No Spend Challenge of 2021

This year, I’m taking on the challenge of buying nothing new—for a whole year. My goal is to lower items brought into the house, cut down on waste, and save money. As intimidating as it is, I am so excited to do this. I’ve written out a breakdown of my goal as well as what exceptions will be allowed. I’ll be giving updates throughout the year, so come join me on this journey!

What’s Allowed:

Food/Necessities
Medication
Business supplies
Gift purchases
Digital items
Plants and garden supplies
Craft supplies needed to finish the crafts I’ve already started
Kids’ clothes/learning and craft supplies
Pet grooming/needs
Planned house repair
Digital streaming (Audible/Netflix/etc)
Replacement of things that have been used up or broken
Used items if it’s an absolute must and doesn’t fit any of these categories

Absolute NOs:

New internet courses
Physical books
Spur of the moment purchases
Wants

On top of this, I want to cut down drastically on our food bill and food waste. My goal is to grow and consume 40% of what we eat. Since this is my first year doing this, I’m going to go easy and consider each ingredient an item to plug into a spreadsheet. It’s not completely accurate since I’m not figuring out weight and amount of each ingredient used, but I thought this would be a good starting point. Will this be possible to do living in a townhome with limited space? I’m going to find out!