Week 1 of the No Spend Challenge

Achievement unlocked!

I survived my first week of my No Spend Challenge. Nothing was purchased off Amazon. I removed the app off my phone and canceled multiple subscriptions (I did leave some for reasons you will find below) and I removed myself from e-mail newsletters that might tempt me to buy.

So while I won’t be giving a report every week, I wanted to give you an update on how things were going. From here on, I DO plan to have a monthly report which will give a better idea of what the numbers actually look like.

This week has been really insightful and I’ve had to do some thinking on what counts as a need. Mental health is important! You don’t want to be miserable all year. It’s not healthy, sustainable, and we’re already going through a pandemic—don’t be too crazy on yourself. This is one of the main reasons why I consider crafting and gardening expenses to be allowed for myself—within reason. I’m also not going to eat the cheapest food I can find for that same reason.

I also decided that I am not considering investments as a “spend” even though there is risk involved. The investments are a collection of bonds, stocks, ETFs, college/life funds for the kids, and so forth. I don’t want to stop planning for the future just because I’m doing a no spend challenge. I am also happy to report that I am able to put more into my savings and investments because of the money saved! First happy win!

This week my main purchases happened to be food, business supplies, and tickets to an event for my kiddos bday. Instead of buying a gift, we went with a drive through dinosaur adventure.