37 Insanely Easy Tips for Crushing a No-Spend Challenge

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Not buying anything you want for a day, week, month, or year might seem absolutely crazy to most people. That’s why I love the no-spend challenge.

Because this challenge is tough and most people these days can’t stop themselves from spending. That’s pretty sad.

Let’s try something different: let’s try a no-spend challenge. If you’ve never done one of these challenges, it’s time to give it a shot.

Whether you’re looking to get out of debt, save up for something, or build your emergency fund, one of the best ways to cut back on your expenses and improve your finances is to complete a no-spend challenge.

So today, we’re going to look at a couple things:

What is a no-spend challenge?
Why should I do a no-spend challenge?
And 37 insanely easy tips for crushing a no-spend challenge

Alright, let’s get to it!

What is a no-spend challenge?

The concept of a no-spend challenge is simple and just what the name implies – a challenge to not spend any money on unnecessary expenses (excluding normal bills, groceries, and anything that is required of you to pay). It’s a challenge that you can try out on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis and is an awesome exercise in frugality.

Most no-spend challenges are pretty straight forward. But there are a lot of different ways that you can do the no-spend challenge with different rules, intensity levels, and time frames. So it’s up to you how you’d like to try it. This challenge is a simple yet rigorous test on your financial discipline and yet another reason why I love it.

Why should I do a no-spend challenge?

There are a bunch of reasons why you may want to try out the no-spend challenge but here are a few that I’ve thought of:

Because you want to improve your financial discipline: a lot of people these days have no financial discipline. That blows my mind. I’ve been working on discipline in my finances for years now and I can’t imagine overspending or not budgeting. If that’s you, you need to try a no-spend challenge and take it seriously.

Because you want to improve your finances: if your finances are a complete mess, it’s time to try something different. A no-spend challenge can put you on the fast track to overall better finances.

You want to save money: whatever your saving goal is, a no-spend challenge can help you hit that goal quickly. Whether saving for something nice, a car, your emergency fund, or you’re just trying to save $1,000 dollars in 30 days, this is a great way to get started.

You have financial goals: whatever your financial goal is, the no-spend challenge can help you move toward it.

37 insanely easy tips for crushing a no-spend challenge

1. Your BIG reason WHY

If you’re thinking about a no-spend challenge, I highly encourage you to also start thinking about why you want to do it.

I talk about this concept – the concept of having a BIG reason WHY you’re doing anything in personal finance – quite a lot these days. Why? Because I realized that this is a huge part of staying motivated and keeping yourself moving in the right direction.

So you need to find your BIG reason WHY you’re actually doing your no-spend challenge.

If it’s just to save up a few bucks extra, that’s not good enough. Here’s a good goal: “I want to do a 30-day no-spend challenge so that I can save up my $1,000 dollar starter emergency fund in one month.”

Find your BIG reason WHY and that no-spend challenge will be a piece of cake.

2. Your financial goals

Whether you’re doing a no-spend challenge or just trying to improve your finances, you should ALWAYS have some kind of goal that you’re shooting for.

So during your no-spend challenge, I highly encourage you to set at least 1-2 short-term goals. Here are a couple of quick examples:

“I want to save at least $500 dollars toward my emergency fund during my no-spend challenge.”
“I want to pay off my last $2,000 dollars of debt during my no-spend challenge.”

Everybody’s finances are different. So pick a couple of goals and go for it!

For more on financial goals, check out this post: “How to Make More Realistic Financial Goals This Year.”

3. Pick your timeframe

Next up, pick your timeframe for how long you’re going to attempt a no-spend challenge. Your options are one day, one week, one month, or one year. Let me explain.

Day-long challenge: For an easy challenge, try out a single day. Still pretty tough at first if you ask me.

Week-long challenge: A week is a bit harder and will test you. You probably don’t have to prepare as much because a week really isn’t too bad. Just make a couple of meals and don’t forget to pack your lunch.

Month-long challenge: A month of no spending is pretty dang tough. I would advise against trying a month if you’ve never done a challenge like this before. However, it might just be what you need to get your finances under control. You have to prepare beforehand and get a grip on the fact that you won’t be buying anything you WANT for at least 30 days.

