Should you try a no spend challenge.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and liver a your life. Here your hosts Jen and Jill.
Welcome to Frugal Friends. My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and today we are re airing episode two eighty six. This is back from February and twenty twenty three, So if you were not with us, then you did not get to this episode. That was a fan favorite and we want to make sure that you hear all the best of us.
But first, this episode is brought to you by Possibilities. What if you could identify ways to save more, spend better, and even keep track of all of your debt payoff goals, all from your phone. Guess what you can? That possibility is there for you, and you can do it the Frugal Friends way with our new mobile Optimized Spending Planner. It's beautiful, it's simple, it does math, it's easy to navigate from your phone, and it's inexpensive, which is one
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The fact that this planner does math. The spreadsheet is important because I heard it at the dog park this morning. Five out of four people are bad at math. Let that sink in. She is processing it for their eyes.
That there was dog park, there was five out of four.
Yeah, we got there. You got there, But you don't need to do the math because the spreadsheet does it for you. Okay, Summer fifty do it. That is fifty percent off and that's straightforward. Yeah. So today we are talking about what you can use, the information you can use to vet whether a no spend challenge would be right for you in this season of your life, whether it will help you or not. For most people, we think it's going to be really beneficial for a lot
of seasons in life. Sometimes it's not. Though for me right now, I'm in a really hard season and I should not add something on top of it. This morning on the radio, people were talking about seventy five hard. Do you know that chill? Yeah, and I was like, oh gosh, maybe Travis and I should do that. It would bring us closer to it, right you look at you. That's exactly as soon as I said that, in my head, I too was like, oh, Chen, stop it.
Oh you are living three hundred and sixty five hard right now?
I am, And I right. So like, sometimes we think we are living in something hard, that something else hard will be the solution to our problems, and sometimes it's not. Okay. So like, if you're thinking about doing a no spend challenge, this is a good episode for you. For most people, I really do believe thirty days of no discretionary spending is going to be really healthy and really good. But for some people it's not. And this is a really good It was a favorite episode from two years ago.
Yeah, because it can be fun. That's the thing too, And we'll talk about ways to make it.
A challenge forces you to get creative in ways you wouldn't have and creativity produces beautiful things in your life.
So absolutely all right, Like you did it though. So our first article comes from I love this or Rinky do finance, And that's how I'm going to choose to say it. Rink and do finance.
Tells me the logo is a is an elephant.
It's so cute. It's a very cute logo, and it's all about the benefits and dangers of the no spend challenge. I think they take a great, measured, tempered approach where they're looking at just the pros and cons. So we're just gonna highlight all of the different pros and cons of a no spend challenge. Of course, we're assuming that you understand what a no spend challenge is that for a period of pre selected, predetermined time, you are deciding
to not spend, typically on specific categories. Of course, you still need to spend on food, water, shelter, transportation, healthcare utilities, but generally you're deciding other categories and maybe all other categories that you're not going to spend on. But it can be relatively loosey goosey. But that's a quick little overview of what even a no spend challenge is. We're not going through how to do one, We're going through whether or not you should do on pros and cons.
So let's first talk about the benefits of a no spend challenge. Jen back to you.
Yeah, so the first benefit of a no spend challenge is that it will help you achieve your goal faster. If you're just looking at numbers, Yes, it does that. So this example is a little extreme for me. It says, let's say you plan on taking a vacation in five months. If the no spend challenge saves you one hundred dollars every weekend, you'll be two thousand dollars closer to your goal. I don't think anyone should stop spending money on the weekends for five months. That has never been my aim.
But yes, mathematically, if you were to not spend money one hundred dollars every weekend, then yes, you would save two thousand dollars for whatever goal you have.
Yeah, that's a reasonable thing to see. How can I propel my savings goal for? But what I do like that they've highlighted here is that there's a specific goal in mind. It's not always in forever, and it's not arbitrary. It's I have a certain amount in mind. I know that if I save this amount and can cut in other areas, then I will have X amount of money for this specified goal, which I do think is aimed at a good reason to do a no spend challenge.
Absolutely.
The next benefit is that it does help us to
exercise self control. And so when it comes to spending in ways that we don't want to spend, a lot of times it's tied to impulsivity, making financial decisions purchases that we're not necessarily planned for, and so doing a challenge like this can help us to rein in and exercise that muscle, to learn a bit more of what it feels like to say no to ourselves, which isn't always the most comfortable, but when practiced, when we exercise that muscle, it can become easier and easier, especially when
we realize the benefits, because it's not just about deprivation, it's about saying no, experiencing self control for a specific.
