No-Spend February - Part Deux!
 

It's that time of year again...


Here we go again! It's time for No-Spend February, which is a way to analyze and adjust a person or family's financial budgeting approach, and most importantly, reign in frivolous spending.

We have done this before, but let's summarize, in case new people want to participate this year:

The idea is to only spend money on the "four walls" that are necessary to live, while cutting out all other spending for an entire month. The four walls are:

Shelter
Basic food requirements
Transportation
Utilities/Bills

No clothing, eating out, entertainment/gaming/events, drinking, smoking, lottery tickets, Starbucks lattes, random app purchases, NO GOING TO THE MOVIES. A tough one for the MoFos, which will have most of them not joining in, I am sure!

*If you like road snacks, buy them at the grocery store and bring them with you etc. Make coffee at home and bring it with you etc. Sorry New Englanders: NO DUNKIN DONUTS!

There are exceptions: Car repair, medical emergencies, prescriptions etc. Just use common sense here.

Tracker sheets and planning aids for no-spend months are widely available online. Just Google and grab whichever one suits your fancy.

Some helpful hints:

Tell your friends/family, both to ensure accountability and to let people know your usual hang out session won't include your usual food delivery order.

No cheat days!

If an item comes up that you want, make a list, and assess it in a need vs want comparison at end of month - this is one of the main reasons for doing this: assessing needs vs. wants.

Use a spending tracking sheet or a finance app to monitor all transactions.

In summary, the object here to to quash instant gratification through spending, curb or halt retail therapy (see: my wife), and inculcate better habits when analyzing wants vs needs.

As an aside, this is good time to analyze bills, try to knock some down if possible, and perhaps adjust how you go grocery shopping by trying to find bulk deals, use coupons and things of that nature. Also a good time to analyze entertainment funding, whether or not streaming has gotten out of hand, gaming etc.

One example is that you can try to call your internet company, threaten them with moving your service because the other company will offer you the same service for $XX.XX, and either actually move your service, or get them to knock 40 bucks off your bill.

When grocery shopping: Avoid the aisles in the middle of the store that contain candy, snacks, and random stuff like magazines and books. Never buy snacks or candy while checking out, and always check each area of an aisle you are buying an item in vertically, as the store s tend to place the worst deals at eye level while stashing better deals on the lowest and highest shelves. Check unit prices to make sure you are getting the best prices for any given item.

I will be using this thread to track my progress, and hopefully this year I can avoid buying a car during No-Spend February! ;)

Re: No-Spend February - Part Deux!
 

Good stuff. Great tips, all.

There've been times in the past when we really had to scrape by, and others where we just really really wanted to save, and it's been really eye-opening how little you can get by on if you really work at it.

I won't be participating fully, but after deciding I want to try to go back to Pirates Fantasy Camp next year I started looking for ways to save, and started writing down any savings I could come up with relative to last year's spending baseline, at least, to offset most (all? probably not) of it. So I'll be semi-participating, and certainly cheering whoever on.

Like you with your car, there's a short trip to New York coming up in a couple of weeks that was booked awhile ago, but I think that, too, could be thriftier than expected. Easy place to spend a lot of money, to say the least.

Ramen Noodles 🍜 30 day challenge here I come.

Re: No-Spend February - Part Deux!
 

I can't do it this year. There's a couple of things that will be just too tough so I feel I wouldn't give it enough justice. But definitely props to those of you that can do this! I didn't do all that bad last year.

That leaves me out of this project. If I have to live in New England I cannot do it without DD. :p

I haven't been in years, but my buddy sometimes brings me a coffee is we are board gaming or something, so I do partake from time to time!

Re: No-Spend February - Part Deux!
 

Clarification on the entertainment portion: Does this include streaming services that we already subscribe to? Cable TV we already have? Or just new purchases like movie tickets, concerts, etc.? :)

If we're keeping cable and streaming services already in our monthly bills, then I assume we can *use* these things since the point is about money and not about, say, giving up the entertainment for Lent or something.

way ahead of ya! last nonessential purchase was right after christmas.

;)

EDIT: and don’t dare say i can’t buy candy at the checkout isle. that’s the only place i’ve found the Snickers with Pecans. i’ll die before i give up that new addiction

Yea, that rule doesn't make a ton of sense, the more I think about it. Just fit it into your grocery budget!

Ok, so, hypothetically speaking, if someone were to purchase some movie passes in January, and then didn't use them until February, would that still be in compliance with the rules?

Asking for... nobody in particular. :p

Aw Hell. I remember the shame of defeat from last Februarys No Spend challenge. Dare I dream, I must! I throw my gauntlet to the floor, and proclaim loudly "I will save money next month, or so help me God I wont!"

Ah! Well now if stuff like this is ok, I might be able to pull it off :laugh:

Re: No-Spend February - Part Deux!
 

This'd be cool but there's no way I could do it. Not because I have no impulse control but because I have to pay off a couple of things I bought when I knew naught of this, and then occasionally buying stuff for the kiddos (unless we get away with doing those).

It's a time to take a hard look at all that, and perhaps think about consolidating or cutting underused stuff, but there is no need to go through the hassle of canceling subs for a month etc.

This is more a way to analyze frivolous spending and create a want vs need paradigm to curtail same.

Good question. This doesn't apply to stuff like gift cards or passes, and in fact we used gift cards we had on hand last year during NSF to go out to eat! As long as you aren't purchasing the cards or spending money to go out to eat or go to the movies etc., it's all good.

Each person will have a different area to target. Last year, for my wife, is was most certainly random retail spending at department stores nearby her work. For the most part, she has completely stopped spending at these places, so it certainly helped there. like, she would go to TJ Maxx on her lunch and buy a couple pieces of clothing, then bring it home and hang it in the closet, only to find it 6 months later with tags still on... ack!

That doesn't count, my friend! Any previous bills or payments should obviously be taken care of and kept up with. Also make exceptions for relatives birthday presents etc., but try to avoid buying clothing, lottery tickets, hitting the bar for drinks, buying CDs/Vinyls or BluRays, going to sporting events or concerts etc.

When something comes up do do want, list it and then sit down on March 1st and assess if you really need it or if it just maybe an impulse buy or something you don't really need.

Re: No-Spend February - Part Deux!
 

so if i was to spend all my money between now and Feb 1st, that'd be ok, yeah? cause i'm thinking of developing a gambling problem or something. ;)

I would head right tf out and buy 3 lbs of cocaine, 4 books of lottery tickets and a handle of Jack Daniels before 10am this morning.

Re: No-Spend February - Part Deux!
 

Every month is a no spend month for me. I'm the king of frugal, I never waste money on non essentials and to me non essentials is just that...So I declare myself the winner:D

Oh okay. Then this would be an interesting undertaking. I was unaware of that stipulation, so thank you for the heads up. I rather want to do this. It sounds worthwhile.

What does “a handle of Jack Daniels” mean?