The holidays are a wonderful time for having fun, but they can also cause financial stress. If you are bracing yourself for the impact holiday shopping will have on your wallet, it may be time to approach your holiday spending with a new strategy. ‘No spend’ challenges are a new trend that can help you save money, break bad habits and reset your budget. This blog goes over some basic rules for a “no spend” challenge, as well as ways to complete your own with a seasonal twist.
What is a No Spend Challenge?
A “no spend challenge” is a popular personal finance trend that challenges you to go for a specific period without spending money.
Usually, no spend challenges last for one month, and make exceptions for bills and groceries.
No Spend Challenge Rules: Holiday Edition 2021
To get you started, we combined traditional rules with some new holiday rules.
How to Start Your Own No Spend Challenge!
If you struggle with overspending during the holiday season, a no spend challenge can be a fun way to maximize your savings and test your self-control.
Before you start your no spend challenge, you’ll need to do a couple of things.
- Set some ground rules to follow
- Set the length of your challenge
- Automate your bills
- Put away your debit and credit cards!
You can improve your accountability by doing the challenge with a friend. To limit temptation, some no spend challenge participants will automate their bill payments and take out a set amount of cash for the month. Then they freeze their debit and credit cards or put them away somewhere safe.
The Benefits of a No Spend Challenge
- Save money
- Identify bad habits
- Reset your priorities
- Find new ways to spend your time
- Make fewer decisions
- Reduce money stress
In addition to saving money and living more simply for a month, a no spend challenge can also teach about your money habits. You learn what your biggest temptations are and where you may have been spending your money mindlessly.
You may also discover that you don’t miss some things you thought you needed.
While some worry that a no spend challenge will be stressful, many participants have the opposite reaction! A no spend challenge can actually reduce your money stress because the rules are simple and eliminate all sorts of financial decisions that could cause you more stress.
Save Money This Holiday Season
A no spend challenge is a fun way to save money during the holidays, but if it seems too extreme for you, that’s OK. You can still save money by doing a part of the challenge instead of the whole thing.
Other great ways to cut costs include:
- Create a holiday budget
- Start shopping early
- Compare prices with a price app
You can create a holiday budget with our FREE downloadable spreadsheet, and learn more about these tips in our holiday budgeting tips blog.