Reason, And that kind of lends to the next one that gets into really the core reasons why I love no spend challenges is that it can help you identify hidden impulsivity issues or like I like to say, spending triggers. So when you stop spending money altogether, and this is a this comes down to decision fatigue. Right, So when we make a lot of decisions in a day, our decisions get progressively worse and worse throughout the day, and
that's called decision fatigue. When you take the decision off the table and the decision is always no, then you become a lot Your head becomes a lot clearer and able to identify spending triggers. So things that you wouldn't have even thought of crossed your mind when you're making all kinds of decisions and you're just trying to get through the day become glaringly obvious when you give yourself
pause and the space to identify them. So that is really what I love about no spend challenges, and I think you can accomplish that in a short amount of time. I don't think it takes a long time to start to identify those issues. If it does, no spend challenge probably isn't for you. It's you're probably already spending in alignment with your values, and you are in tune and mindful to all your expenses, and that's fantastic. This isn't
for you. But if you are spending money and busting your budget and you're like I don't know my budget says I should be able to do this, yet I'm never able to. This is a great way to pause without actually pausing your life and identify some of those things that you can work on to improve the way you stick to your budget.
I agree. I do think this is one of the core, most core reasons and pros to do a no spend challenge to really get to the foundation of what's going on for me, because it absolutely will highlight when we've already said I'm going to say no to this to
most of these things. What surfaces it kind of is that that crucible that like shaking ground, the sifting ground, to show Okay, here's where the true thing is that I need to tackle, because ultimately it's not just the spending behavior, it's what it's tied to.
Yeah, because you can save a lot of money doing a no spend month, but that saving ends at the end of the month, and when you're focusing on identifying those spending triggers, those are savings that carry on for months, years beyond, and those savings compound more than the four hundred dollars you might save on one month of a no spend challenge.
This last benefit that they list is one of my faves in that it can help discover ways to have fun without spending money, and that I think also helps us to exercise this kind of creative muscle for us, this problem solving muscle of it. Again, it's not just
about deprivation. It's about creativity and filling in the gaps in other ways, identifying alternatives so that maybe it's not just about this ultimate savings goal, but reorienting some behaviors and habits all together that we can take with us beyond the no spend challenge. And this is one of them. When we're talking about exercising muscles of self control, I think that's what this one is too. How can I be creative with the way that I spend my time
my resources? What happens when something is taken away? Really interesting? This is reminding me. I was just chatting with my husband Eric and another friend, both of whom are musicians, and they I was more so listening in to this conversation, but they were commenting on how better their creativity and
their creation of music is when they've got limitations. This friend was also describing this in a video production project that they were doing as well, Like they put these certain limitations on themselves that you would think, oh, you're not going to be able to do as well or you're not going to be able to have the best
product if you don't have all of the things. But they were commenting on the phenomenon that when they took away all of the expensive equipment or had a time limitation or different just whatever kind of limitation you want to input here, it helped them be more creative to see, well, what can I do within the confines of this where they almost like those are some of their favorite projects, where ah, I didn't have the best of the best equipment, or I didn't have all of the mics I would
have preferred, or I didn't have the camera that I wanted, or all the time in the world, and those constraints made me more creative in the process. And I think there's some correlation to what we're talking about here that when we put constraints on ourselves sometimes that can create space for the play, the creativity, the discovering new things
or skill sets. I think it's worth implementing for everyone at some point in life, whether it's a no spend challenge or other types of constraints to discover more about ourselves. It's a worthwhile exercise.
Yes, that is my favorite. That is my second favorite thing about no spend challenge is that forced creativity because when we are so used to solving all our problems by spending money, not only do we wonder where all of our money has gone, but we lose the satisfaction and the like, yeah, self satisfaction that comes with being creative and thinking critically and figuring things out, which is not even like great for our self worth, but it's actually great for our brain health function as well.
I think it also helps us to get started on something that we want to get started on. Oftentimes our barrier to entry is I don't have all of the tools and resources in order. But this can give freedom of you don't have to just begin. Like one of the things I want to do soon is get back into painting and drawing. But I'm like, oh, I don't have all the paints. But like hearing this conversation of Eric and this friend, it's like, oh no, I actually love the challenge of start with what you have and
see what comes of it. So yeah, it's just getting me excited. You can see where I land on this.
You know, Bob Ross only painted with I think like eleven colors, eight colors.
Yeah, are you like googling this right now?
