What I Learned During My ‘No-Spend’ Month

January is winding down, and with it, our No-Spend month is ending. Here’s how I fared.

Personally, I hit my primary goals: I didn’t buy new clothes or books. The latter was harder to resist than the former — there are a lot of good books out, and I’m still catching up on end-of-year “best” lists. Instead of buying them, I added them to a list, which was satisfactory in its own way.

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But tracking my spending did confirm what I already knew: I’m spending way too much on food, and I should stay away from Amazon after a drink or two. I made some positive changes in that I invited friends over more often (instead of going out) and sought out more inexpensive activities (movie screeners, free gaming apps, pay-what-you-want museum passes) than I normally do.

If you participated in the challenge, it’s now time to think about the future.
Do you want to continue cutting back spending or modify your month in some way, or did you realise this wasn’t a useful experiment? What goals do you still want to hit?

I’m going to try changing up the categories I can’t spend on this month and see how it goes.

I wasn’t 100 per cent successful, but overall I am more aware and mindful of where my money went this month. Hopefully you experienced something similar.