No-Spend Challenge Rules
A no-spend challenge is no easy task or practice to undertake. Breaking some habits may take some time and intrinsic motivation to accomplish the objective behind the no-spend challenge. Different people may respond differently to the challenge depending on their goals. However, there are some criteria one can follow through to actualize their intentions and goals for undertaking the challenge. Below are some no-spend challenge rules to help you through.
Set Smart Goals
Setting smart goals for the challenge is the key to pushing through even when it seems harder. The goal must be specific to avoid destruction, like pay-off credits. Having this goal will keep your focus and discipline even when the temptations to spend on wants to kick in.
An article by Positive Psychology states that setting goals helps to trigger new behaviors, guides a person to focus as well as sustain momentum in life. it also helps to align a person’s focus and enhance their sense of self-mastery.
No-Spend Rule No 2
This is key when it comes to accountability. These people will keep you accountable for what you do. Also when it comes to a family setting, the decision of spending money involves more than one person. It is important that they are on board. Involving those that you live with will enhance cooperation and increase the chances of success. This will help to cut out on things like eating out, which is one way in which people end up overspending their money.
Start Small! No spend challenge rules
It is important that you start with a small goal until you get the hang of it. For a start; one does not need a month to undertake the no-spend challenge, as it may prove to be a challenge. You can choose to do two weeks and then build up to it.
Pick a timeframe for the challenge;
No spend Weekend Challenge– this is perfect for people who tend to spend a lot on the weekend. For this find free activities that you can engage in with your family and friends.
No spend Week Challenge- This has to do with making changes to your daily habits. this can be the morning coffee from Starbucks. At the end of the week, you will have saved so much money by skipping the coffee of carrying homemade lunch to work.
No spend Month Challenge– Once you are able to do the weekend and the week challenge you can now move to a monthly challenge. Doing the month’s challenge can be challenging but you get bigger rewards. Always have your end goal in mind, it will keep you focused and moving forward.
This will help to make the entire process easy because you have someone to share with you the challenges that you are going through. Doing the challenge with a friend will definitely give you motivation. When you are about to give you will get the motivation to keep going.
Having others join the challenge will also make it fun instead of it feeling like a chore or a sacrifice that you are making.
Expectations are Key to Success
Having exceptions will make the no spend challenge easier. Doing the challenge does not mean you miss your monthly payment of things like a mortgage and car payments among others. One of the things that worked for me is to make a want vs need list. This made it easy to eliminate things that I don’t need to spend money on. For instance, I did not spend any money on paid cable tv and new skin care products.
This is tied to the point above. There are many ways that you can choose to do the no spend challenge. Choose one and move forward with it. Do not be so tough on yourself that you fail to make important payments or you go without food. You can make exceptions on important bills.
When doing this challenge I took the decor challenge. In this, I decided not to buy any decor items for my house since I had noticed that are a lot of my money was going to want decor items for my home. I still made sure I paid my crucial payments such as student loans.
Temptations are going to be there and if you are not careful, you may succumb into it. Identify your spending triggers and note them down. This will help you to fight them. it is easy to work on the triggers if you know them.
Reward yourself for the good job done. Doing the no-spend challenge can be hard, you therefore need a reward for simply attempting it and pulling through. Not most people do. This may end up encouraging you to take up the next challenge.
Preparation is key. No spend challenge rules
I am sure you have heard the saying that”Failure to plan is plan to fail.” I believe in this 100%. Read and research about the challenge before commencing the challenge. Lay everything on the table and plan how you want to go about it. This should include things like the challenge you what to take and the duration among others. It is also important that you restock your essentials and foodstuffs.
Since the goal of the challenge is to save money, it is important that you keep a track of your savings. This will motivate you to keep moving and extend your challenge for longer period.