Yes? I knew this. I was like, it's got to be like nine or eleven eight colors because somebody got us. Somebody got kai this like Bob Ross color book and when he was an infant. So I know all the color colors now because they're in the book. But think of Bob Ross and the empire of painting that he did. He used eight colors, eight and.
They had a try weird even if you don't have all of the resources. Yeah, back to our sponsor, right, Let's.
Talk about the dangers of the No Spend Challenge, which we haven't covered a ton of. But whenever I see somebody talk negatively about a no Spend challenge, I just want to clap back, like because I because I have something to say. And and then I was like, oh my god, I'm a podcast. I know exactly where I can say it. So here are the dangers of the No Spend Challenge, and uh, the first is that they
focused too intently on small picture. So it says during the No Spend Challenge, people tend to focus on eliminating relatively small short term expenses like coffee, dining out, snacks, streaming, and so, to paraphrase Ramitt Seti's famous ad at a dast on adage adage, thank you, these are three dollar problems.
And we one hundred percent agree we would much rather focus on three thousand dollar problems and thirty thousand dollar problems, which is why we love the long term focus of a no spend challenge and focusing it more on how can I spend better long term because that's gonna save you three thousand dollars in a year, whereas focusing just in the month or week that you're doing it, that
that gets you thinking in solving three dollar problems. So that is an actual danger of the nosepench challenge, but I think it's a danger in frugality in general that if you are trying to become frugal and you're trying to listen to the Frugal Friends podcast to find out how I can save money on coffee, dining out and snacks, We're gonna give it to you. We actually have, we have a full episode on how to save money on coffee. It's not that we're not gonna not like we're not
going to give it to you. But that is one episode in two hundred and eighty six, because that's a three dollars problem.
Girl, You are want to lapping back.
While we have probably got fifty episodes on how to save money on food in general, and we've got ten, maybe twenty episodes how to save money on housing and transportation, we've got a lot more episodes on how to how to mindfully spend. Those are the big decisions.
I think it's worth identifying the potential pitfalls because I think it can help us lay a good foundation for entering into a no spend challenge. Well like this, They're not wrong about identifying this as a pitfall. And it comes back to motivation. What are you doing this for? What is the end goal. If it's just to not buy a Lotte, then we might be missing the mark. If it's to identify some of our behaviors and root causes and reorient some of our cycles and patterns, then great,
we're on the right track. And those small things, those three dollar things, will absolutely bear weight on the thirty thousand dollar things, because if we're not doing well with the smaller things, We're definitely not going to do well with the bigger things.
Amen.
The next potential danger is, as they identify, establishing a false sense of security. I have mixed opinions on this.
I don't know, tell me all your opinions.
I just don't know how much of a potential pitfall this actually is. So what they're saying here is that if you're putting in a ton of effort towards not spending on something, that can lead people to believe, oh, because I'm putting in a lot of effort, then numbers will work themselves out and it doesn't work that way. And I would agree, but I'm not sure how many people are actually thinking that way, like, oh, just because I'm working at not spending this is and maybe maybe.
Yeah, I think it's a very it's almost an elitist view of the problem. It's saying like, if you're not doing it honestly. It's saying like, if you have an income problem and you're just doing a no spend challenge to focus on your expenses, then you're doing it wrong because what else is there? Like yeah, I mean, I would also say doing something is better than nothing, and the lowest barrier to entry. Thing that you can do
to get good with money is to decrease your outgo. Like, yes, you might have an income problem, and I don't even like to say that it's an income problem. You may more opportunities will open up to you with more income. You can't deny that. So we always want to be working towards that if it's in alignment with our values. But that takes time. It takes no time to decide, like I'm going to do a no spend challenge next month and try to get better control of my expenses. Like, so it's easier.
I guess this is just like an easy enough pitfall to be aware of and keep a pulse on because they give the example, you know what if you cut a ton of your discretionary spending for a month, you say five hundred dollars, but what you actually needed was an additional one thousand dollars that month, And so yeah, they're saying you'd be better off focusing on your income. My pushback to this one would be, if we're doing a no spend challenge, chances are you're the person who's
looking at the money. You kind of know what you need to be bringing in like no spend challenge isn't typically where people start, like this is kind of step two, three, four five in the financial journey. So I don't know how much of a pitfall this is for the common person, but it is worth being aware that even though a lot of effort may be put into a no spend challenge, it doesn't mean that it's going to solve our financial issues. And I would agree with that. I just don't think
that this is the most important pitfall to highlight. I don't think that this is what most people are going to run into.
