How many days in a row can you go without buying something?

[Anon-E-Mouze]

I'm not a very frugal person, so my New Year's Resolution for the year is to exercise my "no-spend" muscles by seeing how many consecutive days in a row I can go without buying discretionary goods or services, and I'm wondering if anyone else wants to join the challenge.

I have some exceptions to my no-spend rule and I imagine everyone's approach will differ - I know that the difficult areas for me are items like clothes, household goods, books, "nice to haves" (as opposed to "need to haves") for my photography hobby, and personal care items (replenishing personal care items when they're empty/gone is okay. And of course, non-discretionary expenditures (like rent, car payments, taxes, etc) don't count.

To participate:

1) List the categories of discretionary expenses your challenge focuses on.
2) List how many consecutive days in a row you've gone without spending any money on those categories.
3) Last item purchased (optional).

I'll start:

1) Categories where I'm trying to cut down: clothing, household items, entertainment, takeout/delivery meals, non-essential hobby items, and non-essential personal care items.

(Example of an essential hobby item - ink for my photo printer. Example of a non-essential item - new business cards, because I have a stack.)

2. Number of consecutive days without spending money on (1): 14.

3. Last item purchased: ergonomic desk chair.

[seemsright]

This is the best game to play. How long can I go without going to the store. I hate buying crap, all of it. I dont want anything. I only go once I get tired of listening to my 10 year old complain we do not have any milk.

I have learned how to make all kinds of things, make do with what we have, and more importantly learn how to respect and enjoy what we have. We do not need any more crap. And there is nowhere to go, and no activities open. 2020 was our lowest burn rate ever.

In general we do not spend money. 

[lazycow]

Good idea for a thread. I have been tracking this year as am doing the Frugalwoods Uber Frugal January Challenge and since 1 Jan have not bought:

- Books - new or 2nd hand
- anything from an op shop/charity shop
- Coffees out
- Lunches out
- clothes, shoes, underwear
- non-essential groceries (since 5 Jan)
- anything for the house or garden (I love indoor and outdoor plants)
- any self care items/services (excluding monthly physio massages)

Last night I broke my no dinners out streak from 20 Dec 2020 as my husband and I had an actual grown up date night dinner for the first time in 18 months (worth it!)

[Serendip]

Good idea @Anon-E-Mouze !

I have a calendar that I mark (by colouring in) my no-spend days.
I use it to keep me honest about spending little bits of money here and there which adds up to a lot (and find if I am aiming for a certain amount of no-spend days per week or month it usually means that I can exceed that b/c I get a little competitive with myself).

It's silly but it works for me.

I tend to buy books and lovely artisan items on-line (and occasional thrift-store goods)..would like to cut down on all of  this and focus on using what I have.

We did a no-shopping year in 2018..it was an amazing lesson. I would like to almost replicate that experience but with a teeny bit more flexibility.
Am already participating in the no-new-clothes-in-'21 thread and I have so many books to read (and an amazing library to draw from).

[BDWW]

Those of us using Mint - allowing Mint to data mine us - were just treated to a "year in review." Apparently the longest I went last year without a purchase of any kind was 8 days. Kind of disappointing personally, but 8 days without ANY purchase isn't that bad I guess.

[regenaeb]

Going to make this a goal for February. Right now I am about 10 days without spending after spending to stock up on my twin daughters toiletries (stuff I order off Amazon and other companies online). I am hoping for very minimal spending next month. As long as they don't bust out of their clothes or shoes (they have grown 3 inches this past 6 months), I should be good. We shouldn't need to buy clothes for them again until about end of March. We are heading to FL in late April and I know none of their warmer weather clothes fit from last summer, so I will need to get some things before our trip. Enough to get us down there and then my best friend has clothes for me from her two daughters that are a year and 3 years older than my girls, hand me downs from her have been a blessing over the years (we are a military family and live out of state, so only get to see our family and friends during the holidays and she always loads me up with clothes for my girls).

My goal to keep the spending down is know any extra money I can put aside will go towards getting my final student loans paid off. I am on track to pay them off by the end of June, but any extra money I can squeeze out of the budget gets me there sooner. I look forward to finally have this debt off my mind for the rest of my life.

[BlueHouse]

Oh man, I'm adding this to my new Bullet Journal (yep, I'm gonna give it a try this year). 
I haven't been to a store in ages, so I have no problem in that regard.  But Amazon is my downfall.   And all of those ads that focus on "these 30 things are must-haves from Amazon" get me EVERY time!  I'm trying to downsize yet I keep buying stuff I can live without. 
Thanks for the great idea!!! 

