Marvellous March's No-Spend Days Challenge!

cathybird

Welcome to Marvellous March'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 this month 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, essential health spending such as dental checkups or medications, 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. 

March emojis

Off to a start
5 days
10 days
15 days
20 days
Target reached
Target beaten

Everyone welcome to join! 😊😊

cathybird

March 2026 NSD targets 

AuntieL 15
beanielou 19
Bluekelpie26 14
cathybird 15
Changeyourlife25 10
crazybeautiful 20
cuddlymarm 15
Deb 4 15
Dizzycap 10
doingitanyway 12
Doris17 20
Honeysucklelou2 10
Ilovetea 20
InDebtEnby 13
KajiKita 20
laurenh1 18
LittleMissDetermined 20
loopylupin 12
Mamma2004 14
Pinkpieuni 10
RhiBi 15
Rupacomp 10
Thriftymissus 25
ThriftyPrincess40 22
VickyA 2 15
Wanna Bee Free 10

🌞 🌞  Everyone welcome to join! 🌞 🌞

cathybird

March 2026 NSD totals

NSD-ers	Totals	Off to a start	5 days	10 days	15 days	20 days	Target reached	Target beaten
AuntieL	15
beanielou	1/19
BlueKelpie26	14
cathybird	15
Changeyourlife25	10
crazybeautiful	20
cuddlymarm	15
Deb4	1/15
Dizzycap	10
doingitanyway	12
Doris17	1/20
Honeysucklelou2	10
ilovetea	20
InDebtEnby	13
KajiKita	20
laurenh1	1/18
LittleMissDetermined	20
loopylupin	12
Mamma2004	14
Pinkpieuni	10
RhiBi	15
Rupacomp	10
Thriftymissus	1/25
ThriftyPrincess40	1/22
VickyA 2	15
WannaBeeFree	10

Everyone welcome to join!

beanielou

Starting with the first one of the month.

laurenh1

An early call for today xx

Thriftymissus

Hello all

Thank you @cathybird 💕

My first NSD of the month today.

Determined to be extra thrifty this month so hoping for a very low spending first week.

good luck everyone ❤️

Deb4

Morning everyone, an early call for today

ThriftyPrincess40

it’s March already🤦🏻‍♀️ I’ve NSD on Feb thread 😂 one for me today 🙈

Thank you for this thread 💕

Does anyone know, if I register with a new NHS dentist (found one) do I pay that day or have to book apt then pay? Just so I can factor it in my expenses.

Doris17

NSD for me please 1/20

beanielou

One today.

beanielou

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81904519#Comment_81904519

Pay on the day.