Quick Guide: What is a No-Spend Challenge and Why Should I Do it?

Table of Contents

I LOVE the No-Spend Challenge. It’s something that’s become a pretty big part of my life and it challenges me to my core. Why? Because I’m a spender at heart.

Some people are spenders and some are savers. I grew up spending all of the money I made so I never learned about frugality and saving until I got older.

These days, I’m VERY frugal. I’ve slowly grown into someone that saves money and doesn’t spend a lot, but the no-spend challenge is still pretty tough.

In this post, we’re gonna’ look at:

The no-spend challenge and what exactly it is
Reasons why you should do it
Your BIG reason WHY
Your financial goals
How often you should try this challenge
How to do a no-spend challenge (with 11 tips to help you be successful) and…
What to do after your no-spend challenge is over

Alright, so what the heck is a no-spend challenge?

What is a no-spend challenge?

The no-spend challenge is just what the name implies: a challenge in which there is no spending (besides your normal bills and groceries that are mandatory). It’s something you can do daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly and is an awesome exercise in frugality that can really help you develop the part of the brain that controls spending and being frugal.

There are a lot of ways that you can do the no-spend challenge including different rules, different intensity levels, and different time frames. But how you decide to try it is completely up to you. This challenge is a simple yet rigorous test on your financial discipline and that’s why I like it so much.

Why should I do a no-spend challenge?

There are a bunch of reasons why you may need to try out the no-spend challenge. Here’s my list:

Because you need to improve your financial discipline: a lot of people have absolutely no financial discipline and that’s crazy to me. I micro-manage every part of my finances and the majority of people don’t pay attention at all. If that’s you, but you’d like to do better with money, you need to try the no-spend challenge.
You need to improve your finances: if your finances are a wreck, the no-spend challenge can HELP you start fixing your finances. This isn’t going to completely fix everything, because there’s a lot more to having bulletproof finances, but the no-spend challenge can be a strong start in the right direction!
You want to save money: you can also utilize this challenge to just help you save money. Whether you’re trying to save up for your emergency fund, working on paying off debt, or you’re just trying to save $1,000 bucks in 30 days, the no-spend challenge is perfect. Because everything you save is money going toward the things you want it to go toward.
You have financial goals: if you have financial goals, you need to implement the no-spend challenge into your debt free journey or wealth-building strategy. And the more extreme you go with this challenge, the quicker you can make progress toward those goals.

How often should I do a no-spend challenge?

My joking answer is, “however many times you want to suffer over a long period of time.” Haha. But on a serious note, with how tough this challenge is, the answer is however many times you can manage to do it or however many times you want to do it.

It’s all up to you.

Some people may want to do this challenge often, some may do it every other month. Some people might try an entire year of extreme no-spending just to hit a lot of their financial goals. The more times you do this challenge, the better your finances are going to be. But just make sure it’s not causing too much stress in your life. My wife and I do this about once or twice a year. Usually it will be on the months where our income is a little tighter or months when we get hit with a huge expense (like a $3,700 dollar water pipe burst and water cleanup bill).

Again, it’s all up to you. Just choose a timeframe and go for it! Next up is how to do a no-spend challenge. Let’s go!

How to do a no-spend challenge: 11 tips for no-spending success

1. Your BIG reason WHY

Before you get started with your no-spend challenge, you’re going to do 5 things: find your BIG reason WHY, identify your financial goals, pick your timeframe, pick your no-spending rules or intensity level, and prepare for your no-spending challenge.

The first one is simple: you’re going to find your BIG reason WHY. I often talk about finding your BIG reason WHY you’re doing just about anything in personal finance. Why? Well, WHY are you actually thinking about doing a no-spend challenge? Why are doing a no-spend challenge? You need to have a good reason why.

You may just be trying to save extra money by doing this challenge, but you should know WHY you’re doing this challenge. It should be to make some progress on this next category.

