I Did A No-Spend Month And Was Shocked How Much I Saved

Whew! I’m finally coming up for air after a few whirlwind weeks hosting family and friends and squeezing every possible activity out of the last few weeks of summer.

I’ve also been working on a ton of writing assignments, which I’m enjoying immensely, but between that and life I haven’t had a whole lot of time to devote to blogging. Thankfully that should change as things slow down in the next few weeks.

Now that I finally have a minute to grab a cup of coffee and write, I HAVE to tell you about my no-spend month in August.

Doing A No-Spend Month: The Background

June and July were months of big bills in our household. John and I traveled to Hawaii for one of my best friends’ weddings (which was amazing, by the way) and we had a few expenses come up around the house that we had to take care of.

We also fell victim to busyness—when life is moving so fast you spend money for convenience, mostly in the form of going out to eat and ordering Seamless instead of planning meals and making trips to the grocery store.

Life happens, but by the end of July I was cringing every time I swiped my card somewhere.

And it wasn’t just that we spent a lot of money. I have a chunk of debt hanging around that’s just been sitting there, costing me payments each month. Most of it is on a Care Credit card from when my cat got sick last year, so I don’t really have guilt about racking up the debt. I do, however, have guilt about pretending it doesn’t exist, which I’ve been doing for the better part of 2019.

Basically, I needed to get a handle on my budget. I decided to do what I’ve seen a lot of friends on Instagram do and try a no-spend month in August.

What I Cut

Even though I was calling it a no-spend month, obviously I would have to spend some money. I still had to pay bills and buy groceries. I decided to aim for cutting out everything that was non-essential: dining out, drinking out, trips, spontaneous purchases, and the toughest one of all for me, household projects.

The first week was tough. We had just come back from vacation, which is hard enough as it is, and the last thing I wanted to do was meal plan. But I thought about that stupid debt of mine and looked at the ridiculous amount we’d spent at restaurants the previous two months and it motivated me to suck it up and do it.

I thought that not getting drinks out was going to be another tough one at first. I’m not much for late nights anymore, but I do still like to hit up happy hour or grab a drink at our neighborhood bar from time to time. My husband made it a lot easier to say no to when he decided to go cold turkey and totally cut out alcohol for a few weeks. This ended up being great because it gave us double the motivation not to spend money on drinking.

The big thing I was surprised by was spontaneous purchases—seeing a cute outfit online and having to stop myself from clicking on it or seeing something I wanted for the house from Target and not putting it in the cart. Previously I would’ve told you I don’t make very many spontaneous purchases, but once I had to cut them out I realized just how many I do make. $10 here, $20 there doesn’t seem like a big deal in the moment, but having to say no to those “small” things showed me how often they come up.

What I Learned

The first week of my no-spend month was a challenge. I felt bad for myself and embarrassed it had come to this. The second week there was some temptation, but I got into the routine of cooking each night and being home more, which was actually pretty nice.

By halfway through the month I was on a roll. It almost became like a game seeing how long I could put off buying something or figuring out what I could make for dinner with what was in the fridge. Every time I looked at my bank account, I got even more motivated because I could see my balance holding steady instead of dropping.

The biggest trick to not spend money that worked for me was simply putting things off. I found that most things, even those I would usually consider “necessary” like cosmetics or household purchases, are truly not essential and can be put off or scrapped entirely.

Take beauty products, for example. During my no-spend month I ran out of primer and my favorite Korean beauty sunscreen I use on my face. I have really sensitive skin, so this is an area where I’m usually fine with spending a little more money.

Typically I would head straight to Sephora.com and order replacements, but I was really committed to sticking to the no-spend plan. I just went without primer (and still have yet to reorder any) and fished around in my beach bag for my SPF 30 to use on my face. Was it as nice as the products I’d usually use? No, but somehow I survived. Literally no one but me noticed the difference and I saved about $50.

Another trick that worked (if you can even call it a trick) was using up every last drop of everything. I finally used up the dozens of tiny, half-empty hotel shampoos that have been cluttering up our medicine cabinet, and I think we ate every last stray bag of popcorn or fruit snacks that was in the pantry. Seriously, every time I didn’t have to buy something felt like a tiny victory.

Not going out to eat was by far the hardest part of my no-spend month. Dining out in the NYC area is expensive as it is, but I realized we were doing it way too often. I think we ate out a grand total of three times in August, one of which was our friends treating us to lunch (thanks Meredith and Andy!). This easily made the biggest impact on our savings.

I did end up having to cave in the DIY project department at the very end of the month. We had guests visiting and really needed a new door for our guest room, and I’d been dying to try a barn door DIY I’d seen online. The entire project only cost about $80 and came out great, so I’m not mad about spending the money. I’ll share the results in an upcoming post!

The Results Of My No-Spend Month

Johnny and I put all our household expenses on a joint credit card and then pay it off every month. Sidebar—we opened an Amex Blue SkyMiles card when we got married and we have racked up so many travel points this way! Last fall we flew to an Alabama game for free on miles, and we’ll probably do another miles trip this winter. The card has no annual fee and I can’t recommend it enough. If you sign up using this link, we’ll both get a mileage bonus.

Anyway, that’s our card for household expenses. We get the bill around the same time at the end of each month, so it’s a pretty good way to gauge the month’s spending. At the end of August, our bill was 53% less than the prior month.

And it gets better. The statement for my checking account, which I use for all purchases that are solely mine like clothes and life size cardboard cutouts of Andy Cohen, was 56% lower.

DAMN!

I mean, I knew the results would be good, but I had no idea they’d be that good.

To be fair, the results would probably not be this dramatic if you picked two random months out of the year. Like I said, we had some major expenses in July that contributed to higher spending than normal, and August was way more restrictive than I could realistically be in the long term (you can’t put off every purchase forever).

Still, doing a no-spend month really opened my eyes to what I spend money on and how much of it is truly not essential. It also made me feel empowered to finally get serious about paying off my debt and saving toward larger financial goals like buying an investment property. I want to do another, slightly less restrictive no-spend month in October or November.

Have you ever done a no-spend month? I would love to hear about your experience!