Yeah, No, I would actually I would absolutely agree rephrasing it like that, and I would, I mean, and I would say, the no spend challenge gives you space to be able to think more clearly and creatively about Okay, so maybe I do need an extra thousand dollars a month, maybe I do need to earn more. Well, now I'm not you know, automatically going out to happy hour or going out shopping when I'm bored. I can start to
think of ways to increase my income. I can start to think of ways at work that I have saved the company money or brought more in that may warrant a promotion or a race for me, So it also gives you that space to think about this.
I think this is more a pitfall of a scarcity mindset, just like our constant mindset of like I just don't ever do anything with my money. It's not even connected to a no spend child. Why am I not doing better with my finances? Like, I think that's more of a mindset thing that requires some of these tools and resources to dig into. Why is that the case? Why do I feel like I'm putting in so much effort and not seeing any results? And what are the big
things that need to shift? Yeah, if anything, and no Spend Challenge could highlight this reality.
Yes, absolutely when you think, oh, yeah I can, I can definitely do a no spend year, which I hear a lot of you know, around January, everyone's starting their no spend year and they realize very quickly, probably by the time that they're listening to this episode, that it's not possible. So there's a good amount of time to think about how to compensate. But yeah, I mean it's yeah, probably not one I would think of, but sure it gave us the chance to talk about it. The next
one is actually a pitfall. It is a justifiable should be on this list is binge spending. And it's exactly like when we've been like when we diet, it's you're trying to go too hard, too fast, too restrictive, so you fail and then you binge eat and you feel guilty and shame, and next month you start the cycle
all over again. That is a real reality that can happen with no spend challenges, is that you try to go too hard, too fast, not prepared, fall off the wagon, and then just compensate by binge spending and then start the whole thing all over again next month.
I could see binge spending happening even on both sides of a no spend challenge, like being aware that a no spend challenge is coming up and wanting to give yourself that ability and freedom. So okay, I'm not going to be able to do this for a while, So what do I need and want and what might hold me over? And then afterwards, oh, I did so well, I got to reward myself and that's just not going to give any benefit to a no spend challenge. So here you go. If you know that this might be
in your realm of behaviors. If you think that you might fall victim to binge spending, this would probably, in my estimation, be one of the number one reasons that no spend challenge might not be for you. If you think that binge spending is going to be too much of a temptation or too much of a reality for you, it's too much of the pendulum swing, this would probably be the number one reason that a no spend challenge is not going to actually serve you.
Well, yeah, And if you've found this to be true for you, but you still really want to try one, I would say, don't go all discretionary spending. Don't do all your spending, but just pick one expense that you are making a lot that you want to make less, or one location of spending. Think about your spending triggers, and just choose one thing. So maybe it's coffee, maybe it's target, maybe it's I'm you know, I'm not going to get food at Chipotle on the way home from
the grocery store. Pick one thing and do go with that instead of all of it, because I think you'll still find that you have space to contemplate. But you are not feeling the pressure and the burden to be perfect, because especially like with like I mean, they mentioned like
eating disorders, and I don't think it's that extreme. Every all of us can be subject to binge spending, but especially if you have something, If you have ADHD and you know that you are not capable of doing some things, then don't don't try to do those things when you are under stress or know that you're not in a season to do that, or stay within the boundaries you know you already know work for you. Okay, don't try and go against things if you've already kind of figured
out something that works for you. Just play within those rules. You can adapt. It's your no spend challenge if you want to do it, but again it also for that reason, may not be for you.
The next one that's really connected to this is that a no spend challenge could simply just defer discretionary expenses. I think this is one and the same as almost binge spending. That it's not as if you're not spending and saving money, you're just not spending it right now, you're spending it later on. So yep, that could be another pitfall of a no spend challenge is that you're still going to spend the money, just maybe not today. That's not going to do you any good either.
But I also don't think it's it's horrible like to create a list of wants and to actually force yourself to have time before you impulse by them, which.
Is connected to the next one.
There you go, Jen, Yeah, shaming yourself for reasonable wants, Like I feel like you could. It's not bad to like make that, like add those things to your Amazon cart and just keep them there till the end of your challenge, because hopefully half of them you're not gonna want anymore. But the other half may have been reasonable wants, they may be in alignment with your values. So it's not We're not here to shame you, not even for reasonable wants, just your wants, your unique wants, Like they
don't have to make sense to other people. They can just be things you want and love and you don't have to justify them to anybody.