Year-long challenge: A year-long no-spend challenge is for the hardcore OGs. The people who have done a couple of month-long challenges and are ready to crank it up a notch. It’s dang near impossible to do a no-spend challenge for a year, because it’s just so long without buying anything, but I still highly encourage you to try it once you’ve tried out a month first.

If you’re stuck, saddled with debt, or in need of something to jump start your finances, the year-long no-spend challenge can really help improve everything in only 1 year. It might be tough, but give it a shot.

4. Pick your intensity level

While doing this challenge, you need to pick out your intensity level, or how extreme you’re going to go with not buying things. Check out the following intensity levels:

Moderate intensity: with moderate intensity, you’re selecting just a few things to cut out or focusing on a single category where you’re spending too much. The next challenge I do will be to cut out Chik Fil-A, smoothies, and gummy bears (the three things I occasionally spend too much on). If your vice is shopping or coffee, cut those single things out and watch how much you save on just those things.

Extreme intensity: this intensity level will test your resolve while going through a no-spend challenge. Extreme intensity involves cutting out ALL unnecessary expenses while going through the challenge. Only required expenses are allowed. Cut out everything and do anything and everything you can to not spend money. Although this is pretty difficult, if you can complete it successfully, you will save A LOT of money.

Boss-level intensity: Boss-level intensity means that you’re cutting out all unnecessary expenses and working as much as possible to make as much money as possible during your no-spend challenge. This level of dedication will ensure that you can turn your finances around completely in just a short period of time…even just 30 days. Now you won’t get rich or pay off everything you owe in that period of time, but you can learn good financial habits, become more disciplined, save a lot of money, and make a good deal extra in a very short period of time.

5. Figure out what you’re cutting out

The 5th tip on this list is to actually pick your rules for your no-spend challenge. You’ve already picked your timeframe and your intensity level. So now you’re going to figure out exactly what you need to cut out/not spend money on. If you’re going extreme, cut out everything. If you just want to try moderate intensity, write down the couple of things you’re going to cut out.

Right now, write down a list of things that you want to cut out. Try to find at least 2-3 things that you might have trouble with.

Got that list? Okay, good. That’s pretty much all you need. It’s almost time to get started with your no-spend challenge!

For more, here’s a list of 57 things you’re wasting money on.

If you’re working to better your spending habits, here’s a list of 21 things frugal people never buy.

6. Start small and easy

So if you’ve never ever done a no-spend challenge before, I recommend that you start out small and easy. Try doing this for a whole day. It’s tougher than you think. Besides your normal bills and requires expenses, try not spending ANY money on anything you want. No fast food, smoothies, gummies, Chik Fil-A, Chipotle, clothes, or any other luxuries. You’ll be surprised how many things are just a want. Try and day and go from there.

It doesn’t matter if your finances are horrible or how much you overspend, anybody can do this challenge for a day. Once you complete that, work your way up and use each successful no-spend challenge to fuel and motivate your next one.

7. What will you do with unspent money?

The next tip on this list is to determine what you’re going to do with everything you’ve saved/haven’t spent during your no-spend challenge. You’ve probably already written down your BIG reason WHY and a couple of goals for your challenge. But if you haven’t decided on where your unspent money is going to go, decide that right now.

If you have debt or your finances are a mess, I recommend that you use extra money toward that. If you’re going to work really hard to not spend, save, and earn extra money, you might as well use whatever’s leftover toward something that’s going to benefit you financially.

So figure out where that money going to go before you start!

8. Time it right

Next up on this list? Making sure you attempt your no-spend challenge during an appropriate period of time that won’t cause you to fail. For example:

Doing a no-spend challenge in December when you have already planned to spend money on gifts.
Doing a no-spend challenge during a month where you have a week vacation already planned and booked.
My wife and I doing a no-spend challenge in June or July when we normally have 2-3 projects planned, home maintenance tuneups scheduled, and a list of things that we’ve wanted to buy for a few months.

