At the start of the new year we all want to be better and do better than last year. What a better way to start 2025 than with a no spend January challenge?
Join me this month for a no spend challenge for January. I know that we are not the only ones who experience some financial tightness in January. After all of the spending that we go through for Christmas and Thanksgiving, January is a great time to retrain ourselves to say no to spending.
What is a no spend challenge?
A no spend challenge is a set time period (in this case January) where you only spend on necessities. Now for a no spend challenge, you need to be really careful about what spending you define as necessities. Are groceries a necessity? Or are you doing on a pantry challenge?
Are your media subscriptions necessity? What about your coffee? Can you cut down on your driving to save on gas? Ultimately your no spend challenge will look different than mine which will look different from someone’s else’s. Make this challenge work for you not the other way around.
My rules for my no spend January
- No shopping or window shopping (including online shopping)
- Buy only necessary groceries.
- Limit driving to reduce spending on gas.
- No eating out.
My exceptions to my no spend challenge
I only have a few exceptions, one of them is I can spend on birthday gifts for my husband and siblings that have birthdays in January. I will still order seeds for our garden this month, I meant to get them ordered in December but didn’t finish the order. Our local kids consignment store has their twice a year bag sale this month and I rely on this sale to get the girls cloths for the year, so I will go to that. Other than that, I am going to do my best to not spend and save money.
My goal for my no spend January
My goal for my no spend January is to save enough money to buy a Bosch bread mixer. A Bosch mixer is not cheap but is the gold standard for a bread mixer. They last for years and do a great job. My goal is to be able to afford one at the end of the month. Having a bread mixer will help me to make all of the bread for our house instead of buying it which gets quite expensive.
Dig deep and try hard
Really do your best this month to reduce spending. What groceries can you go without this month? Can you do a pantry challenge and get creative with your meals? We are going to rely mostly on our pantry and freezer for groceries this month. We have fresh milk and eggs from our animals, meat and veggies in the freezer and our pantry is stocked with things like flour, wheat berries (learn how to grind your own whole wheat flour here) and such.
I am going to do my very best to not spend money at the grocery store this month. My goal is less than $100, where as our normal grocery budget is $400 plus Azure. If I can keep to this it will cover the cost of the bread mixer.
Other things to do this January
So, if you are not eating out and shopping what else should you do this month? I recommend practicing gratitude and decluttering. Both of these not only help keep you busy but will reset your mind about consumption and how blessed we all are.
A really fun way to declutter is using the 2025 in 2025 checklist from Nourishing Minimalism. I have done this challenge for the last two years. 2023 I completed it and 2024 I got to 1,700 items. I hope to get to 200 items before the end of the month.
What are your goals for your no spend January?
Comment them down below!
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