No-Spend Month Recap

Well my No-Spend Challenge month is complete and the results are mixed. As most of you know, I tired to complete a whole month of not spending any money except for the essentials (bills, groceries, etc.). Overall, it went well. With only one item purchase slip up at Ikea - absolutely needed this chair, right - I definitely spent less money and learned more about self control. This might come easy to some, but when my eyes make contact with a sales rack or an item that I absolutely love and "need", I tend to go a bit crazy and buy buy buy! Now instead of making that impulse buy, I'll go home and think about it first. This prevents me from buying things I really don't need. After all, you can always go back and pick up that item if you decided you do really want it, right?

The one thing I had a hard time following was not going out for dinner/date plans. When the nice weather hits in the city, Chicago comes alive and there is so much to do! Sitting outside at restaurants, going on short excursions to explore what all the different neighborhoods have to offer, and having out of town friends visit left my no spend activities to a minimum and unfortunately I did got out and spend money.

So although I probably spent my usually amount on entertainment, I did save money overall by buying less items. I am happy with the experience and will probably try the no-spend month challenge again and this time actually NOT spend.

Did you attempt a no-spend month? How did you do?

{Claire}