So you can see that you need to time your no-spend challenges correctly or else you won’t be able to complete them successfully.

9. Prepare beforehand

Before you start your quest to spend nothing for a certain period of time, I encourage you to prepare just a little bit. Check all of your necessities like shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, body sprays, and then hit the pantry to check on how much food you have. Grab any necessities and food you may need for a few weeks and get ready to start your challenge. Try to limit this preparation spending so that you’re not overspending before your no-spend challenge.

The only thing I’ll tell you NOT to do before or after you do this challenge is to go out and binge buy a ton of stuff. I know you’re gearing up to not spend anything for a period of time. But that doesn’t justify you going out and buying a bunch of unneeded stuff just because you won’t be spending money during your no-spend challenge. If you go spend $500 extra dollars before your challenge and you save $500 extra dollars during your no-spend period, you didn’t really get anywhere. So the challenge would be pointless.

Just buy what you need beforehand and keep it at that.

10. Read this book: “The No-Spend Challenge Guide”

While you’re going through your first no-spend challenge, I highly encourage you to grab a copy of the book, “The No-Spend Challenge Guide” by Jen Smith here on Amazon.

This book is great because it highlights a couple of things:

Why budgeting by itself isn’t working.
Free things to do.
Why you spend money impulsively.
How to have fun while paying off debt and doing a no-spend challenge.

Good book. Interesting take on finances. And an awesome source of motivation during your no-spend challenges.

Grab this book here on Amazon.

11. Start

This is simple. Decide on a start date and…START! Ready, set, GO! Begin your no-spend challenge and start making tremendous progress in your finances!

12. Track your progress

While you’re going through your no-spend challenge, I highly recommend that you track your progress and write down how you did every step of the way.

Write down and keep track of the following during your no-spend challenge:

Did you spend any money – success or failure?
If you didn’t spend, what did you do right?
If you spent money, why did you spend?
Any issues, along with problems and solutions for the next few days or weeks.
What your current mindset is.
How you think you can improve in the future.
At the end, were you completely successful, partially successful, or did you fail completely (and did you finish your selected timeframe)?
Each time you didn’t buy something, add how much it costs to your tracking log. You will total this up at the end.
How much total money did you save?
How much money did you earn from extra work (if you’re doing this)?

13. Every time you want to spend…

So I actually put this in the last section, but this tip is super important and can be a great motivator for you during your no-spend challenge. Every time you want to spend money on anything, don’t buy it. Then write it down. See how much that item was worth and add it to your list. Just approximate your cost. This isn’t rocket science.

Here’s an example:

Day 1 – I was going to buy a smoothie ($6 dollars) and Chik Fil-A ($12 dollars). So I add those to my list ($6 + $12 = $18 dollars saved). Now add all of those saved dollars up for the entire month and get a firm total. Save that total and read tip #35 on this list.

14. Try to work as much as possible

So even if you’re just doing a moderate no-spend challenge, I recommend that you try to work as much as possible. I say this for 2 reasons:

Working will help you spend less: if you’re working, you’re normally not able to spend much money. So the more you work, the less you spend.

You’ll make more: the more you work, the more you’ll earn. That’s the goal – spending less and earning more. That’s how you end up with a large chunk of money at the end of the month.

It doesn’t matter what you do, just get out and work more!

15. Try to improve your finances every day

Next up, while you’re going through your no-spend challenge, I want you to try and work on improving your finances every single day. Here are a couple of posts that can help with that:

“How to Stop Borrowing Money: 10 Step Guide to a Debt Free Life.”

Living Paycheck to Paycheck? 10 Steps to Break the Cycle!“

“The 10-Step Guide to Getting Out of Debt on a Low Income.”

16. Find free things to do

30 days and up can be a LONG time if you’re trying not to spend any money. So you need to find things to do that are free. This might seem like a task, but I promise you that there are probably hundreds of free things for you to do in your area (unless you live in a tiny town – still probably a bunch of free things to do).

Here is a great post on 100 no-spend challenge ideas to save money on penniestoperfection.com.

