About the author
Holger is a management consultant turned volunteer. He loves to take pictures, run around in the sun, dive and he has never met a beer in his life he didn't like.
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When we started out, we declared april our no spend month. We got the inspiration from Rachel at the small notebook blog and have always wanted to try it.
Now we did it, since we need to scrape together every penny for the trip we hoped this would help to boost our budget for Belize a bit.
This means, the only expenses allowed are:
- Food (as little spending as possible within our quality limits)
- Gas
- Medicine
- Regular expenses (rent, phone, etc.)
- Expenses directly related to the trip that can’t wait
- Expenses directly related to the wedding that can’t wait.
Amongst the things we will not spend money on are
- Hobbies
- Going out / eating out
- Music, itunes etc.
- Clothing
It worked like a charm and even though it is hard to quantify the result because of our rather peculiar financial situation because of the trip, one thing stands for the results: I didn’t need to take any money from my business during that month. None. The 50€ I spent, I took out of my savings. Take out rent and gas, and it was an almost money neutral month.
It is an interesting experience not to be able to buy something when you see it. I actually had to return chewing gum at the gas station a couple of times until it settled in with me that see-want-buy-have doesn’t work like that anymore. I found that in 80% of the cases, money waste can just be avoided by asking yourself: “do I really need that or do I just want it for some reason” and by some advance planning and logistics. I also found that the remaining 20% of cases can sometimes be very hard to plan ahead for. Now thanks to the low carb diet, I can go for a long time without eating. Drinking sometimes is harder, but also solvable. There are taps everywhere – and once you’ve accepted drinking from it (which is rather uncommon in Germany despite the water being prime quality) that’s not a problem anymore either.
It felt a bit like dieting or quitting smoking – once you’ve figured out the reflexes and instinct that form the habit and have those under control, it gets pretty easy and interesting.
I would recommend a no spend month to everyone, particularly to anyone trying to raise money for a trip like volunteering. It will save you a lot of money towards your goal and it is a really good conversation starter when people wonder why you are bringing your lunch or why you can’t eat at a restaurant – we’ve had some collateral donating that was sparked by the no spend month.
Would you consider a no spend month?