Okay, so I have been wanting to do an update on how my no spend challenge has been going for a few days now, and I keep putting it off because I don’t have any images to go with it. But I guess it’s best to just start writing, and if I ever find the time, I’ll add in images later.

So here’s my first update:

I started my no-buy/low-buy challenge (I learned from YouTube that it is a thing, and that no, I’m not the first person to try to go a year without purchasing nonessentials. So basically, I’m not as creative as I think I am) on December 1st. And other than Christmas gifts for family members, I have not spent any money in these past ten days until today, when I realized that I am not going to have enough yarn to complete a sweater that I started way back in July. So even though I have LOTS of yarn to use up, I did go ahead and make that purchase, because it would be pretty disappointing to have a sweater with just one partial sleeve after all of those hours spent on it.

Which brings me to my rules, since I never did set them down in stone. Basically, my ‘no spend’ challenge is actually ‘low spend’, with the following thoughts:

First of all, I want to go from December 1, 2020 until Black Friday 2021 without spending any money on nonessential items for myself. My goal with this challenge is to rethink the way I bring in new items and how often, plus to use up items that I already own. My hope is that my bank account will be happier and my home a little more orderly.

I will be allowing a few exceptions to my general rule:

1. I am allowing myself to still purchase gifts for others.
2. I am allowing myself to purchase essential items for myself, meaning things that I really do need and that I have used up entirely in my home without anything that can substitute in a pinch.
3. I am allowing myself to purchase supplies for creative projects (ex. sewing, knitting, etc.), but only if I don’t have anything else that will work for the project.
4. I am allowing myself to spend money on things I have been meaning to do for a while but have been putting off. For example, I’m a photographer, but I am THE worst at actually getting my photos printed. For years now, I have been wanting to put together family books for every year, but never seem to have the extra time or money to follow through with it. So this year, I will allow myself to actually purchase photo prints and photo books, since it has been such a longtime goal.

I may add to these general rules in the future, but for the time being, this is what I have come up with. I was going to write out my thoughts on week one, but will go ahead and make that post on a separate day, since this one is already long enough. Thanks, friends!