart4]

AIBU to think that I can go a whole month without spending any money?

Exceptions include: weekly food shop, rent & Bill's (gas/electric/tv etc).

I'm planning to go all January without spending any money on unnecessary things. No work lunches, coffees, sweets for the kids etc. DP thinks it cant be done, I'm hoping to prove him wrong.

Yes you can just spend on the bare necessity,s.

I suppose the question is do you need to?

Of course it's possible if you are at home and do a comprehensive weekly shop but the thought of not being able to go for a walk and a takeaway coffee is pretty miserable to me if you don't NEED to. Could you allocate yourself a small treat budget instead- £10 a week?

A month is easy. Doing it long term is depressing.

Of course not. If you've paid for food, home, bills etc then anything else is optional not necessary i.e. you don't have to spend on it.

It might be a challenge if you're e.g. used to buying work lunches everyday, or used to buying the kids sweets regularly (more importantly I suppose is if they're used to it and will whine!!) but it's entirely possible and is lots of people's realities not through choice.

I did it a couple of years ago and it worked really well! Not so great now but we made use of free museums / friends house parties for entertainment.

Lots of walks this year I guess!

Ooh I love this, my first year of trying no spend i managed to save my first thousand pounds. And then once you start saving and hitting those little milestones you end up getting more excited about saving than you do about spending.
BUT make sure you open a savings account because its SO MUCH FUN putting money in there and hitting the next goal.

Possible, but bloody tricky. I'd maybe give yourself one nice thing a week (whatever that means for you, bag of sweets, candle, coffee etc) or your MH suffers in my experience.

Then again I've not got much choice in the matter so maybe that's why my MH goes downhill when I've got no money.

Of course you can, plenty of people prove that because they have to. Fair enough if he had “you can’t do it” but a bit naïve if he thinks it “can’t be done”.

Go on MSE- there are lots of people doing it

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6220177/dazzling-decembers-nsd-challenge

I didn't notice that wording, yeah it's a bit privileged to say "it can't be done"'. It can and is done by a shit-ton of people all the time. Whether you personally can voluntarily do it is a different story.

I very rarely spend on any of those, so sounds perfectly doable. You don't have to spend money to "treat" yourself.

However, if you're used to spending a fair bit on these things, your DH might be right that you'll find it very difficult.

Of course you can! It will require a bit of planning to succeed, but you can absolutely do it. It's something I have done in the past.
Start by thinking of where do you normally spend your money and work around those moments. Coffees? Take one from home in a travel mug. Work lunches? Prepare your salad/sandwich/pasta the evening before and take it with you.

A good book is the ‘no spend year’ Michelle mcgagh, I found it quite insightful and inspiring!