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If you’re trying to save money, you might not be sure where to begin. Have you thought about trying out a “no spend” week to jumpstart your savings?
Here are some reasons to consider it and some tips on how to make it work for you.
Why Go a Week Without Spending?
There are a whole lot of reasons to try out a ‘no spend’ week. For starters, if you get paid every week, you will find that your entire week’s paycheck goes untouched. You can transfer this amount into a separate account to give your savings a little boost.
You also won’t be using any credit cards during the week. This will prevent additional interest from accumulating on your cards, which can help you get ahead on your bills.
How to Make a ‘No Spend’ Week Work for You
For some people, it may be easy to give up spending cold turkey. Most people, however, will need to put some thought and planning into not making any purchases throughout the week. Here are some things to keep in mind when you decide to try out this savings method.
- Choose the right week. It will be much more difficult to not spend money on holiday weeks, birthday weeks, or vacation weeks. You should also make sure that your bills for the month have already been paid before you start a ‘no spending’ spree.
- Use groceries you have in the house. Since not spending for an entire week includes not spending on groceries, take this time as an opportunity to use up the groceries you have in your freezer or in your pantry. You can live off frozen entrees or canned soups and grilled cheese for the week. I like to plan ahead and make an extra batch of sauce the month before or extra chili, keep it simple whenever possible.
- Consider new ways to entertain yourself. One of the main reasons people spend money is because they’re bored. Find free ways to keep yourself occupied, such as going hiking or taking the kids to the park. Instead of going out to a restaurant with friends, ask them if they’d like to have a picnic instead. Rather than going to see a movie, see what’s on TV or revisit your old DVD collection. Remember that it’s just for one week! Get Social!
- Use the ‘no spend’ time to earn. De-clutter into piles or sell, donate, toss and prep for sale on eBay or yard sale.
These are just some suggestions on how to make ‘no spend’ week work for you. Since everyone is different, it all comes down to figuring out what will work the most effectively for you. I promise you’ll save and hopefully start a new habit to help with your budget!
A ‘no spend’ week to jumpstart your savings can be a fun experiment to try, if nothing else! Who knows? Maybe you’ll be so happy with the outcome that you’ll be motivated to try a ‘no spend’ month next!
Bonus: 30+ Awesome Ideas in our ‘No Spend Weekend’ list! More than enough to get you through even a month of ideas, and you’re only going to need a week! I’m going out on a limb here and going to guess that most of you will save $100+ doing this!
PLUS potentially thousands if you take away some lessons from the week. I’ve done this intentionally and not so intentionally and learned lots, saved even more.