And on the flip side of that, delay and gratification is a helpful thing. I mean, we don't have to do it always in forever, all the time with everything, But deferring isn't a bad thing in and of itself. At least there are days where you're not spending. You're not going to get those days back, and like always backtrack on each of those days and spend the money you thought you were going to spend. And it can help to build those habits of putting something in the
cart and letting it sit there. Just It might be simply deferring it to another day and the money gets spent, but it could also be that you've given yourself time to think and sit on it, and that's helped to bring more clarity on whether or not you actually want that thing. So I think there's two sides to that deferment coin, and it's not all a danger or a pitfall. Yeah, well that leads us, since we're already down this rabbit trail of potential pitfalls, let's just dive right in now
to the deep end. We are ready with an article that's just going to point out.
I have my hands ready to clap back why and no spend challenge just doesn't work.
They're not even talking about the pros of it. They are only talking about the cons. They want to convince you not to do one. And we're going to talk about it, and apparently Jen's gonna clap back.
Yeah, I'm ready. H And so I think it's really healthy to look at the reasons why a lot of people do no spend challenges, and they are val it's valid reasons why they won't work if these are your motives or if you say, oh, yeah, yeah, I'm going to look at my spending triggers and think long term. But really, because if you've ever been on a diet, you've probably experiend them. Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna get healthy. This is gonna be good for me long term, but really,
I just want to be skinny for bikini season. See, it always comes to backfire for you. And it is the same with no spend challenges. We got to do them for the right reasons, and here are some of the wrong reasons in this article. So that's what we're here for.
Yeah.
So they really only have two arguments against no spend challenges, but these are common arguments, so it is worth looking at so that we know all of the different sides and angles of this thing.
Yes, So the first one is that it's not sustainable, and that's true. Honestly, that is so true. I see people doing year long, two year long no spend challenges, and that makes a great story. If you're trying to write a book or an article or get some media attention, you will definitely be able to do that by not spending money for two years. That is something that you can do. But there is a law of diminishing returns with no spend challenges where it transitions from helpful to
almost like holds you back to an extent. So, and this isn't the case, Like you learn what you can about yourself and you're spending and then you have to implement it. Then you have to go out and go back to spending and possibly mess up, possibly make a mistake, And mistakes will happen, and we have to be strong enough and resilient enough to take those into consideration, learn
from them, and implement what we've learned. Yeah, and so if you're doing a no spend challenge that's lasting a whole year, you can very much put that off and just live in the comfort of saying no. That's more hurtful than helpful.
I feel like we're practicing for debate club, Like we're on a debate team and we're like, what does the other side say about this and what we.
Love debating people that aren't available to.
Take exactly what's favor to give a closing argument, but they do have their article and we are responding to their article. One of the things too, that I would add to this about no spend challenges they're referencing as far as the not being sustainable piece fasting and how not sustainable fasting is, and that it would be better to have a lifestyle change and rather than kind of
deprive yourself and then binge. My pushback on this is, certainly none of these things that are extreme in nature are meant to be for the long term, but that doesn't mean that there's never a time and place for it. People have to fast before surgery. Yeah, it's not sustainable. You're not going to do that all of the time, but it's necessary to then get the help that your body needs in the following day. People fast for religious reasons. It's not sustainable, but it can be a really amazing
spiritual practice that benefits some people. So they're like, and I am not a fan of extremism either. It's why we've you know, termed our financial approach the radical middle because we often go to the different extremes. But that doesn't mean that the extremes don't have something to teach us, or that we should never ever visit the extremes. Sometimes experiencing something in full force helps us to find the
radical middle. I think we often don't know the radical middle until we have an understanding of what's this side of the pendulum, what's this side of the the other side of it, what's the spectrum of it, and where is my radical middle? I would say the point of a nose bench challenge is to identify what is sustainable for you. It's that same concept of fasting for a surgery. Right,
It's not going to happen all the time. But if we're identifying, oh, there's a problem with my spending, but I don't totally know what it is, sometimes we need to really rein it in and pull it back. Or if we want to talk about you know, when we're sick and we just stay at home. That is not the goal for the rest of life, to only ever stay at home, but it's necessary because there's an issue
in our body. Okay, so if there's an issue in our finances, what might be a necessary approach that I'm not going to implement forever and always, but really reins it in, pulls it back, and gives space for greater understanding, clarity, diagnosis, and next steps.
That kind of snaps for you. Thank you, I'm snapping for you.
