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Joyous January's No-Spend Days Challenge!

Welcome to Joyous January's No-Spend Days Challenge! This challenge is all about helping people to save money by setting aside days every month where you deliberately don't spend unnecessary cash. Over the short term, it can help you have a more frugal month. Over the long term, if you stick with it, it can help change your mindset because you get out of the habit of frittering money away and start automatically holding off from spending instead. It also helps you delay purchases, which in turn means you lose interest in a lot of things you might otherwise impulse buy.

Another good thing with this challenge is we're all in it together, and people will help you on bad days and cheer you on on good days, and the support and accountability can really help make it easier to keep going with it. And if all else fails, there's always next month

To join, just post the number of no-spend days (NSDs) you're aiming for in January and you are on your way!

Tips for the challenge:
1. It's totally up to you but if you've never done the challenge before, it's probably simpler to start with a goal of 10 or (at most) 15.

2. It is fine to exclude necessary expenses eg petrol, groceries, pet food, etc, when it comes to deciding what is and isn't an NSD. It is also completely fine to exclude automated or recurring payments such as bills, mortgage or direct debits.

3. It does help to post every time you notch up an NSD, or at least every two or three days ... it's easy to lose track! If you want to keep track of your NSDs in your MSE signature, that can be really motivating too

4. It also helps to bookmark the thread, it's much easier to find.

5. NSDs are trickier than they seem and easily derailed. It can work better if you notch up as many days as you can in the first half of the month, or think of the month in thirds so if you're aiming for 10 NSDs, try to do 4 days in the first 10, 3 in the second and 3 in the third. And if you feel that you're falling behind, there's no shame in changing your target! Sometimes life just gets in the way, and the challenge should be fun, not a grind.

January

Off to a start = image

5 days = image

10 days = image

15 days = image

20 days = image

Target reached = image

Target beaten = image


To see the updated results for January at any point, click here :)
«13456745

Comments

  • cathybird
    cathybird Posts: 14,980 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 1 January at 1:23PM
    January targets

    AuntieL 15

    beanielou 19

    BestnamesRgone 15

    Bluefeathers32 10

    Caeraugirl 20

    Cassingtonbear 15

    cathybird 15

    Combenew 10

    CrazyBee787 19

    cuddlymarm 15

    Dizzycap 27

    Doris17 15

    felicityBD15 10

    Honeysucklelou2 10

    HotDog2020 10

    Janeryan

    KajiKita 20

    laura lau 18

    laurenh 20

    Lillian1977 20

    LittleMissDetermined 12

    Louise600 10

    Makingabobor2 15

    Nintud

    QueenJess 15

    Pauper1 20

    Rupacomp

    SerenitySeven 10

    Sausageroll14 20

    SecondStar 15

    short bird 18

    Tjh1412 15

    try harder 15




    🌞 🌞  Everyone welcome to join! 🌞 🌞

  • Tjh1412
    Tjh1412 Posts: 199 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Please can I join with a target of 15 NSDs?
    2025 in 2025- 1377/2025
    365 savings challenge- £15.99/667.95
    January grocery challenge- £41.53/£80
  • Flick85
    Flick85 Posts: 135 Forumite
    100 Posts Third Anniversary Name Dropper
    Can I please join with a target of 10 NSDs?
    Challenges:

    January NSD: 4/10 days
    Pay Your Debts in 2025: 0/£15,000
  • Please can. I join with a target of 10 NSD?
  • cathybird
    cathybird Posts: 14,980 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    hi Tjh1412 image, felicityBD15 image and Combenew image and welcome image to our lovely thread! I've added you to the list, best of luck with the challenge! image
  • I'm on holiday in Jan so can I aim for 12 please?
    Life gets in the way...PADding is addictive...Saving's better than spending...
    2025 1p challenge #41 | Cash envelope challenge #01 | SPC #017
    Sealed pot 2025 £1713 | EF £1000/£1000 | Sabbatical £2348/£3000 | Travel savings £1454 | Sinking pots £3053
  • Please can I join with a target of 20. 

    I feeling very ' go hard or go home' at the minute 😳😜
  • Please can I join the challenge with a target of 10 days 
  • try_harder
    try_harder Posts: 1,531 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Please can i join in with a target of 15 days ? Thank you
  • lilian1977
    lilian1977 Posts: 5,138 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I would like to join with a target of 20 NSDs please.
    My debt free diary | Post Office loan: £2131 1905.94 | Barclaycard: £4429 3,715.34 | Paypal Credit £322.71 | Total £5,972.97 | £1,027.08 of £6992.81 paid off since diary started October 2024.
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