In 2015, I completed my first successful no spend month savings challenge. Unfortunately, I had a lot of difficulties at the beginning because I failed to make specific rules for myself ahead of time. It led to a lot of confusion, guilt, and spending way more mental energy than I had.
If you’re about to start a no spend month, whether it’s a No Spend November, No Buy July, or any other time of year, it pays to come up with your rules ahead of time.
(It also pays to get off on the right foot, which is why I’ve already written about 15 tips to crushing your no spend month.)
Of course, these suggested rules are just that- a suggestion! Use the following as more of a brainstorm than anything else. A no spend challenge is not a school test, and no one will be checking whether you follow the rules exactly.
So without further ado, here are ten rules for a no spend month, based both on the rules I’ve used in the past and those used by others in online communities like the subreddit, r/nobuy.
Rules of a No Spend Month
1. Pick a goal
The most important rule of a no spend month is to have a goal, and make sure all the other rules you follow support that goal.
Do you want to save a certain amount of money, perhaps for an emergency fund, pay towards a debt, or use for a particular expense? Do you want healthier spending habits?
Whatever your reason, make sure your rules don’t get in the way of your goal. For example, if your main goal is to save money, perhaps buying a single video game ends up being a good purchase if it keeps you offline and away from tempting stores for the rest of the month. But know yourself and your own personal ‘kryptonite.’
2. Pay your bills.
Any bill you need to pay, and has a predictable due date, is outside the ‘no spend’ challenge. Some of these items might include…
- Rent/mortgage
- Car payments
- Insurance premiums
- Utilities
- Health care/medication
- Phone plan
- Credit card bills
Don’t worry about pre-paying these bills either. Simply pay your bills when they come due during your no spend month. Of course, you could also set many of these expenses to autopay if you want to avoid any temptations that come with pulling out your card or checkbook.
3. Pay for groceries.
Clearly, food is an essential expense if you’d like to survive your no spend month. But there’s a big difference between eating lobster and t-bone steaks in a restaurant and eating rice and beans at home.
Generally, people doing a no spend month consider all groceries to be essential (and therefore fair game during your challenge).
Some people increase the difficulty level by doing things like…
- eating food from your freezers and pantries first, before buying more groceries
- avoiding unnecessary purchases like junk food or soda
- only purchasing items on your grocery list.
4. No takeout or delivered food.
Restaurants, eating out, and even gas station snacks are usually considered a no-go. The same goes for getting Doordash or UberEats.
However, many people doing a no spend challenge allow the use of restaurant gift cards you already have. You couldn’t somehow save that money for another purpose, after all. But if you want to stick to the spirit of the challenge, don’t buy gift cards ahead of time just so you can use them during your no spend month!
5. If it can wait, WAIT.
Don’t blow your challenge just because you’ve been wanting some new jeans and your favorite store is finally having a sale. Even if that particular sale won’t likely be going on next month, they’ll still be selling jeans next month.
In general, avoid buying anything that you can just put off until next month.
6. Get gifts ahead of time.
You already know whose birthday is coming up next month, just like you already know if you’re going to a baby shower or retirement party. Because gifts don’t usually fall under the category of ‘emergency,’ many people doing no spend challenges suggest you plan for these expenses ahead of time. That way, you won’t be tempted to shop for other things when opening the Amazon app or going to the store “just for one gift.”
7. “Use it up” first
Some people get tripped up by spending categories like ‘hygiene supplies’ or ‘clothing.’ This is because while they’re technically essential, it can be really easy to overspend on them.
To help you avoid a spending splurge, it might help restricting yourself to using the items you already have before you’re allowed to restock. For example, you should take showers and get clean, but you don’t need to buy a fifth container of body wash just because you like the new smell.
8. Adjust your ‘difficulty level’ as needed.
If you include more or fewer things as ‘essential’ expenses, you can make your no-spend month more or less of a challenge.
For example, you can decide that your streaming subscriptions is essential, or you could pause that payment and go without Netflix for the month.
Or, you could choose only one or two problem spending categories to avoid, like cosmetics, hobby/craft supplies, books, vices, etc. Then, if you feel successful and want to continue the challenge, do a no spend month with three or four ‘forbidden’ categories another time. Some people might call this a “low buy” challenge instead of a “no buy” challenge.
9. Pause for emergencies.
If an emergency pops up during your no spend month, take care of it! Don’t avoid a necessary ER visit or fixing a popped tire for the sake of your challenge.
Hopefully, the money you saved during the first few days or weeks of your no spend month can help you pay for this emergency. There’s always another month to try again.
10. One broken rule isn’t the end.
All is not lost if you cave one day and get Starbucks. Pick yourself up and try again! Remember your overall goal for the month, and acknowledge that a single mis-step is not going to ruin your 30 day challenge by itself.
The worst thing you can do is give up after your first ‘mess up.’ Habits take a long time to build up, and it’s important to be gentle with yourself while you’re changing and growing.
There you go! 10 rules to kickstart your planning before a no spend month. If you’d like more content like this straight to your inbox, be sure to subscribe to my weekly newsletter below.