17. Meal prepping, meal planning, and snacks

During your no-spend challenge, you’ll obviously have to eat. So do everything you can to prepare your food so that you can save a bunch of money. Three things you can do to make sure you’re not wasting extra money on food are meal prepping, meal planning, and having snacks on hand.

Meal prepping

Meal prepping is simple. You prepare food that can be made into multiple meals over the course of a few days. This is simple. A chicken and sweet potato dinner or a steak and mashed potatoes. You make ALL the food at once, put it into Tupperware containers, and store it in the fridge or freezer for 3-7 days while you continue eating those meals. This is a great way to save money on meals and make sure you have meals ready when you’re hungry (so that you don’t go out to eat).

Meal planning

Meal planning is also something to make sure you do during your no-spend challenge. All you have to do is have a list of meals that you like to make/can make and keep that ready. You can also put meals down on a calendar and have a scheduled list for what meals you’re going to prepare when. Just like this:

Monday – Chicken and sweet potatoes

Tuesday – Taco Tuesday

Wednesday – Leftovers

Thursday – Steak and mashed potatoes

Friday – Sloppy Joes

Saturday – Breakfast for dinner or leftovers

Sunday – Burgers and corn on the grill/Meal prep for the week

That’s just a simple list of what I could think up in like 2 minutes and a something that we’ve done in the past. Give it a try.

Pack lunch and snacks

Lastly, I want you to always think about your no-spend challenge when going out. Whether it’s to work or just running some errands around town, you need to think about what kind of food you’re going to need. Meal prepping and planning should help you out with lunches. You always want to make sure you’re packing a good lunch with snacks so that you don’t get the urge to go out and mess up your no-spend challenge.

You also want to pack a lunch or just a few good snacks for when you’re driving around town for those errands. It’s easy to get the urge for something delicious when you haven’t eaten out in a few weeks. Tell yourself, “nope, I’m good, I’ve got snacks.” Prepare accordingly so that you can make your no-spend challenge as successful as possible.

18. Raid the pantry

So I definitely recommend that you get groceries before your no-spend challenge. That will help you get through the first couple of weeks of this challenge. But once you start getting low on food to make meals, try raiding the pantry. Take a few minutes and go through every product on every shelf. Try making meals from whatever you have. Because if you can make 2-3 more meals, that will save you money, help you actually eat everything you’ve bought, keep you from going back to the grocery store early, and keep you from buying fast food.

19. Water

Water is awesome. It’s incredibly good for you because your body NEEDS water. But it’s also fantastic for helping you save money. So during your no-spend challenge, water needs to be everything that you drink. If you have other stuff at home, feel free to drink it. But water is going to help you feel better and save money. So you’ll be mainly drinking this for your entire no-spend challenge.

Before you start, if you don’t have any water bottles, grab a couple of them during your preparation period. That way you have reusable water bottles ready to be used each day. I would have at least 2-3 on hand.

This is the water bottle I use mostly. It’s the Contigo Shaker Bottle. Get a couple here on Amazon.

I also use these BlenderBottle Shaker Bottles. Grab a few here on Amazon.

Or if you’re just looking for a regular water bottle, you can find one here on Amazon.

20. Just say “NO!”

At this point, you should be at least a few days deep into your no-spend challenge. Hopefully, you’ve also been successful up until now. If so, you be already started mastering this simple concept – the concept of just saying, “NO!”

There are way too many people who just can’t be disciplined and cannot tell themselves, “NO,” under any circumstances. But YOU can. Use this simple concept to keep yourself from buying unnecessary stuff and helping with some of your decision. If “NO!” is going to be your answer, just put that in your mind and immediately pull that out whenever an opportunity to buy something presents itself.

21. Limit temptations and spending opportunities

So this is a must. You need to limit your exposure to buying and all of those potential temptations or spending opportunities. So you need to do the best you can to avoid places that could cause you to spend more.

For example, if you spend a lot of money at Target, just don’t go to Target. Get groceries and other things at your normal grocery store. If you spend too much on fast food or Starbucks, avoid those places and don’t even drive near them. Find alternate routes to and from where you’re going to so that you can limit the temptation of buying things that you want.

