How do you count your "no spend days"?

**Thevail** · 02-24-2009, 02:55 AM

So I'm trying to do 15 no spend days this month.
Some things obviously disqualify a no spend day, like new shoes.

I'm still in the fog on grocery shopping, I mean you HAVE to do it, and it's not frivolous, but it's still spending.

Do you sabotage your "no spend" record by shopping on sale days rather than just once a month?

But what about other stuff..like paying bills? Or donating to charity? Giving your kid their allowance?
Loaning your friend a quarter for the parking meter?

Can you rack up extra no spend days by paying all your bills on the same day instead of as they come in?

**thesightofoneself** · 02-24-2009, 04:43 AM

everyone counts their spend and no spend days differently. just the other day my mother bought food from a restaurant and i stole a few bites. i counted it as a spend day since money was spent that day in order for me to get those bites. as you can see from my signature, i've racked up a number of spend days with my counting method. the point is to be true to yourself. i know that i have a lot of spend days but i also know that on most of those days i havent spent a lot.

**britbunny** · 02-24-2009, 06:24 AM

Hi,

When we talk about a nsd we mean any spending other than our fixed costs that come out of the bank directly - utilities, council tax, mortgage, insurance etc. The things that we HAVE to pay and would land us in jail/ on the street/ in the cold and dark if we didn't pay. Everything else is counted - groceries, clothing, parking and other bits and bobs of spending - if we shell out for it then it's not a nsd!

**mombottoo** · 02-24-2009, 08:35 AM

A no spend day to me is a day when I spend nothing...I don't buy anything, I don't pay any bills, I don't mail anything out (cuz stamps cost money) and I just generally hang around the house. On these days I don't go anywhere...cuz gas, oil & wear and tear on the car all cost money...

**Thevail** · 02-24-2009, 11:43 AM

I decided that bills (many are paid straight out of my accounts on certain days) and gas (hubby buys it) definitely don't count for me, and I'm exempting 2 days of grocery shopping per month for the main shopping trips.
But picking up incidental groceries, even if they're not luxuries counts as a spend day since I should have planned better.

**Debbie-cat** · 02-24-2009, 11:56 AM

I count a no spend day as buying, spending nothing. I don't pay bills that day or pick anything up. If I have to run to get my FIL's mail or pills I don't count that gas in the car as he fills it for me for running his errands so it isn't coming out of my pocket anyway.

**gardening momma** · 02-24-2009, 04:19 PM

I'm just focusing on grocery shopping...my own personal no-spend challenge. That's because I have a good grocery store less than a mile away and it's too easy to just go when I want something. Even when I go get something we need, I usually end up getting something we don't need so much. I've been doing intervals of 3 weeks of no grocery spending, except milk & bread. When one set of 3 weeks is done, I spend a couple of days doing my grocery shopping in preparation for my next 3 weeks. Dh is included in this no-grocery-spending. He's not allowed to get anything from the store except bread & milk either. That doesn't mean we can go into a pharmacy or gas station convenience store to pick something up. If it's the sort of thing you'd find at the grocery store, it's off limits. It needs to go on the grocery list until the 3 weeks is up.

It's working well for us. I had one spend day in the last 3 week period. I bought cereal on clearance while getting milk & bread.