Last month, in June, I took part in my very first ‘no spend’ month. As you all know, I’m a big fan of a monthly challenge so I was excited to put my saving power to the test and set some boundaries around what I am normally tempted to spend my money on. My husband and I are currently saving up for a few house renovations, so this challenge came at a good time. Although I knew I wouldn’t save thousands, I did make a saving . But more importantly, I gained some interesting insights into the financial wellbeing community, which is utterly fascinating.

Here are my biggest takeaways from my ‘No Spend June’…

1. Forward planning is essential ~ To prepare for my no spend month, I had to ensure that I had booked in all classes (swimming, forest school etc.) for Romeo and Hermione ahead of time. I’m quite good at forward planning so this wasn’t much of an issue. I also looked ahead to the whole month of June to see if we had any birthdays or events coming up. Luckily, June is a quiet month for us in terms of family and friend celebrations.

TIP: If you’re planning your own no spend month, it’s important to distinguish what your essential spends are. I allowed myself to spend money on things I deem essential such as weekly food shopping, petrol and utility bills. I classified my non-essential spends as takeaways, coffees and hot drinks on the go, as well as impromptu family visits when we’re out with the children. My ‘non-essential spends’ were my spends to totally avoid during June.

2. Not spending is not easy ~ I consider myself a fairly disciplined person however when it comes to the odd spend here and there, it took a great deal of re-hardwiring to stop myself from spending. I’m talking about a takeaway coffee, a lunch out, or a simple snack - although these items are seemingly innocent when viewed in isolation, together as whole they all add up. We’re blessed with so many good coffee shops and eateries where we live, and preventing myself from going in and spending a few pounds was really difficult at first.

3. As spending is not easy, you need to ‘see’ evidence of your progress every day ~ How do you ‘see’ your progress? I decided to use a standard calendar of June showing all of the days that make up the month, and for each day I managed to successfully avoid spending any money, I gave myself a tick. For the days when I did spend money (and there were definitely those days!) I gave myself a cross. It’s amazing how effective keeping a visual tracker of your progress is. It’s a great motivator because all you end up wanting to see is a line of uninterrupted ticks! The idea orginially came from a book I read called ‘Deep Work’ by productivity guru Cal Newport (for more information about this amazing book, read my post ‘Deep Work: My Top Ten Takeaways’).

4. How to deal with a spend that seems essential in the moment ~ Have you ever been tempted to buy something as a knee-jerk reaction? During June, we had a few weeks of stunning hot weather and I instantly felt compelled to buy Romeo some more summer t-shirts. He only has two at the moment. I ended up having a massive debate with myself about whether this was an essential spend or not. In the end, I decided not to invest in any more t-shirts and we made it work. The no spend month made me very aware about what I was prepared to spend my money on, and it made me evaluate the necessity of things that I wouldn’t usually think so deeply about.

5. There is a FIRE community in the UK ~ I’ve had the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) community on my radar for a while. This month’s focus on being more mindful about my spending encouraged me to research it further. The FIRE movement is a lifestyle movement with the goal of gaining financial independence and retiring early. People seeking to attain FIRE intentionally maximize their savings rate by finding ways to increase income and/or decrease expenses. FIRE originated in the United States but I was excited to learn that there is a growing community based here in the UK. If you’re interested in joining a community to support your own FIRE journey, you can join the following Facebook groups:

6. Follow the right people on social media ~ I am very picky about whom I choose to follow on social media. I use the platforms of Instagram and Facebook purely for education and inspiration. It was only natural then that over June I was able to seek out some great accounts to further expand my financial wellbeing knowledge. I’d highly recommend following UK based accounts:

The Frugal Cottage (Nicola has a great blog on her website and an informative, easy to follow YouTube Channel too).
The Humble Penny (Ken Okoroafor runs this account sharing his own financial wellbeing journey and how he has transformed his life as an immigrant).
My Frugal Year (Clare Seal is in charge of this platform which centres around honest conversations about money and life - I love her posts).

7. Listen to the right people ~ The more I grew interested in my no spend month, the more I started to crave more knowledge about this previously unexplored world of financial wellbeing and dare I say it, frugalism. This thirst for knowledge led me to the ChooseFI podcast hosted by Brad Barrett and Jonathan Mendonsa. I’m currently 7 episodes in and I’m learning so much about managing my finances. In my opinion, this content is something that should really be taught in school. Some of the content is basic but necessary, leading up to trickier subjects like investment strategy (which I have to admit, right now is all new for me!). It’s important to be aware that although the podcast is created in the US meaning some of the content is irrelevant, it’s still a great resource to support you on your journey to becoming more mindful over what you do with your money.

8. Don’t aim for perfection, aim for progress ~ When I started my no spend June, I managed my own expectations and anticipated that I wouldn’t actually achieve 30 days of no spending. In actual fact, over the month I didn’t spend any money for 20 days ~ that’s a 66.6% success rate! I’m quite proud of that result considering I’d never tried out a no spend month before. The real benefit of my no spend month was achieving a greater level of awareness on what I’m prepared to spend my money on. If I was going to ‘break’ my no spend chain of ticks, it had to be for a really good reason! One of those reasons was an enormous sized ice cream at a visit to Wisley - I think you’ll agree after viewing the photograph that this was an opportunity not be missed.

Finally…

And how much did I actually save? Over the month, I tracked every amount of money that I was tempted to spend but successfully avoided… It came to a grand total of £255.80. Isn’t it incredible how easily those ‘one off’ coffees and takeaways amount to? If I was this disciplined every month of the year, I could potentially save over £3,000!

I don’t think I’m ready to be that disciplined just yet but I’m going to attempt another no spend month in October.

Have you tried out a no spend month before? How did you get on? Let me know if you’ve come across any other supportive accounts, podcasts and blogs in the comments.

My No Spend Month ~ What I Learnt

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