Trying No Spend November

We are officially in November, and on our way to Christmas time! I don’t know about yall, but I am SO READY for the holidays! I live for this time of the year, and I’m so excited to finally be in my own apartment (with Erika of course) to decorate, and just have all the cozy holiday vibes!

But, with the holidays coming up comes the time my bank account runs from. My love language is gift-giving, and I absolutely love to spoil all my loved ones. I have a tendency to go crazy, and with that comes a lot of spending. I am not here to promote going broke over Christmas gifts, of course.

This year looks different for me in a few ways when it comes to budgeting for Christmas! One big contender is that I now have rent, unfortunately. This is a BIG expense each month, and why I knew I had to budget super strict for Christmas if I wanted to still feel financially stable throughout the holidays. Also, I definitely have more people in my life now that I will want to get gifts for. Which, is so awesome but definitely something I needed to think about for budget reasons!

All of this to say, I decided “No Spend November” was in the cards for me! If you haven’t heard of this challenge, it’s basically exactly how it sounds. You cut out all extra spending, and focus on saving!  I’m sure there are articles out there with specific rules/ goals, but I am going to tweak it to what works for me and my lifestyle! In addition to saving for Christmas, I wanted to use this challenge as a way to kind of reset my spending and see what I can get better at for saving here on out!

First off, if you don’t already have a budget set up I recommend doing that first! My dad sent me a budget through Excell awhile ago, and I’ve been using it for the past 6 months and really like it! I would look around on Google or Pinterest and find one you like! Honestly, I’m not super strict when it comes to budgeting, but that’s definitely something I want to get better at. For this challenge, I looked through my budget and my last two months’ bank statements to get an idea of what I typically spend on eating out, and clothes.

My end goal for November is to be able to set aside all the money I would have typically spent on eating out and clothes (as budgeted and spent in the past months) and use that towards Christmas gifts!

I put together a set of rules for myself for the month of November and wanted to share them with you! Like I said I’m doing this to save for Christmastime, and want to just get back into better saving habits! It’s so easy to just walk into Target every week and “blackout” but those dollar spot purchases seriously add up every month! I did want to note, that I do have a few events already planned for November, that will require eating out and spending money while I’m there so that does kind of cheat the system, but it was already booked and paid for!

 

Goals/ Rules

No eating out

No unnecessary shopping

Plan out meals

Stick to a grocery list

Set aside the $ I budget for eating out and clothes each pay period

Stay away from Target (joking, but not)

 

I am definitely nervous about this challenge, and pretty sure everyone I have mentioned this to has zero faith in me – but I am honestly going to try so hard to stick with this! I will be posting updates on Instagram throughout the month, and will report back here on the blog the first week of December!