22. Let your friends and family know

One of the easiest things you can do is to let your friends and family know that you’re doing a no-spend challenge. You don’t have to give a reason, but you could just say that you’re trying to get your finances in order and do better.

The tough part will be getting them all on-board with your plan. They don’t have to be, but it will help you if they are on-board. Most people will find this challenge weird or won’t agree with what you’re doing. That’s okay. This isn’t for them and they don’t have to do it. But they do need to know that you’re doing the no-spend challenge for a certain period of time and that you won’t be spending any money. If they don’t like it, too bad. They don’t get a vote.

23. Join a no-spend challenge group

One great way to find motivation during your no-spend challenge is to find and join a no-spend challenge group. Here are two great groups on Facebook:

The No-Spend Challenge Group. See them here on Facebook.
The 2022 No Spend Challenge Group. See them here on Facebook.

24. Have an accountability partner

Making sure to have at least 1 person in your life cheering you on during this challenge. It’s hard to do anything if you have zero real-life support. So find a family member or a friend who can cheer you on. They don’t have to do this challenge, but they do need to support you and all of your decisions while you’re attempting the challenge.

25. Find your motivation

Whatever you have to do, find your motivation for completing your no-spend challenge including:

Listening to personal finance podcasts.
Watching financial YouTube videos on personal finance or the no-spend challenge.
Setting small goals and achieving them while you’re going through your no-spend challenge.
Working to improve your finances during your no-spend challenge.
Having someone do the challenge with you or motivate you.
Or whatever else you can think of to motivate yourself during your no-spend challenge.

26. Focus on your end goal

I know these challenges are tough. And you’re going to struggle near the end of them if you do a month-long challenge or more. But I want you to focus on your end goal: completing this challenge successfully and making progress toward all of those financial goals you’ve set.

Focus on that. Think about how well you’re doing and how great you’ll feel at the end. You’re almost there! Focus on the end goal and that will help you finish your no-spend challenge strong!

27. Try to cut expenses as much as possible

While you’re working on not spending, and making extra money, try cutting down all of your necessary expenses as well. This will be super important for trying to end up with as much money as possible. Because no matter the actual end goal, what we’re all actually trying to do is save up a bunch of money by the end of our no-spend challenge.

So we’re going to try to cut back as much as possible on expenses. How do we do that? Check out this post: “101 Ways of Creatively Cutting Expenses to Save a Ton of Money.”

28. Save money on gasoline

Another big way to save money while you’re working through your no-spend challenge is to save money at the gas pump. From taking public transportation to using apps to save you money, there are bunch of great ways to cut back in your gas budget.

Here are a list of “27 Awesome Ways to Save Money at the Gas Pump.”

29. Save money at the grocery store

Even though groceries are another required expense, like bills and gasoline, that doesn’t mean you should just completely overspend on your groceries. In fact you should do the opposite. Try to cut back and save in every way possible.

Check out my list of “47 Tips and Tricks for Saving Money at the Grocery Store.”

30. Save money on your utility bills

You can also save a little bit of money on your home utility bills. Everything from replacing air filters to quick showers to low-wattage light bulbs. Most of these ideas are pretty easy and don’t cost a whole lot, if anything, to implement.

For a really awesome, in-depth post on this, check this page out here: “The Complete Guide to Saving Money on Your Utility Bills: 57 Easy Tips.”

31. Save money on coffee

Last in this cutting expenses section, we come to how to save money in your coffee budget. A lot of people drink coffee. But it’s a no-go during a no-spend challenge. So I’d grab a bag or two at the grocery store before you start your challenge and then use my post, “27 Insanely Simple Ways to Save Money on Coffee,” for more ideas!

32. Gift cards

There is one exception to the no-spend rule of no eating out, buying Starbucks coffee, or spending any money on stuff you want: if you have gift cards or have the item bought for you due to Christmas, birthday, graduation, etc.

I’m mainly talking about buying coffee and food, though. So if you have gift cards to buy these things, feel free to get them and not worry about them messing up your no-spend challenges. This doesn’t count as long as you’re not spending any actual money on the food or coffee.