The final argument that they make for why a no spend challenge doesn't work is that it doesn't bring about meaningful change. I think we've said enough on this topic in the reality that it depends on what your approach is going to be. Yeah, certainly, if you're just doing it for a week or a month and then you go right back to your behaviors and you enter it into it mindlessly and you didn't have a real goal
in mind, it's not going to produce meaningful change. But if you approach an O spend challenge with a goal of maybe just identifying what prompts me to spend, what barriers am I going to run into if I try and tell myself, no, what happens when I try and practice creativity or find free activities? Then great, Like, it really depends on what your motivation is going into it.
And again, if you're just identifying that this isn't for me, I can identify my patterns and make shifts in my lifestyle without this, then that's great, go for it, but we're definitely going to have some pushback on saying this is never gonna bring any benefit. It absolutely can bring benefit, and the goal is not to remain in this place always and forever. It serves a specific purpose for a specific.
Time, Yes, I mean that's it.
You know what else serves a specific purpose for a specific time.
It's I mean it's specific. But like almost every time, the bill of the.
Week, that's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week.
Maybe a baby was born and his name is Williams.
Maybe you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
Duck bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week.
Hi Jen, Hi Chill. This is Katie. I am a fellow money nerd who loves learning more and more about money, and I got into your podcast last year when I adopted a senior dog and wanted to make good use of my time out and about. So it's only fitting that my bill of the week is for bet treatment for my little old lady dog. It's related to her being attacked by the neighbor's dog six weeks ago. First off,
she wasn't too badly hurt and is totally fine now. Second, the visit to the doggy er and two follow ups came to thirteen hundred and twenty bucks and my pet insurance carrier did not hesitate to pay out the eighty percent she has covered for. And Third, about ten days before getting notice of the payout, the attacking dog's owner gave me two hundred dollars toward the bill, knowing it was going to be at least that night. Much he
knew a head insurance. It's so rare that things go the way they should when it comes to a bill you're not really responsible for. And I just wanted to share my appreciation for both the good neighbor and the good pet insurance for doing the right thing. Thanks guys, Katie.
Oh my gosh, another one for pet insurance. I would have to say of the bills of the week, we've received more pet insurance thankfulness than any other bill.
I also appreciate how you are choosing to highlight a financial situation going well. I think you're so right. Oftentimes bills we are not technically responsible for, we still sometimes find ourselves responsible for. But you may become a really great proactive decisions, namely the pet insurance to not be in a really tough, difficult financials position right now with your pup. And I'm so grateful with you, and yeah, gratitude for the neighbor for taking ownership of his pets choices.
Glad to hear your your dog is better and fully recovered and that this bill did not become an overwhelming insurmountable bill. So much to celebrate with you, Katie. If you all listening, happen to have some great pet insurance that follows through and pays your bills, or neighbors who pay some bills, or if you are a person named Bill, visit through the Friends podcast on slash Bill. Leave us your bill. We're ready for it, and now it's time for.
Wow. Okay, dope anyway, Today's lightning Round question from our suite manager Goldie.
Well, Goldie, you're the best.
I love her, love you. She does listen to every episode because it's your job. What do your no spend week slash month generally look like? And I just I'm so glad that she asks this question because I get to say I haven't done a no spend week or month since the last month we were paying off debt, so that is I think July of twenty seventeen. So
they don't look like anything. And that's because we slow down on like we don't have like, well, we raised our income enough to where we could say we can afford our short term financial goals without having to do a no spa bend challenge. And because we're just like in tuned with our values and wants and communicate. Yeah, so like a no spend challenge for me, co host of The Frugal Friends, author of the No Spend Challenge Guide, No spend challenges aren't for me right now?
WHOA, This is the hottest take, Tony I have ever been a part of.
I'm just so glad to share that.
Like well, I think it still is a support of the no spend challenges because it highlights the fact that it's a tool, a tool that can be picked up and put down given the level of skill or job that is currently being required. The tool does work and can point to some solutions when necessary, but there are times that we don't need that tool anymore. Golly, I can't wait till my renovation's over and I don't need some of those tools anymore.
The goal is always to not need the tool anymore. That's the goal with any tool, is to use it so that you no longer need it. And when you know what you do. Yeah, So when you no longer need it, you don't hold on to it, You find a different tool because you have a new project.
