No Spend April: A Financial Reset

*Disclaimer* This no spend month turned out to be a bit of a flop in some respects, as I had two ‘holidays’, that I didn’t want to restrict myself for. I very nearly didn’t write this post, but decided I still would, as it shows a true picture of where I’m at, and did I still take a lot from the experience.

The Why:

This was my second no spend month. My first, was back in February 2022 when I was living in Cornwall (you can read about it here). I decided to do another for a few reasons. The first, is that I had spent a lot during Feb/March. I finally had a steady income again and wanted to treat myself and upgrade some of my camping gear, I also got a little carried away buying more books and a few things I needed for the Dales Way. I have found that having a no spend month really helps me to assess my current situation and look at what the bare minimum is that I can comfortably live off.

Another big benefit is that it allows me to save a lot for the month. One of the things I am finding difficult at the moment is trying to get the right balance of spending, and saving, In my update on my year so far, I’d mentioned that I’ve already hit my savings goal for the year, but me being me, I can’t just leave it at that – this is one of the things that I’m currently in the process of trying to address.

The Rules:

• Only essential purchases (rent, food, petrol and current direct debits)
• Stick to budget for food shop (£100/month) and petrol (£60/month)
• Meal plan and check the cupboard before shopping
• Write a list of things you ‘want’ and wait until the end of the month to reassess
• Plan social meet ups with no cost

My basic rule for my no spend months, is only buying essentials. This covers bills, food and petrol. My main aim is to not eat out, buy coffee and snacks, not to buy any clothes or additional gear and to only do free activities. I don’t include petrol, as I don’t want to restrict myself from seeing people or getting to places to different places, but I will make every effort to find free parking and use my national trust membership where I can.

I don’t have any monthly subscriptions to entertainment platforms. This is partly by choice and partly because my best friend very kindly gave me one of her logins many years ago. the truth is that I very rarely watch any form of tv, so it just wouldn’t be worth it for me to be paying for a platform.

What Did I Spend?

Bills: £270 (rent, bills, phone and NT membership)

Food: £125 (three weeks of Hello Fresh plus top ups)

Petrol: £120

Total: £515

I did go over my budget aims for the month, but I’m absolutely not going to beat myself up about it. It ended up being a very busy month, but I enjoyed every second of it. For those who want the full picture, I spent £100 hiking the Dales Way and £200 on my Jeep adventure weekend – blog on this one coming soon! My total income for the month was just over £1800 (my rent comes out before I get paid, so call it £2060), this includes my pay, as well as odd bits from instagram, vinted and surveys. I ended putting £1200 into savings and keeping the rest in my current account as a buffer.

I’m in a very fortunate situation, as living in staff accommodation is incredibly cheap. I currently pay around £260/month for my rent and bills in a shared house. I had never really looked into live in job options before, but it is such a great way to be able to cut down on outgoings, and live in places that may otherwise be outside of your budget. On top of this, my other monthly outgoings include £6.50 for my national trust membership and £4 for my phone bill (yes this is ridiculously low, it’s a long story).

My food was a little more than in my previous no-spend month. This is mainly due to the fact that I have been getting Hello Fresh deliveries, as I’ve had several 40% off codes. I find it really helpful to have my meals planned out for me when works busy, or when I’m away a lot. There isn’t a big supermarket nearby, so unless I do an online delivery (which I’m not a huge fan of), getting a ‘big shop’ in, is a bit of a faff. I do enjoy cooking on a budget though, and last time I did this challenge I wrote a post on some of my budget friendly meals from the month.

In general, I try to keep my monthly outgoings to a minimum, and don’t buy anything on finance. I pay anything big, like my car insurance, annually and just have reminders in my calendar to let me know when those payments are coming up so that I can ensure there’s enough in my current account to cover it.

What Did I Learn?

I found this round of the challenge quite different to last time. When I was down in Cornwall, a lot of my social life revolved around going for coffee, to the pub, or out for meals. In the Lakes, I very rarely do any of these things.

This month was focussed more around mindful spending. I have been trying to reduce my consumption in general, as well as reducing the amount of belongings I have. In March, I got a bit carried away with buying things for the Dales Way, and upgrading my camping gear. This month, I wanted to make sure I put any ‘non-essential’ spending on hold. I made of list of anything that I was wanting to buy, but have left it until now to decide if they are things that I need, or can justify. I have also been sorting through all of my old clothes and either putting them on vinted, or donating them to charity.

I feel like I’ve always had, what I would consider, a pretty healthy relationship with money. But over the last few months I feel like how I see it, has been evolving. Alongside this challenge I have been reading Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. This book has practical steps to address your relationship with money with the ultimate goal of making a life, rather than just making a living. Even though I already do a lot of the suggested steps in the book, I’ve still learnt a lot from it and it’s helped to change my mindset around how strict I am with saving. It’s a difficult thing trying to get that balance right between saving for the future, and living now.

Anyone who knows me, is well aware of the fact that I get excited by saving and that I’m very happy and open to talking about finances. Though I am no expert, I get such a thrill from being able to help my friends figure out ways in which they can better manage their money on a basic level. Being taught how to manage money, just isn’t a thing. I am very lucky to have been brought up in an environment where it’s not a taboo subject and I’ve had plenty of guidance on all financial situations in my life. Personally, I believe that basic money management skills are something that should be taught in schools – understanding interest rates, how mortgages work, the real cost of buying things on finance….

Q & A:

I put a post out on instagram and also a call out in a previous blog post for any questions relating to my no spend challenge. I think I’ve answered most of them above, but there a few I wanted to answer separately.

‘I have 2 kids. I’d be interested in how you no spend with kids’

As someone who doesn’t have kids, this isn’t really a question I can answer unfortunately. Some blog posts I’ve found though around this topic from people who do have kids though are Recipes by Josh and one focussed more around no spend weekends by Life’s Carousel. I feel a big part of it would be thinking about what free activities you can do. My mum did so much with us as kids that didn’t cost money. She made trails around the house leaving notes and clues as to where to find the next one, we regularly made dens with furniture and blankets and we went out walking a lot (even though I wasn’t such a fan at the time). It’s just looking at what is realistic for you, and finding areas that you feel you could make small changes, that would ultimately make a big difference.

‘Where did the idea come from?’

I think it’s something I’d seen and read about in various blog posts in the past. I did my first real no spend month back in Feb 2022 and I found it really interesting seeing how much, or little, I needed to spend. It made me really think about all those odd coffees I buy, how often I eat out and how much I spent on activities, when there were so many free things on my doorstep. It has now become a bit of a financial reset for me and helps me assess my current situation and really see where I want to focus my energy.

‘How do you pay at the checkout in the supermarket? Have you changed anything, have you completely switched to cash or are you still paying by card?‘

I still use my card for all purchases, but when shopping, I try to add it up as I go so that I’ve got an idea of how much I’m spending. The only other things I have are the odd direct debits that go out automatically. Last time I did this challenge I had quite a lot of cash from my tips from work, so I did use this to buy things, or would pay it in at the post office to cover something I had purchased.

I am well aware that I’m in a very fortunate situation with regards to my current outgoings, but this is through choices that I’ve made and I’ve sacrificed other things to be able to do this. I know this isn’t a viable option for everyone, especially those with families and mortgages, but as I mentioned previously, challenges likes this are looking at what it realistic for you and figuring out what really is important.

I hope that you’ve found something in this post useful, or at least interesting. Managing my money is a big part of why I am comfortable living the way I do and it allows me to go on the adventures that make my life so full.

If you do have any questions, or other tips when it comes to no spend challenges, please leave them in the comments below.

Happy adventuring x