Giving up Money for Lent

brassiclint

So once this lent challenge is up and we all sign up for the "Unneccessary Challenge" shall we all add a slogan to our signatures??

Are we setting rules? Or will it be left down to our own consciences? How do we measure how well we're doing? The amount of NSDs we tally-up? The amount we DON'T spend in a month? What will the markers be?

Seaxwyn

Hi all

I'm sticking with this to the end of Lent but I don't think I'll sign up for the Unnecessary Challenge - mainly as I want to cut down the amount of time I spend on here!

This challenge has taught me some interesting lessons about my spending, but my biggest challenge is to be more disciplined about earning

I'm self-employed and I need to find a way of disciplining myself to do six billable hours work every day, rather than spend hours on the internet. I'll think about that and maybe post a freelancers challenge somewhere.

But meanwhile I'm with you for the remaining however many days til Easter.

winkle1

I would LOVE to join the unnecessary challenge as I have been reading this thread since the beginning and although I didnt sign up 100% as i had plans for the month, I have had 10 no spend days so far this month because I have been trying to follow the basic principles.

So please count me in for next month! I would be keen to have a day off a week like what was previously suggested as I have 2 nights out planned for sisters and best friends birthday which I could use as pass days?

please let me know the rules.

thx

CAFCGirl

brassiclint wrote: »

So once this lent challenge is up and we all sign up for the "Unneccessary Challenge" shall we all add a slogan to our signatures??

Are we setting rules? Or will it be left down to our own consciences? How do we measure how well we're doing? The amount of NSDs we tally-up? The amount we DON'T spend in a month? What will the markers be?

I think it's gnna be important if we unleash the beast of a few one challenge to set out some definitive rules.....

Are we replacing :money: Martin Says No :money: ?

I'll miss him if we do!
Anyone have any thoughts as to how they want to measure themselves?
I think leaving it down to the individual can create problems, what one person sees as necessary might not be someone else's. But at the same time, we dont want to make people feel like they're being dictated to....

Maybe everyone could either review spend diaries or online banking, say the month previous (or for us, before Lent started) and work out how much they spent on unneccesaries and then try to beat that figure for the coming month, and then next month you try and beat the lower amount and so on and so on.

That way we're not saying you cant spend on the odd treat etc but its the individuals target. So someone might work out they spend £30 on take away coffees per month, so thats mini target in itself if they want to start small.
Or they could work out all spending that wasn't grocery food/utility/bills/debt payments/fees/rent etc, and try and beat that.

CAFCGirl

wow gone one evening and i miss so much! You're such a spiritual mentor Moonflower Sunbeam altho i get the feeling occasionally it could be more like lol just kidding!

Tee hee hee I've got my Moonflower Sunbeam hat on, in the form of a new avatar Hope you dont mind C?!

TurnaroundSue

I quite like Winkle's idea of a pass day per week, which can be adjusted depending what you have on and maybe a limit set on how to spend on your pass day - say £20 - and if you don't use it then it can be added onto the next pass day the following week; therefore if you have a night out planned for say 2 weeks time, you can have a no spend this week, use your £20 for your night out add that onto next week's pass day and you'll have £40 for that night out! And whatever money you have left by the end of the month, it can go to pay off a debt

I hope everybody understands what I mean, as I think I might have confused myself

ShirleyPark_2

CAFCGirl wrote: »

I think it's gnna be important if we unleash the beast of a few one challenge to set out some definitive rules.....

Are we replacing :money: Martin Says No :money: ?

I'll miss him if we do!
Anyone have any thoughts as to how they want to measure themselves?
I think leaving it down to the individual can create problems, what one person sees as necessary might not be someone else's. But at the same time, we dont want to make people feel like they're being dictated to....

Maybe everyone could either review spend diaries or online banking, say the month previous (or for us, before Lent started) and work out how much they spent on unneccesaries and then try to beat that figure for the coming month, and then next month you try and beat the lower amount and so on and so on.

That way we're not saying you cant spend on the odd treat etc but its the individuals target. So someone might work out they spend £30 on take away coffees per month, so thats mini target in itself if they want to start small.
Or they could work out all spending that wasn't grocery food/utility/bills/debt payments/fees/rent etc, and try and beat that.

How about we set a target for ourselves as to how much we want to spend on non budgetted stuff each month. That would remove some of the problem with what one person thinks is essential is not what another thinks is essential. Of course that would be open to abuse by someone that decided to budget for £30 of takeaways a month. I always buy my non budgetted stuff with cash, and have slowly been trying to reduce the amount of cash I withdraw each month, I've gone from nearly £200 a month (though that was Nov and did buy Christmas presents with it), to only £30 this month and I still have a good chunk of that.

CAFCGirl

but does that run the risk of people not really thinking about what they spend unneccesarily, and just having a blow out day every week?

So they just buy all their unnecessary items on that day?

TurnaroundSue

CAFCGirl wrote: »

but does that run the risk of people not really thinking about what they spend unneccesarily, and just having a blow out day every week?

So they just buy all their unnecessary items on that day?

That's why I thought it would be a good idea to have a limit, so people (myself included) couldn't just blow out one day a week. I was thinking of an example whereby I am going out in April and was wondering how I would fund it without feeling guilty - so for me it would be to have a pass day, but not use it one week to help pay for my night out the following week. It would also have the added incentive that you still might be able to have money left at the end of each month. I suppose it's the same principle as the Lent Challenge - where people don't include Sundays in the challenge.

CAFCGirl

ShirleyPark wrote: »

How about we set a target for ourselves as to how much we want to spend on non budgetted stuff each month. That would remove some of the problem with what one person thinks is essential is not what another thinks is essential. Of course that would be open to abuse by someone that decided to budget for £30 of takeaways a month. I always buy my non budgetted stuff with cash, and have slowly been trying to reduce the amount of cash I withdraw each month, I've gone from nearly £200 a month (though that was Nov and did buy Christmas presents with it), to only £30 this month and I still have a good chunk of that.

Thats kinda what I was aiming at lol just couldnt find the words!

A lot of people have a "stuff" category in their budget. So if say for you example Shirley, you buy all ur unneccsary things with cash, and you look at ur bank and see how much cash you withdrew last month, say it was £100,

£100 becomes your unneccesary target for the next month and u try and reduce that amount as much as poss, say u only withdrew £80 that month, the following month your budget would be £80 and so on and so on.

So if someone chose to spend £25 on a takeaway, its their choice, but then it only leaves say £75 for anything else they want. Makes you truly assess whether you want that takeaway or if you're likely to want someone else later that month.

General if you walk away from a spending decision you forget to go back to it, or you realise you never truly needed it or wanted it that much anyway!