2. Your financial goals

Whether you’re doing a no-spend challenge or just trying to make progress with your finances, you should ALWAYS have some kind of financial goal that you’re aiming for. Because as the great speaker Zig Ziglar once said, “if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.”

So for your financial goals, you’re going to want to set two kinds of goals if you haven’t already – short-term goals and long-term goals.

Short term can be as simple as, “I want to get through a 30 day no-spend challenge without spending a dime on anything that I didn’t need.” Or it could be, “I’d like to get my debt paid off in 12 months.” Those are easily achievable if you work for them.”

Long term goals are multiple years or more, with some often spanning over decades (or longer!). Long term goals that I have are, “I want to help my son go to college without any debt,” “I want to pay off my home in 5 years,” and “I want my wife and I to be millionaires by 45 years old.”

You need to pick short-term and long-term goals that fit your life, that you absolutely wish to achieve, and with specific time frames. Then go after them. You should set a couple of goals before you start your no-spend challenge (including a short-term goal for the no-spend challenge).

Here are a couple of easy short-term goals for the no-spend challenge:

”I want to get through 30 days of no-spending.” Simple and easy. To some, this can be a goal in and of itself.
“I want to complete the 30-day no-spend challenge successfully and save at least $100 dollars.” A little bit harder.
I want to complete the 30-day no-spend challenge successfully, save at least $100 dollars, and make at least $100 dollars extra from side hustles during the month.” Harder than the last goal.

See, it’s not that tough to make up goals. Just sit down and think for a few minutes about what YOU want. Then go after it! I want you to write down at least two goals for your no-spend challenge.

3. Pick your timeframe

Next up, what kind of timeframe are you going to pick for your no-spend challenge? You can do the no-spend challenge over the course of any period of time (except for like hours because that would be pointless).

If you’ve never done a no-spend challenge, and you’d like to dip your toe in the water, try doing something for an entire day. Believe me, it’s tough if you’ve never tried it before! But you can pretty easily get through a day of it.

If you want to go even longer, try a week of this. I think most of us have probably done a no-spend challenge before payday, am I right? Haha. But a week of this can really begin to test your discipline and mental fortitude. A week is a good beginner trial run.

For those who have a decent handle on their finances, or that need to be pushed directly into being more frugal, try a no-spend challenge month. THIS. IS. TOUGH. A month of no spending is a freakin’ hard thing to do. If you try the month, be ready for an absolute challenge and try to focus on the end goal of just getting through it successfully.

For the frugal veterans, the year-long no-spend challenge is brutal and one that I can’t quite comment on completely, but I can tell you that successfully achieving this is EXTREMELY difficult. During both times I’ve paid off debt, I could not successfully complete a year-long debt free challenge. But why not give it a try? If you’re good with your finances, it’s the perfect challenge to try!

Pick your timeframe and move on!

4. Pick your intensity level or no-spending rules

Next up is the intensity level, or no-spending rules, of your no-spend challenge. This is pretty simple. How extreme do you want to be? Again, another thing that’s completely up to you.

There are three levels to this no-spend challenge: moderate, extreme, and boss level. With each level, the intensity goes up.

Moderate intensity can be seen as you cutting out individual categories of your spending and not spending on things that you normally spend money on. For example, if I just cut out fast food and energy drinks, that would probably save me the most money, so it would be good for a moderate no-spend challenge.

Extreme intensity is pretty tough for any extended period of time. I mean, you’re cutting out EVERYTHING unnecessary and only spending money on required bills, gas, and groceries. Doing this for any extended period of time is pretty tough but still do-able.

Boss level intensity is not just cutting everything out but trying to make as much money on top of that as possible. That means no-spending and working your butt of for a whole week, month, or more. Add in extra overtime, a part-time job, any side hustles, and everything you can sell online. This type of no-spend challenge is great for getting out of debt and is really difficult.

Pick your intensity level, set your no-spending rules, and move on to the last thing before you start your no-spend challenge: preparing beforehand.

