No Spend Challenge Parting Thoughts
Our 1-year No Spend Challenge is officially over. We made it 365 days without spending – well, without spending for extras. We still bought food at the grocery store, paid for educational expenses, and paid our bills. Those were the items on the necessity list. We did have two times when the rules were temporarily suspended because of special circumstances. First, my family came to visit in May for a week, and second, we took a trip to visit my husband’s family to celebrate his parent’s 50th wedding anniversary. Still, we stayed fairly frugal even during our visits.
Here are some of the things I did during our No Spend year:
- Cut my own hair
- Bought no new clothes
- Ate meals at home
- Brought my own drink or skipped lunch when meeting friends
- Checked out movies from the library
- Used hotel points for getaways
- Planned fun experiences and white elephant gifts for birthdays
- Creatively made or re-gifted presents for Christmas
All-in-all it’s been a great year. I have learned lessons about what we need and what we want. I have learned about my own spending habits and the times I want to do emotional spending. I have learned to shun consumerism and I’m now obsessed with simplifying my life with less stuff. Frankly, it just doesn’t have much appeal anymore.
I like to have tools that help me function and I like to have beautiful things in my house. However, I have come to realize that I don’t want to take care of all the stuff and I don’t want to spend my life working for it. I want the freedom to live beyond my “treasures” and engage in life.
My dream for the future now includes a tiny house and smallish cabin on a peaceful piece of property. I want to spend my days enjoying people and resting and eating healthy and making good choices because I’m not pressured by the stress of trying to keep up with all my stuff.
Stuff takes a lot of money and time and energy to accumulate and maintain. I want to use my money and time and energy in other ways. The stuff just seems so superfluous now.
I am so glad I did the No Spend Challenge. It was an interesting and challenging journey, but I have learned so much and gained so many insights. Plus, I believe it was an exercise in equipping me for whatever is coming next. I want to be ready!