A good way to have these gift cards available is to save them as you get them. Don’t use them as you get them. Every time you get one, put it into a gift card envelope and pull this envelope out when you start your no-spend challenge. This will make for an easy meal/coffee/treat during your challenge.

33. Keep going even if you slip

This is an important tip for your no-spend challenge success. I want you to do the best you can. However, if you slip up and spend money, keep going. Don’t quit just because you spent a little bit of money. If you mess up once or twice, but still manage to save a bunch of money at the end, that’s still a successful no-spend challenge to me. The only time you really fail is if you quit and continue spending a bunch of money. So if you slip, just move on and continue the challenge.

34. At the end of the month

If you’ve gotten through your entire no-spend challenge, it’s time to do a couple of things:

Add up what you’ve saved:

Add up how much total money you’ve made over what you normally save per month. Then, finish analyzing your no-spend challenge in the next small section and use your money toward your financial goals.

Analyze how you’ve done:

You should’ve been keeping track of a few things that I highlighted in tip #12. So check out what I’ve got below ⬇️.

Your total analysis should look like this:

Did you spend any money – success or failure? Success – only spent money twice. I know I spent money twice but I still see this as a successful no-spend challenge.

If you didn’t spend, what did you do right? Continued to be disciplined but still spent money twice.

If you spent money, why did you spend? I love Chik Fil-A and I was sick of all of the food I made by the third week. Also bought an energy drink at work when I was really tired one day (recent no spend challenge reasons for me).

Any issues, along with problems and solutions for the next few days or weeks. No real issues. Just tried to spend as little as possible.

What your current mindset is. Positive. I did well this month and look forward to another no-spend challenge soon.

How you think you can improve in the future? Make better food at home. Make sure to get enough sleep every night.

At the end, were you completely successful, partially successful, or did you fail completely (and did you finish your selected timeframe)? Partially successful but I only would’ve saved an extra $15 dollars from my two times spent, so I’m very happy with the end results. I finished my 30 day no-spend challenge.

Each time you didn’t buy something, add how much it costs to your tracking log. You will total this up at the end. Total of $200 dollars on this log.

How much total money did you save? I saved a total of $1500 dollars. I normally have about $700-800 left over at the end of the month, so this challenge helped me save an extra $800 dollars (1500 – 700= $800)!

How much money did you earn from extra work (if you’re doing this)? I made an extra $200 from working more.

Your challenge analysis should look something like that. Now that you have an extra $1500 left over, moved on to tip #35.

35. Pay yourself

Now that you’ve saved a substantial chunk of money, you need to pay yourself. Use that money for whatever goal you had in mind. Again, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND that you use that money to strengthen your financial picture. Because you worked you butt of to save that money. So why waste it?

36. Don’t forget to have fun

My last true tip on this list is to make sure that you’re still having fun through all of this. Just because you’re cutting back, working more, and not spending any money, that doesn’t mean you can’t find creative ways to have fun. And if you just hate doing the no-spend challenges, just don’t. But you do have to make sure you’re working toward improving your finances. Because if you don’t, you’ll be broke and in debt for the rest of your life. However, if the one month challenge was easy for you…

37. Try out a no-spend year

If you want a SERIOUS challenge, try out the year-long no-spend challenge. It is insanely hard to complete successfully at 100% percent, but that’s not saying that you can’t do it.

If you try this challenge, be wary that an entire year of this is almost impossible. I’ve personally never completed an entire year with complete success. But I did do really well and get all my students loans paid off in just a couple of years by cutting almost everything out for more than 40 months.

So after you complete the month-long no-spend challenge, keep going and try out the year-long challenge. You can do it!

Finally

You’ve just read 37 of the absolute best no-spend challenge tips on the internet. Hopefully you’ve already successfully completed your no-spend challenge. If you haven’t, now’s the time to get started. Because if you made it all the way through this post, you should be more than ready to tackle a no-spend challenge. Don’t wait to try this because it can be a game changer for your personal finances.