5. Prepare beforehand

Alright, so there’s really not a whole lot else that you have to do from here before you start your no-spend challenge. You’ve already identified your BIG reason WHY, written down your goals, picked how long you’re going to do the challenge for, and picked how intense you’re going to go with it. The last step here is to simply prepare yourself and make sure you have needed essential items beforehand.

Preparing yourself:

Pretty simple. Just get yourself mentally ready to go and pick a date to start your challenge. I would highly caution you against just randomly starting out without any thought – like “I want to start the no-spend challenge right now…okay, ready, set, go!” That’s a bad idea. Do the first four things on this list, then start preparing beforehand.

Give yourself a couple of days to get completely ready. I’m gonna’ start this upcoming weekend. Or I’m gonna’ start on the first of the month coming up. That way you’re completely ready to go.

Prepare your needed essentials:

No I’m NOT saying to go out and splurge before you start. That would be dumb right before you do a challenge to save money. But you should think about your normal everyday essential items like toothpaste, toilet paper, face wash, or shampoo. Stuff that you don’t want to buy during this challenge. I normally don’t worry as much about this stuff while I’m doing the challenge myself, but that’s up to you. Don’t just buy it to buy it. Buy it because you need it.

After you make a short list, go out and get your essential items before you start the challenge. That way, you won’t get thrown off by having to spend that extra money during your no-spend challenge. Alright, cool, go get what you need and get ready to start.

3…2…1…GO!

6. Track your progress

Now that you’ve officially started your no-spend challenge, I wish you a lot of luck. You’ve already done A LOT of preparation up to this point so you should be fairly successful in this if you just grind it out for whatever period of time you’ve chosen.

Once you get started, I highly encourage you to track your progress every day. I would write down the following:

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)?

That’s about it. If you want to add any additional questions or comments in, that’s up to you. I normally don’t do a whole lot of analysis, but I should and I’m planning on it for my next no-spend challenge. But ask yourself those things at the end of each day and log it. Analyze how you did at the end of the month so that you can do even better next time!

7. Just say, “NO!”

Next up, the subject of discipline. Self-discipline is very difficult to master. It takes months and months of positive thought, self-awareness, and sheer determination and grit to perfect self-discipline. There’s no easy way to do it and no other way than just simply putting in work to gain it. Self-discipline comes with time, patience, and effort.

One way to earn yourself some self-discipline is by attempting a no-spend challenge and learning a simple financial concept, The Art of Saying, “No!” It’s really easy and you can learn it in 10 seconds. You ready? Alright, just say the words: “NO!” Sweet, you got it. Being able to tell yourself “NO!” is a huge part of the mastery of self-discipline. Because there are so many people who are afraid or that just won’t tell themselves “NO!”

Don’t be that person. Use self-discipline and learn how to tell yourself “NO!” If you can get that down pat, your no-spend challenge will be much easier to successfully complete.

8. Meal prep, snacks, water bottles, gift cards, and other ways to save money

Next up is your quick guide to the following things: eating, drinking, and other ways to save money. There are some things you may inevitably have to buy during your no-spend challenge, but here are some tips with how to save money on all of them while you’re working through it.

Food:

Meal prepping is essential. Cooking and preparing your meals for the week is a great way to make sure you always have meals ready and that you’re not going out to eat fast food.

Planning out your dinners is another tip. Knowing exactly what dinners you’re going to be cooking, and sticking to a set schedule, is another way to avoid eating out. Make sure you already have the food as well at home.

Lastly, saving money on your groceries is very important as part of your no-spending challenge. Even if you get groceries before you start the challenge, you’re probably going to have to buy some more groceries at some point over the month. So knowing how to save money on groceries in general is just a great idea. Check out my guide here: “47 Tips and Tricks for Saving Money at the Grocery Store.”

Drinks:

Hydration is also a critical part of living. So how do we hydrate during a no-spend challenge? Water. Yep. Drink water the entire challenge. I don’t care if you hate water. If you do this challenge, you drink water. It’s healthy and you’ll get used to it. I drink a lot of water so this part isn’t usually a problem for me.