Or you share your tool with your neighbors. Oh, I love this illustration in metaphor. That's happening for me. I can't say that I've ever needed to fully engage in a no spend challenge. That doesn't mean that I don't do it in my own way, which we are also advocating for. Figure out what works for you. I am not much of a spender, so really reining that in and identifying my reasons for spending has never been much
of a specific issue for me. That said, I will use the tool of a no spend concept to help me towards a certain goal in specific areas. So I typically pick up the tool of a no spend challenge to focus in on food honestly, and that will have to do with identifying a specific amount of money that I want to spend so that I can put it
towards right now renovations. So recently, it's been a lot of challenging myself to cook at home for like a week to two weeks at a time, giving space for eating out, but challenging myself to a specific budget and meal plan. It has gotten me so good at cooking at home, repurposing food, reducing food waste. I'm so grateful for the way that I've set up the challenge to hone in a skill set for me. It has challenged me in helpful ways. It has helped me free up
some cash to put towards the renovation. But it's not a deprivation of everything for me, and it does include factoring in money for going out and enjoying a nice meal, not binging, not you know, completely deferring just to spend all of the money all over again. It's a part of the plan, and I think that's that's another thing we need to recognize with the No Spend challenge is what is your plan to celebrate the accomplishment of it.
Factor that money in when you're planning for the no spend challenge.
Absolutely so a quote that Goldie picked out when she re listened to this episode is when we're so used to solving all our problems by spending money, not only do we wonder where all our money has gone, but we also lose the self satisfaction that comes with being creative, critical thinkers and figuring things out.
Wow, we're smart, we are so wise.
But it's so true. And I hope this episode helped you you figure out really what a no spend challenge is if it's going to help you. I think our spending has become so convoluted by so much marketing, so much advertising, that it can be hard to figure out what you truly love to spend money on. And I mean, we wrote a whole book that you can read while you're doing your no spend challenge, Buy what you Love without going broke. It will be a big help. You can get it at buy what you lovebook dot com.
You're not going beend doing that before your no spend challenge and then have it as a resource.
And if you're on your no spend challenge, you can get it from the library on that page on that website. We even have instruction on how to request it at your library. If your library doesn't carry it.
There's freeways to get the audiobook version too.
Yeah, if you love us and would love to support us, you can buy the book, but you don't have to. We rather you get the information inside of.
It at all. We're so selfless.
Wow. Anyway, thank you so much for listening. We've loved reading your reviews about the book. Honestly, like that has been a great payment. We prefer money, but we've also loved reading your reviews. This one's from Jennifer Garner.
Wow.
Thanks Jennifer. I guess there could be more than one Jennifer Garner out there, but I only know one right Personally, I.
Don't want to get it twisted. It's probably not the Jennifer Garner that you know, but she does give it five stars and says has a huge As a huge frugal friends fan and longtime listener, I bought the book to support the podcast. I promise I didn't read this before. I said said all that. I read the book as obligation to my purchase. I enjoyed the book from the bottom of my heart. So much knowledge was gained, so
much entertainment was received. Thanks ladies for the whole book, and that one line that said I can be wealthy, I will use it every day.
I remember saying that, oh oh, I hadn't be wealthy, and then there's no end quote that we did say that I can be wealthy, but if I am.
Wealthy, I will use that wealth every day. I just don't think I've said that.
And that's why punctuation was so important. We were probably the ones who did not copy and paste the punctuation. Jenifer Garner, beautiful Garnery, you can be wealthy. I mean you already are.
Probably you might already be, And that's why she's saying it every day.
We are on one right now.
Well, thank you all so much for being here. If you're liking this podcast, please leave our show a rating and review. If you've read the book, please leave us a review of the book. You can do that on Amazon or from wherever you purchase the book. And if you're not subscribed to our YouTube channel, don't sleep on that. Yeah, we've got some good stuff different from what we're putting out on the podcast that we think will be really helpful, especially for those of you who do decide you're going
to do a no spend challenge. We've got some great helpful tips, especially I'm gonna recommend our spending intervention series. Just go go, go to YouTube, subscribe to Frugal Friends, and then just like tool around a little bit.
Yeah, even if you're not a YouTube watcher, subscribing helps us a lot, because every time somebody from our audience subscribes to our show on YouTube, YouTube will push it out to two people who don't have never heard of the show. So it is truly helpful, and maybe we can get more Jennifer Garner's listening to the show and being.
Wealthy telling us how wealthy they are.
Yeah, let us know in the comments on any YouTube video if you're Jennifer Garner and how wealthy you are, and if you use it every day or maybe you don't me use it once a week.
Let us know. See you later.
Grugle Friends is produced by Eric Siriani.
I already told you this story, but I feel like our friends need to know. This past weekend, we had a sick raccoon in our yard.
Yeah, everybody does need to hear the story.
