Kickstart Your Travel Savings in Just ONE Week!October 12, 2020 We’re popping into your inbox this Monday to share one super effective way to kickstart your travel savings. It’s super easy to do, totally eye-opening, and it’ll have you piling up extra money in no time. So what is it? It’s a No Spend Challenge! 🤑 What is a No Spend Challenge? A No Spend Challenge is where you define a set period of time, say one week, where you commit wholeheartedly to spending nothing extra, apart from your pre-planned necessities like groceries, gas, and bill payments. During this set duration, you’ll be using strategies that will not just have you saving immediately within one week, but you’ll learn a whole lot about your spending habits, and, more importantly, the impacts of not spending. Sounds easy enough, right? Here’s how it works: First, pick how long your No Spend Challenge will last. For No Spend newbies, we recommend one week. For optimum results, schedule your No Spend Challenge around your regular work week. If you work Monday through Friday, for instance, set your No Spend Challenge to start on the Sunday before and take it through the end of the following Saturday. Second, create a plan. If you intend to start your No Spend Challenge on a Sunday morning, do all your grocery shopping for the week first thing that day or even the Saturday before. Make sure you buy everything you’ll need for the week, and don’t forget to include things you might spontaneously buy on your way to or from work, such as coffee or wine. This can be tricky, especially if you’re not used to shopping for an entire week all at once or if you seldom make coffee at home. We bought this french press and loose leaf tea pot earlier this year and have saved hundreds of dollars on coffee and tea purchases just by making this one change to our daily habits. Fill your gas tank and set up your bill payments. If you need more gas during the week, this is an obvious exception. But, ultimately, we want to set ourselves up for the week and not have to worry about paying for anything else. If you buy liquor or wine, set a budget for how much you want to spend and purchase your week’s allotment in advance. For us, buying booze in bulk made us realize how much we really spend on liquor, prompting us to cut back. Third, mentally commit. If you’ve never done a No Spend Challenge, it can be extremely eye-opening. In our modern society, especially here in the US, we swipe our debit or credit cards for almost everything, and as a result, our spending has become almost absent-minded. A No Spend Challenge shifts that perspective, and instead of absently swiping, you’ll be consciously choosing to save versus spend. As this is a bit of an adjustment, it can be helpful to think about potential cravings you might face or other situations where you might be called to spend and make a plan to meet them head-on. For instance, you might be faced with a craving for whatever your favorite take-out food is. You might be asked to happy hour with your colleagues. If you have kids, they could beg you for something they are unwilling to live without. Mentally preparing yourself for these situations in advance can help you stay on track and committed to the challenge throughout its entire duration. Saying no to these spending choices, even for just one week, will not only show up as extra funds in your bank account, but the entire experience can be empowering as we’re literally choosing to spend $0 above what we really need. There are several great books around this topic, including: The No Spend Year: How You Can Spend Less and Live More The Year of Less: How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings, and Discovered Life is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy in a Store And if you love to read, Amazon is now offering KindleUnlimited, which gives you access to over 1 million books, magazines, and audio books. You can check it out free for 30 days, after which they offer 3 different discounts based on membership duration if you choose to renew. We want to hear from you! If you try the No Spend Challenge, hit reply and let us know how it went!
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