I am currently doing a No Spend Challenge for the month of February. It is Lauren from L Bee and The Money Tree’s challenge and it came at a good time for me. I’ve noticed a slight addiction to spending my free ThredUp credit on clothes, coats, and bags. Because they were free and because I could.
Time for a Check In
I am trying to always be thankful and grateful for what I have. I have a wonderful home, great people in my life, and am enjoying (for the most part) my work life. Enter a challenge. I love them. Some challenges that I’ve done:
- Year Long No Spending Challenge-and YES, I rocked it. I didn’t buy any new clothes for a year.
- 1 month Vegan Challenge-That was hard even though I was a vegetarian for 5 years.
- Secular Lent No Complaining Challenge.
- No Grocery Shopping Challenge-9 weeks, yes 9 weeks with only one tiny top off for some fresh veggies.
There is a process to succeeding at these challenges so I thought I would give you some pointers.
How To Rock And Destroy Your Next Challenge
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Commit
- Think of any scary famous person who commits to winning whatever is the biggest prize in their life.
- The Presidency-All past president
- Tennis-Serena Williams/Novak Djokovic
- The Oscar-Jennifer Lawrence
- Gymnastics-Simone Biles
- Online Entrepreneurship-Kimra Luna and Pat Flynn
- Think of any scary famous person who commits to winning whatever is the biggest prize in their life.
And the list goes on. These people had a goal: fame, money, or all of the above. They had razor focus and then they allowed nothing to get in the way.
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Figure Out The Benefits
When I stopped buying clothes for a year I ended up saving around $4,000. That’s a heck of a benefit. Another benefit would be to free up time or break a bad habit. Figure out the positive outcomes that you could experience as a result of doing the challenge.
- Benefits include:
- Saving money
- Losing weight-food challenges
- Saving time-I freed up a lot of time when I stopped shopping mindlessly.
- Create a new framework for how you live your life.
- Gain discipline
- Surprise yourself
- Feel the experience of kicking a challenge to the curb. Bragging rights rock!
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Set Yourself Up For Success
I’m not sure why but most people seem to have the idea that they can just decide to do a challenge and rock it…without a lot of thought and preparation. I would say that the key to my successfully preparing for each challenge is anticipating how difficult the first few weeks of any challenge will be.
Some of the things that I did to set myself up for success:
- Include the following:
- Buying a crazy amount of undies before I started the No Shopping Challenge. I’m a lot of things but I draw the line at raggedy undies.
- Picked up grocery items that I knew I would pop out and get during a grocery challenge. I picked up extra shelf-stable milks, coffee, and a few other items that I knew I would quit my challenge for.
- Create a game plan-I always spend time thinking about what I can do to make sure that I succeed at whatever challenge that I’m doing.
Just Had an Uncomfortable Ah-Ha Moment
As I wrote this post I realized that this is the framework for how I should be attacking my debt repayment. I do have the goal to payoff my unsecured debt before FinCon16, a conference that I attend every year.
Going to Get A Little Serious
I have to admit that I’ve spent some time wondering why I haven’t worked harder at dealing with getting the debt repaid. There are a couple of things that I think I am subconsciously worried about:
- What if I fail? I have to be honest, there is a part of me that is not completely convinced that I do this and it’s an uncomfortable truth to admit to you and to myself.
- What if I Succeed? I’ve had debt my entire adult life. I have a hard time imagining not having it in my life. Even though in general my debt has been an entirely negative experience.
- What will I do with all of that freed up mental energy? That’s a big question. It takes a lot of energy to constantly deal with debt and how it infects your entire life. I think about all of the amazing things I could do with that mental energy freed up.
I feel a completely different challenge coming on…and it’s about time. Will share details with you soon.
No Spend Challenge
When you do one you will be amazed at what the process will tell you about yourself. It may be very uncomfortable but very good to know.
What Challenge Are You Afraid to Do?
What Could You Do To Rock It?
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honestly I think to be able to no shop for a year is great, I am trying to became more frugal because this year I would save more and yes is true sometimes people thinks that they decide to stop to do a thing without thinking about how could be hard at the beginning I am in my first week of frugal month and for the moment I am tracking notes about my purchases and next step will be study my finance better and have a good plan but I know that I will have hard moments where Shopping/BUY THINGHS will be the only thing I’ll want:D
Haha-Giulia, I totally understand those hard moments. Here we call that “shopping therapy” where shopping and getting a beautiful sparkly new item is the only cure to a bad mood. The problem is in the quantity of purchases and how people purchase. I’m probably going to be spending very little this Spring as I really focus on debt repayment. Time to focus and get that done. Let me know how your frugal month goes!
No spend challenge? Why not? It’s like I have to do this challenge this month as I have lots of groceries and products I haven’t used yet. I think it’s definitely the time to challenge myself. Thanks for giving me an idea, Michelle.
Eat through your pantry get creative and save your money! I’m doing both a No Spend and a Clean Out Your Pantry Challenge Too. Love doing challenge! Good luck and let me know how it goes 🙂
9 weeks of no grocery shopping – wow! Awesome job!! Did you have a lot stocked up in your pantry or freezer?
Yes! I did and I picked up some veggies that have a longer shelf life. So instead of lettuces that aren’t hearty, I picked up kale. Citrus fruits last a long-time and other things I just froze fresh during the year and then ate it during the challenge. I also drink shelf-stable nut milks so I didn’t have to pick up milk. I ate really well. I’m doing a pantry challenge right now to clean out my pantry. February is a great time to do it.