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I don’t feel I can call myself a true minimalist, and I don’t think of myself as a financial whiz. But this is my experience with what I like to call the month of less.

THE STORY

I really admire my daughter Alex. She loves to learn new things and challenge herself. Alex is always goal setting and working towards achieving those goals. She likes to educate herself about new and different methods of living a full life. Alex is full of passionate ideas and it can be contagious. Most recently, she has tackled paying off her remaining debt and saving to facilitate more travelling. This in turn led to a study of the concept of minimalism and being more content with what she has. She is challenging herself to spend less. So one day I walked into our local library and on display I saw the book The Year of Less by author Cait Flanders.

I immediately thought of Alex and checked the book out for her. Then curiosity got the better of me and I read the book too. I became intrigued by her story. It is well written and anecdotal which is how I most enjoy learning new concepts. I appreciated how relatable her story is and the fact that she is Canadian makes it even better! 

THE PLAN

The book motivated me to give a no spend month a try. I picked March as it didn’t have any holidays, birthdays or occasions that would require me to make exceptions and fall off the wagon. I told friends and family my plan to have a month of less so I wouldn’t be ambushed by “hard to say no to plans” mid month. (My mom responded by taking me out to lunch, her treat! Hey, I wasn’t going to say no!) 

I started my planning with a handy template that Alex shared with me. 

Step 1. Savings Goals

It was helpful to write down my Savings Goals and keep me focused on why I was challenging myself. I have some really compelling reasons to save that I could work towards. I wanted to eliminate impulse spending, and save for a family trip this summer. 

Step 2. No Go’s

 Next, In her book, Cait Flanders mentions that she discovered what her spending triggers are. It was a really good exercise to determine mine, and that’s what I put under the No Go section.

I found that I don’t buy coffee out and that I rarely buy impulse stuff like candy or chocolate. However, upon close examination of my spending, I realized I am a closet fast food junkie! I know, I know, I eat really healthy and I work out daily so what the heck? It’s actually because of these reasons that I allow myself the indulgence. I can say to myself “oh, you burned that off in the gym.”  Or ” oh, you are doing really well, you deserve this!” So fast food went on the list. One alternative to eating out was to do a fun Wing Wednesday at home, check out that post here.

Also, I can always justify spending money when I am buying for others. I like to splurge on the people I love. I can justify that easily, saying it’s not for me, I’m making someone else happy. Consequently, stuff for others went on the list.

Finally, I always have a fun DIY project on the go. Things for the house I want to pick up. Often we do these projects in a thrifty way. We buy things second hand or make things ourselves. But, it’s still spending money, so that went on the list. (That was a hard one, I have a project half done and it really, really bothers me that I didn’t finish it!)

Step 3. Staying Focused

 The Staying Focused section was also really useful to refer to.  Whenever I wanted to shop for pleasure or as an activity, I would swap it out for one of my ideas. Instead of shopping I planned to read some minimalism resources to keep me focused and motivated. I decided to stay out of stores as much as possible to avoid temptation. I planned fun lunches to pack so I would look forward to those instead of wishing for fast food.

Step 4. Allowed Expenses

My Allowed Expenses section is really small because I have just a few fixed expenses I pay for out of my checking account. I have a set budget amount I pay into the household account each month and all the house utility bills, groceries etc come out of that account.

This is what my finished plan looked like.

I kept this no spend plan with me and referred to it often for motivation and encouragement. As I got closer to the end of the month, I became very fixated on a picture in my mind of my bank account statement with only a few small entries for my necessary expenses. That picture propelled me to success. I was determined to have that victory.

THE RESULTS

My month of less was eye opening. Previous to my no spend month, I thought I needed all my money to live on. I paid my bills, I put some in savings and spent the rest. At the end of the month, I was always at the end of my money. What I learned was that I can actually live on a lot less and put a lot more into my savings than I have been. In her book, Cait calculated a percentage of her income saved each month. I tackled mine a little differently. Because I do run a monthly budget, I decided to take my pay, subtract my fixed (allowed) expenses and see what percentage of my remaining income I could save. It ended up being 96%!

Wow, was it empowering to find I could save so much more than I realized! 

As March came to a close, Canada was hit with Covid. I can’t even begin to express how grateful I was to have completed this exercise when I did. Not only did I have a lot more money in my savings than I otherwise would have, but I relaxed knowing that I can actually meet all my financial obligations with a paycheck that has been cut back to half. 

THE MONTH OF LESS IN NUMBERS

Here’s how I broke my no spend month down.

Paycheck

– Transfer to House Account

____________________________

My remaining money

– Total Fixed Personal Expenses

(car insurance, cell bill, life insurance, gas for car, monthly gym membership and bank fees)

_____________________

Total Disposable Income (100%)

– What I Spent (4%)

_____________________

Total saved  (96%)

So what did I end up spending on? I got a car wash mid month. The weather warmed and the melting snow made the roads a mess. Also, I paid copy and print charges at the library for work.

THE CONCLUSION

I understand that my small one month of less in no way compares to making a vow not to spend for a whole year. But I am really stoked with the results and figured if I can even pick maybe 4 months a year to make no spend, then I could really see the results add up in my savings! Here is a link to the blank template if you want to make your own no spend plan!