As for how you drink water, you could go and buy a couple of cases of water beforehand. But instead, I recommend buying a couple of BPA-free water bottles to constantly refill and reuse. They’re great for your no-spend challenge and they’ll continue being a great way to save money after you’re done with the challenge.

Utilities:

You have to have water and power at your place. That’s a non-negotiable that you can’t ever really cut out. But you CAN save money on utilities. It won’t be a lot of money but, hey, every little bit counts, right? For more on how to save money with utilities during your no-spend challenge, check out this post: “The Complete Guide to Saving Money on Your Utility Bills: 57 Easy Tips”

Gasoline:

So unless you’re able to take public transportation, bike around, or just find ways to not need a car, you’re probably going to be paying for gasoline. And these days, it’s gotten absolutely ridiculous with how expensive it is (currently averaging $4.89 nationwide as of the writing of this post). If you are paying for gas during your no-spend challenge, it’s important to do everything possible to bring down those costs. For tips on how to do that, check out this post: “27 Awesome Ways to Save Money at the Gas Pump [The Guide]”

Gift cards:

Lastly, if you have gift cards or rewards points to redeem, save them for your no-spend challenges! I consider gift cards and rewards as opportunities to get free meals, so save them for those times when you’re really struggling and you’ve just got to have that free meal, coffee, smoothie, or whatever! That way you’re not spending and screwing up your progress. However, if you do slip a little bit…

9. Keep going even if you slip up

So you’re doing good so far. Hopefully, you’ve had complete success up to this point in your no-spend challenge. Like I’ve already said, it’s a tough challenge but you CAN do it.

However, if you’ve started to slip up some, it’s okay. This is a process to help you save money and as long as you do the best that you can, you’ll probably save a lot more than you normally would’ve. Don’t let a slip up cause you to completely go off the rails. It’s not a big deal if you slipped up and ate fast food one time in an entire month. Believe me, it’s okay.

What’s NOT okay is if you let that one slip up, or that one fast food meal, give you an excuse to quit the entire challenge (or cause you to spend a lot of money). You can get through a full month or more of the no-spend challenge. So don’t let one or two small slip ups cause you to completely fail or quit. You can do this.

10. Don’t forget to have fun

Before you continue on, I just want to remind you: don’t forget to have FUN with this challenge. Yes, it’s a tough challenge. Yes, you need to practice self-discipline. And yes, it’s going to be grueling over the course of a month or longer. But it can also be extremely fun.

Find ways to do things for free like dates or outings with your kids. Not everything has to cost money. Find creative, free things to do in your city. Get free books and DVDs at the library. Attend local music concerts and take snacks with you. Go hiking or take your kids to the local free kids water playground.

But have fun with this challenge and try to get as many people involved as possible. Challenge yourself and make it all into a game. And if you happen to complete the challenge, and save some money while you’re at it, you win.

11. At the end of the month

At the very end of the month, I want you to analyze how you’ve done: good, bad or indifferent. We’re you successful? Did you fail? Slip up? And how much money did you save? The big part of that is how much money did you save? I want you to total up all of the times you didn’t spend money, all of the leftover money in your budget, and anything extra that you’ve made from working more.

Take that total and apply that amount of money toward one of your financial goals. Pay yourself for all of that discipline. Show yourself why you’ve put all of that effort into a no-spend challenge. Reward yourself from all of that successful saving. Because you’ve earned it.

The final say

The no-spend challenge is tough and it’s not for the faint of heart. I mean, this is a test of sheer will and discipline for an extended period of time. And it’s not something that you can just lackadaisically get through. It’s called the no-spend challenge for a reason…because it’s challenging. But don’t let that keep you from trying it. It can be one of the most satisfyingly awesome challenges you will ever do. Plus, you’ll save a ton of money, too. All of that sounds good to me.