[lazycow]

Good idea for a thread. I have been tracking this year as am doing the Frugalwoods Uber Frugal January Challenge and since 1 Jan have not bought:

- Books - new or 2nd hand
- anything from an op shop/charity shop
- Coffees out
- Lunches out
- clothes, shoes, underwear
- non-essential groceries (since 5 Jan)
- anything for the house or garden (I love indoor and outdoor plants)
- any self care items/services (excluding monthly physio massages)

Last night I broke my no dinners out streak from 20 Dec 2020 as my husband and I had an actual grown up date night dinner for the first time in 18 months (worth it!)

Checking in to say I am still going strong on several fronts. Still haven't bought books, clothes, shoes, underwear, non-essential groceries (does alcohol count?), self care items/services (sadly, my physio massage has been postponed to March due to lockdown), stuff for the house.

My only purchases have been perennials for the garden, 1 lunch out with a friend and 3 coffees in my favourite cafes. Gosh, that is pretty good for 6 weeks for me!

[Metalcat]

Those of us using Mint - allowing Mint to data mine us - were just treated to a "year in review." Apparently the longest I went last year without a purchase of any kind was 8 days. Kind of disappointing personally, but 8 days without ANY purchase isn't that bad I guess.

I never go more than 8 days because I buy groceries weekly.
I find it pretty hard to go much longer than that if there's fresh produce involved, unless I'm going to live on freezer meals.

[Dicey]

In my pre-FIRE, single days, I did this every February. No spending on anything discretionary, including groceries. The only money I could use for milk/fresh produce had to be "found" money.  It was a fantastic way to jump start the savings year. Why February? It's the shortest month. No way could I do January's 31 days, lol.

Since then, Mrs. Frugalwoods  has created the Uber Frugal Month program. You can start it any time. It's free and the feedback from participants is pretty good. It certainly helps you examine your spending and reinforces good fiscal behavior. When Liz started UFM, I felt a sharp pang. My No-spend Februarys (-ies?) would have been a lot less lonesome with daily encouragement.

https://www.frugalwoods.com/category/uberfrugalmonth/

Best wishes to everyone on this thread.  I'll be here, cheering you on.

[Nederstash]

Can I turn the challenge on its head a bit? Instead of specifically excluding categories, I will list the only things I WILL spend money on in March:
- 175 euro for groceries
- gifts (birthdays/house warming/wedding this month)
- massage (they will finally reopen after nearly 3 months lockdown... everything hurts. I need this)
- emergencies obviously

I should be good on gas for the next month, but if I really need to, I'll fill up. My biggest challenge will be ordering takeout... it is such a weakness.

[ixtap]

Those of us using Mint - allowing Mint to data mine us - were just treated to a "year in review." Apparently the longest I went last year without a purchase of any kind was 8 days. Kind of disappointing personally, but 8 days without ANY purchase isn't that bad I guess.

I never go more than 8 days because I buy groceries weekly.
I find it pretty hard to go much longer than that if there's fresh produce involved, unless I'm going to live on freezer meals.

With the pandemic, we have learned that most produce can last up to two weeks, if stored properly - some in packages and some loose in the veg drawer. The real problem we have is getting two weeks of produce into our half of the fridge! DH isn't happy about having to find breakfast alternatives for two days, since he finished off his breakfast medley and there is only one egg left, but we have veggies for the next two days, even if he doesn't know how to prepare all of them.

[Metalcat]

Those of us using Mint - allowing Mint to data mine us - were just treated to a "year in review." Apparently the longest I went last year without a purchase of any kind was 8 days. Kind of disappointing personally, but 8 days without ANY purchase isn't that bad I guess.

I never go more than 8 days because I buy groceries weekly.
I find it pretty hard to go much longer than that if there's fresh produce involved, unless I'm going to live on freezer meals.

With the pandemic, we have learned that most produce can last up to two weeks, if stored properly - some in packages and some loose in the veg drawer. The real problem we have is getting two weeks of produce into our half of the fridge! DH isn't happy about having to find breakfast alternatives for two days, since he finished off his breakfast medley and there is only one egg left, but we have veggies for the next two days, even if he doesn't know how to prepare all of them.

Definitely not the produce from where I shop, which is probably why it's so cheap. If I buy produce from Costco, it does tend to easily last two weeks.