The 7 Day No Spending Challenge – Can You Do It?

Think about everything you spend your money on in a week. Take a good, long ponder and try to remember everything. The coffee at Starbucks every morning, the $2 app you’re sure will make you more productive. Maybe you grabbed a loaf of bread on your way home from work on Thursday or you went for a beer with a friend on Tuesday night. Did you fill your gas tank? Pay bus fare? Order a pizza? It’s hard to think of it all, isn’t it? Doesn’t that make you think you might be spending a lot of money every week?

The reality is, most of us do. We spend what feels like little amounts here and there, but it all adds up and when we actually sit down to look at the total, often we’re shocked. So, I propose a challenge.

The 7 Day No Spending Challenge.

Here are the rules:

1. Don’t spend anything for seven days.
2. Bill and credit payments do not count as “spending”, as that money has already been spent. Don’t be late on your bills to complete the challenge.
3. True emergencies do not count as spending.

And here are some tips:

1. If you use transit, buy a pass before your seven-day challenge begins.
2. If you drive to work, fill your tank before the challenge.
3. If you’re running low on eats towards the end of the week, get creative. Use a tool like Supercook.com which will give you recipes based on the ingredients you have in your house.
4. Get up earlier and make your own coffee every morning. Also, brave that office coffee when you get to work.
5. Pack your lunches for work everyday.
6. If your friend wants to go for a beer, counter by asking if they’d like to go for a hike or go find a nice picnic table with a view to sit and chat at instead.

If you can make it seven days without spending any money, you might notice just how much you spend each week by the amount you still have in your chequing account. You might also take away some much-needed lessons in how to live with a little bit more frugality.

So, do you think you can complete the no spending challenge? Let us know in the comments!