And Eric was out mowing the lawn and then was so close to this raccoon and then realize, oh, that's a raccoon, and then all the neighbors start coming round paying attention to what's going on because it's broad daylight. This raccoon's just on the ground next to our oak tree, awake but lethargic, not aggressive, and they're like, we should probably do something with this, like like trap it and take it somewhere. It was a Sunday, so there wasn't
anybody who could come out to our home. But thankfully our one neighbor had a crate, an empty crate that we could use. So I put on my big rubber boots and got a bunch of rubb like big plastic lids that you would put on plastic bins, and we just kind of like corralled the raccoon from the tree into the crate. And thankfully it wasn't it was still maintained,
its non aggression. None of us got bit put it into a crate, and then I'm like, okay, well now what They're like, yeah, you can't release it back into the wild. They thought that it had distemper. I'd never heard of that before.
I had a temper. I have a bad temper.
Got it from a raccoon.
So you do not want to release Temper the wild. Multiple sources recommended, Yeah, I.
Could make other people sick too, So I called probably like fifteen different places trying to figure out where the heck to take this thing. One of the voicemails led me to, hey, you know, they're like, we're all filled up with raccoons. We can't take any more.
Fuck out too many raccoons.
But they were like, go to and actually I probably shouldn't say it out loud because they're so particular about their website, but maybe I should. I'm going to here we are, we're at the after show. So they're like, go to Raccoon Rescue nine one one, and this is a national resource hotline for on Facebook. So they're like, look up the group on Facebook, Raccoon Rescue nine one one. Give them your information. They'll be able to help you. So I'm like, all right, I'm at my wits end.
You join this raccoon rescue.
I joined Raccoon Rescue nine one one, and I had to fill out like what was going on with me and my raccoon, and I was accepted to the group instantaneously, even though it had to be approved by admin and immediately, one of the admin tagged me in a post. They were like, Jolly and Sirihani, contact this woman for Penelas County. Contact this one for Hernando County. Keep us surprised. What's going on? I'm like, I literally surprised. Applied to this
less than three minutes ago and they're already rallying. The subculture of raccoon Rescue is insane in a good way, in the best way, in the most helpful way, but it is a subculture. And then I was scrolling a little bit further down and I saw one of the admin was like, we generally try and be nice and kind in here, but I'm going to break that rule
for this one. Anyone else who just invites their friends to this group is getting kicked out of here, because this is for real raccoon emergencies and raccoon babies, and we can't be having just friends joining wanting to see cute pics of raccoon babies. This is real work we're doing in here, and we only want people who have emergencies like this is not I hope I meet the qualifications. Anyways, I end up texting the person that Raccoon Rescue nine one.
One tells me to text and they respond again immediately within two minutes, I get a text back because I had listed out everything and what's a dead end, And so I was saying that this one veterinary group said that they wouldn't take them, and her first response to me was, they're lying. They must just be tired because it's Sunday and they don't want to work. But I take distemper raccoons to them all the time. And then she's like, I'm at my donor's graduation. I can't help right now.
I'm like, oh my god.
Wow, and yet you are texting me back within minutes of my initial message. Again, I stand by Raccoon Rescue. Soap culture is popping off. These people are a tribe and they are ready to rumble.
Wow.
Anyways, ended up.
Long.
It's just it's all such a long story. But we finally did find a place to take it to. She was right that one place was lying and we were able to take it there, and we did so. Eric and I non pet owners, driving this sick raccoon in a crate in the back of our car. Never would have thought that this is where I would just be spending my Sunday evening. But twist, one of the best
twists ever. We get there, we have to wait for them to take the raccoon out of the crate because we need to get the crate back to our neighbor. And meanwhile they have snack cart. They wheel over snack cart to us with all the good snacks, high protein snacks, nut snacks, goldfish snacks, pirate booty snacks, also chapstick or.
Np bot expected when you told me that lights slip them on the snack cart Sanded raccoons rescue.
Well, no, no, this was a veterinary like an emergency twenty four to seven, but clinic.
So they were lying that they couldn't take the raccoon. But then they were like snacks.
Snacks, and I was like, okay, yeah, bottles of water, cot tea. It was wow. It was a luxurious experience that I'm like, am I am I raccoon rescue? Now? Is this what I do on Sundays? Because snacks, I'll keep going getting some distemper raccoons. Clearly I can handle it because you and I have had a podcast for over seven years. Yeah, distempered home scare me away. I got rubber made lids. Yeah, I can corral you into something.
You have corralled me many times and I've given you snacks for it. Well, well, got it all worked out, same