I am officially one week into my No-Spend February and I thought I would update everyone on how this challenge is going.
Newsflash: almost nothing in my life has changed!
Turns out I already sort of live a no spend lifestyle. The only money I have spent thus far is $12.00 for gas. When coaching I spend way more time in my car and way more money on gas, so that’s an expense I’m expecting to see go up this month. Other than that, I haven’t spent andy money and I haven’t had to fight off any burning desire to either. I’ve spent the last five months telling myself no to most things so now, it’s just the way I live.
By minimizing my lifestyle over the past few months I have been able to make great strides on my loans in a short period of time. That’s how I paid off $1,525 last month alone! So while I knew that No-Spend February wasn’t going to yield incredible results, I thought that I might have to do more double checking with myself about how I think about money and how I’m spending my time, in terms of chances to spend money. Thus far, that hasn’t been an issue.
I guess the biggest thing is I haven’t spent any money on food this month. Normally I do spend about $60 a month on food and I am counting on my catering and coaching to see me through February without a trip to the grocery store. I’m catering tonight in fact, and salmon and brussels sprouts are on the menu! Can’t wait to take home some of that.
It’s still very early in the month and I’m sure more challenges will come up. I really want to accomplish this goal and I’m excited to see how the month turns out. Stay tuned!
Kara Perez is the original founder of From Frugal To Free. She is a money expert, speaker and founder of Bravely Go, a feminist financial education company. Her work has been featured on NPR, Business Insider, Forbes, and Elite Daily.