My First No-Spend Week
My First No-Spend Week
As I’ve gotten older and seasons in my life have changed, I have found myself wanting less. I’ve been on a mission to declutter but it’s hard to make progress if I keep spending money and bringing things into my home.
I remember the first big shift was our movie collection. We use streaming services and at this point, we don’t even own a DVD (or VHS) player. We do, however, have books. Books we haven’t even read because, honestly, we don’t even know what we have. So I started purging our movie collection. Except the more I put in the donate box the more I wanted to get rid of. An unintentional side effect was that the more I purged, the emptier my bookcases looked. And the emptier they looked, the more books I bought to fill the space. Looking back, I see how that defeated the purpose. It also didn’t help with the anxiety I already felt about my environment, and it certainly didn’t help my budget.
Other areas I’ve been working on
Crafts. My main craft hobbies are crochet and journaling. However, the biggest craft hobby I seem to have is collecting supplies. There are a couple problems with that. The biggest is our budget. Another huge problem is my environment in general. When my space is cluttered and untidy it causes anxiety. Not to mention overwhelm in general. Too many options cause my brain to go into overload, and I can’t seem to get inspired to actually use anything I have. I’ve purged my pen collection (but bought more to replace them, which defeated the purpose) and also went through my sticker collection. I had stickers so old they had actually lost their stick-um!
The first step I took when I started this journey was to take the Clutterbug organizing style quiz.
Becoming more intentional
I’ve been working on being more intentional about what I bring into the house. Does it have a purpose? Will I use it regularly? Do I already have this item, or something like it? If I already have it, do I actually use it? These are questions that seem basic and simple enough, but for people who have trauma around money and spending, they can be difficult to answer.
Sometimes it’s more than just spending
Sometimes I think our relationship with spending can be about more than simply wanting something.
For some people, it may be connected to how they grew up. Maybe there wasn’t enough, and buying things now creates a feeling of security. Or maybe there was always plenty, so keeping track of what you owned wasn’t really necessary.
I’ve also noticed how easy it is to shop when I’m looking for a little boost. There’s that quick dopamine hit when you find something you want, but it doesn’t last very long. Then I’m left with the purchase, the clutter, and sometimes the regret.
I’m realizing that for me, changing my spending habits isn’t just about telling myself “don’t buy that.” I need to understand why I want to buy it in the first place.
And that brings me to my first no-spend week.
The parameters are simple: nothing outside of a need. Weekly groceries, gas for the cars, and bills are allowed. No Amazon. No unnecessary spending on anything. No “just because I want it” purchases. The caveat to this no-spend week is that I can only control my spending. I won’t impose this challenge on my husband or tell him what he can or cannot spend.
My No-Spend Plan
Step 1: Track every time I want to spend money and how much I would have spent.
Step 2: Move that amount into savings.
Step 3: Keep repeating.
While I’m at it
I also want to continue decluttering. I’m going to keep working toward creating a more peaceful space. I know I’ll never be a minimalist. That’s not really my goal anyway. I want my home to feel peaceful, and I want the things in it to have a purpose. For the next 30 days, I’m going to try a one-in, one-out system. If I do choose to bring something new into the home, something else has to go out. I’m not trying to become a minimalist. I’m trying to become more intentional about what I spend my money on, what I bring into my home, and what I choose to keep. This week is just my first step.