No Spend Days

Some people find that having No Spend Days throughout the week helps them to gain control of their finances and save money in the long run.

One of the most important ways to get your finances and your spending under control is to formulate a budget. Without a budget you can quickly find that you run out of money at the end of the month. Overspending is one of the quickest ways for things to start to spiral out of control. I’ve written more about budgeting here, you’ll also find a free downloadable budget planner there too.

Once you have your budget in place, you know exactly how much money you have to spend on food, clothing etc throughout the week or month. Planning ahead with meals can really cut your food shopping bill.

What is a “No Spend Day”?

A no spend day is pretty much what it says on the tin, a day where you don’t spend any money. Pretty simple, right? In actual fact you need to be pretty organised to ensure you have days where you don’t spend any money. You need to plan ahead with your food shop, petrol and all the other bits and pieces you buy on a daily basis so that you can have days where you don’t spend.

What’s the point?

No spend days encourage you to be financially organised. You’ll need to plan all of your spending in advance. This forces you to evaluate every penny you spend. If you plan to have two no spend days on Monday and Tuesday, for example, you’ll need to be prepared for all of your meals, have petrol in the car, school snack money to one side and any other daily expenses accounted for. Sometimes it’s the little daily amounts that really do add up. On a no spend day, you wouldn’t grab a coffee from the coffee shop on the way to work, or a sandwich at lunch time, you’d need to think about this in advance and take a flask and a home-made lunch with you. These little expenses really do add up & you’ll probably be surprised at how much money you can save!

Could you do it?

I regularly have no spend days, some are intentional and others just happen. I’ve made the conscious decision that today will be a no spend day for us. Saturday nights here are usually supermarket pizza and a few drinks when the kids have gone to bed (we know how to live!). Tonight though, I’ve told hubby that we’ll be making use of the food and drink we have in to save unnecessary spending. Little Miss is sleeping out at a friend’s so she’ll eat there. I’ve taken some frozen meatballs out of the freezer for the boys to have with some spaghetti, and there are some jacket potatoes in the cupboard still that will be much healthier for me and the boss. I’ve also planned to go over to see my Mum after work, there’s enough petrol in the car to get us there and back so need to spend a penny today.

The Money Advice service set up a no spend day challenge too, you can find out how others got on here – https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/blog/could-you-do-the-no-spend-day-challenge.