How To Successfully Do A No Spend Challenge: 8 Tips

Looking to do a no-spend challenge? Here you’ll find important tips to help you successfully complete your challenge so you can reduce spending on non-essentials and save some money.

These no-spend tips are perfect whether you’re completely new to this type of challenge, or if you’ve done one before but you want more strategies to nail it this time.

Just think, by the end of this challenge you’ll have something to feel proud about and your bank account will be proof of that!

What Is A No-Spend Challenge?

The idea of a no-spend challenge is to quit buying non-essentials for a certain period of time. That’s right, not spending money on anything other than the basics.

What are the basics?

Anything you need to survive and keep the roof over your head.

Essentially –  food, rent/mortgage, and bills

Anything else would be off the table for the time of your challenge.

You can do a no-spend challenge for a week, a month, or much longer (a year), as I explain below.

My Experience With A No-Spend Challenge

When I was in my late twenties and living abroad I had a goal to go traveling around the world for a year. My plan was to leave the UK where I’d been living for 5 years do a year’s trip before heading back home to Canada.

The question was – how on earth would I save up the money?! Seems like an impossible task after all.

Well, here’s how I did:

• Cashed in some stock options I had at the company where I was employed (this helped a lot)
• Did a no-spend challenge for one full year (before traveling)

This no-spend challenge included buying nothing but the essentials in my life (other than things tied to the trip I was planning) – no dinners out, no highlighting my hair, and cheap socializing – ie. a cup of tea with a friend.

Now, this was a few years (ahem, decades) ago and the cost of a round-the-world ticket was much less then, but you can still apply these principles today for whatever it is that you’re saving up for.

Note: I was able to do this challenge paying high rent and utilities while working an average paying job.

8 Tips for Doing A No-Spend Challenge

1. Know Your Why

Knowing your why is the most important thing you need to focus on when embarking on a no-spend challenge. 

Your why needs to be something you are deeply passionate about and crucially important to you – like the trip I was saving up for when I was younger.

The more you are committed to your why, the more successful you’ll be with the challenge.

Some examples of why you might do a no-spend challenge:

• Save money for a vacation
• Pay off debt
• Save for a downpayment on a house
• Buy a car
• Save for your kid’s education (or yourself)
• To see if you’re able to

There are so many reasons you might want to try a no-spend challenge, so whatever it is get really clear on your personal why.

2. Decide On Your Rules For The Challenge

As referenced above a no-spend challenge is about cutting everything but the basics. Of course, to make the challenge work for your life you must determine your personal rules.

Here is an example of rules you could make:

Non-essential spending:

• Takeout or eating out
• Entertainment outside the home
• Clothes, shoes, makeup
• Online shopping
• Impulse purchases

Essentials:

• Food (healthy items, but not overly expensive foods)
• Bills
• Rent/mortgage
• Transportation costs
• Toiletries
• Medication

Then you want to think about whether there is anything you may need to spend money on that is outside the basics. For example:

• Your kid’s school trip
• Spouses birthday present

By defining these spending rules that work for you and your life you’re much more likely to be successful with this no-spend challenge.

3. Determine Your Start Date

This is an important one. For example, you don’t want to start a no-spend challenge and then realize you have all these special plans you need to attend. Similarly doing a no-spend challenge over the holidays would be another tough time.

So, even if you want to start the challenge immediately, ask yourself whether this is the right time to begin. If not, set a start date.

4. Share the Plan With Others

Sharing your plan with others is another great way to be successful on a no-spend challenge.

First and foremost, tell your family members if this challenge may affect them. 

The other reason to share you plan with friends and family is to help you stay accountable. Who knows – others may decide to join you as well.

5. Begin!

One of the best ways to begin your challenge is to keep track. There are fantastic trackers out there that will help you see your process – and keep you motivated.

Here are some cute ones:

• No Spend Month Tracker – Includes some good writing prompts to write down your why plus what you learned along the way
• One Page No Spend Challenge Tracker

6. Look For Free Things To Do

Just because you don’t want to spend money doesn’t mean you have to sit at home doing nothing. So, do some research in your area for free activities and events.

Here are some examples of free things you can do:

Outdoor activities: 

• Hike
• Picnic in the park
• Bike ride
• Ice skating
• Tobogganing
• Bird watching
• Gardening
• Walking with a friend
• Go to the beach
• Read in the park
• Free outdoor concert

Indoor activities: 

• Museum or art gallery (many have free days or evenings)
• Play a board game
• Do a puzzle
• Sign up for a free course – try Skillshare for 1 free month of all premium courses
• Invite friends for dinner (potluck style)
• Listen to an audiobook for free. Here are two options…
  • Free 30-day trial of Audible – You’ll get 1 credit (one book), or if you’re  a prime member you’ll get 2 credits
  • The Libby App – you can connect to your local library and listen to everything
• Visit a friend
• Declutter your house – and sell stuff on online

7. Keep Track of How Much Money You’ve Saved

Have a look back and see where you frivolously spend each month and how much.

Now think about how much money you aren’t spending this month.

For example, you might spend $300 a month on clothes, $80 a month on books, $400 a month on eating out, and $60 a month on getting coffee out.

Well if you aren’t doing that this month you are actually saving more than $800. Brilliant!

This alone is a motivator to keep going.

8. Put That Saved Money In The Right Place

If your goal is to…

• Pay off debt, put the saved money on your credit card or loan
• Save for vacation, put the money in your vacation savings account
• Put money towards your kid’s education, put the money in an education savings account: 529 (in the US), RESP (in Canada) and so on
• Start a side hustle, use the money to learn a new skill
• Pay down your mortgage, put the saved money as an additional payment this month
• Save for Christmas, put the extra cash into your Christmas savings account

Whatever your why is, take the money you’ve saved and allocate those funds directly to supporting your main goal for this challenge.

No Spend Challenge: Final Thoughts

I hope you found these strategies helpful. As mentioned above the most important thing you can do when starting a no-spend challenge is to know your why – and be super passionate about it.

Your ‘why’ has to be important enough to you, so that you stick to the plan, otherwise there’s a good chance you might fall off the savings wagon.

Best of luck to you during this frugal month!

I would love to know…

What’s Your Why For Doing This No-Spend Challenge?

Share in the comments below and I’ll be your cheerleader on the sidelines.