No spending 6 months

[ariapluscat]

A challenge mainly to myself and other new savers

Only spending on needed items - raw materials at the grocery store

No fun spending, no stocking up, no maybe-i-need-it, no take out

[bobechs]

OK,  got it.

No gas, oil, insurance, registration. No bus fare.  No internet. No phone.  No electricity, water, trash collection or sewer.  No doctors.  No dentists.

But home improvements are OK.

[Sailor Sam]

I'm not joining, but I admire the spirit. I wanted to share some applicable books that I enjoyed reading.

No Impact Man - by Colin Beavan
Walden on Wheels - by Ken Ilgunas
The Moneyless Man - by Mark Boyle
Not Buying It - by Judith Levine

Be sure to get them from the library. You'll have plenty of time to peruse.

[ariapluscat]

OK,  got it.

No gas, oil, insurance, registration. No bus fare.  No internet. No phone.  No electricity, water, trash collection or sewer.  No doctors.  No dentists.

But home improvements are OK.

Ah you make a good point. I forgot about these.

I think the true spirit of MMM you wouldn't have a car for the first set.
To be fair, I buy 6 mo bus passes so I actually don't need to buy that for the next 6 mo. And since I have everything else on autodeduct or FSA, I don't actually have to activate spending money for internet, phone, rent or health.

Do people consider rent monthly spending in these kinds of challenge? I kind of don't because once you signed the lease, you've committed. I guess if your lease expires during the next 6mo, try to find a cheap apartment...

[ariapluscat]

I'm not joining, but I admire the spirit. I wanted to share some applicable books that I enjoyed reading.

No Impact Man - by Colin Beavan
Walden on Wheels - by Ken Ilgunas
The Moneyless Man - by Mark Boyle
Not Buying It - by Judith Levine

Be sure to get them from the library. You'll have plenty of time to peruse.

I'll have to put these on reserve!

[monstermonster]

This sounds exceptionally awesome, and I'm out, but I also admire the spirit!

Less badass people might want to join my "low-spend August" challenge.

[ariapluscat]

So far I've been doing alright. Not perfect; not bad. Since this, I have spend less than $30 on food while out with friends.
$11 on a brunch meal and $15 on a wine bottle brought over on the 4th of July.

I did spend less than $100 on amazon, but I'm returning most of those things - thank you for accountability. I am keeping an air filter I got since the roommate really likes it and I think it'll be helpful for the next thing.

I'm going to start searching for a new roommate in the coming week. The opposite of spending: bringing in rent!

[ariapluscat]

a small update on the first partial month
June
alcohol <$100
groceries <$200
eating out <$100
amazon <$300

I do need to decrease the amazon and I'm returning some things today to bring that under $200.

[monstermonster]

a small update on the first partial month
June
alcohol <$100
groceries <$200
eating out <$100
amazon <$300

I do need to decrease the amazon and I'm returning some things today to bring that under $200.

Forgive the facepunch if it's not wanted...


But that looks a lot different from the challenge as you originally put it out?

Only spending on needed items - raw materials at the grocery store

No fun spending, no stocking up, no maybe-i-need-it, no take out

What changed? Why did you decide to start spending on eating out, Amazon, and booze?

It's fine if you made a conscious decision to change your budget, but if that spending is creeping up from your goal of not spending on anything not *truly* needed for 6 months, why are you doing it? Are you aware of it?

I find that awareness and honesty with myself is one of the most important factors in changing my spending.

[ariapluscat]

I didn't decide to start spending. Rather, I have until now been spending and I am working towards no spending. I think my goal was overly ambitious, at least as stated originally, lol.

I'm aware of my spending and working on it, thus the returns and encouraging friends to meet up at home. I def have the issue that in convincing my friends to have dinner at our apartments, we all feel obligated to bring food or drinks over to the hostess. With my last dinner invite, I tried bringing over sweets from a pastry shop which was both more thoughtful and also cheaper than bringing wine. That went really well and I think I'm going to do the dessert gift from now on.  I'm sure the most accountable MMM would encourage me to make dessert at home from scratch.

It's pretty true that I'm not very interested in face punches, esp since I'm pretty vague about the specifics of what I'm buying. I'd rather have encouragement and good advice. I'm honest enough to know that I quit w/o encouragement. But what you said doesn't even sound too face punchy. Your comment about honesty and awareness really do ring true to me. How did you make the shift to not spend? Was it all at once or slowly cutting back? Also, how do you keep on the honesty?

I can also account for some of my 'spending is ok' in that I just started working and just paid off my debt so it feels like I deserve to spend. When I was working on paying off my debt or in school, I was much closer to no spending period. Not even spending on rent since it was covered by scholarships. I know I don't deserve to spend (no one deserves an excess of consumer stuff; we deserve a safe and stable home), but certainly the harm in spending is a lot less now and it's a relief to loosen the reigns a little since there's no emergency.

I think part of why I didn't stick as closely to the no spending is that I checked my honesty at the end of the month, rather than right before making the small purchases.

[gggggg]

You're doing good putting it into practice. Keep whittling away at things. Examine spending and expenses line by line and kill them off. It makes a fun (?) challenge to see how low you can go.