As I touched on in my previous blog post discussing my savings plans for this year, I mentioned how I want to try doing a ‘no buy’ month. Now I initially wanted to start this in March, but with birthdays, mothers day etc it wasn’t all that feasible for me, so i’ve instead shifted it into April and I thought i’d continue this little series by sharing my plans for this no buy month.
My Plans for No Buy April..
You may wonder what a a no buy month is, and really the answer is in the name. Not buying/paying for things other than the obvious essentials such as bills, food and fuel. The main reason for wanting to try a no buy month (or two) was to try to save more, as my main aim for 2020 is to save more than I ever have and to be honest I feel that i’m doing quite well this far, but we can all strive for improvement. I also have a lot to pay for in May, as everything on my car is due and i’m meant to be going to Barcelona (lol) so the more money I have saved, the better! Essentially I want to give myself a spending ban to stop myself buying unnecessary things but also appreciate the things I already have! So here are the plans for my no buy April..
What are the exceptions?
Now the starting point for me is accessing what are the exceptions of this no buy month, as there are no doubt going to be some things that I still have to pay for. As I briefly mentioned above, the obvious ones are of course going to be: rent, but thankfully I live at home so this isn’t particularly high, bills, so for me my car finance, gym membership and mobile phone bill which i’ve actually reduced to just £10 (cheers Three for doing the best sim only deals out there) and finally, fuel as I commute to and from work on a daily basis and my car needs to run. Another thing I will add as an exception is food, but only food that I buy as add ons to the weekly shop that my Mum does. Lastly on the exceptions list are the necessities, so if I run out of say deodorant or makeup wipes, they’re allowed.
Looking at my diary for April, I don’t have any birthdays or big celebrations planned, not that I could attend them anyway with all pubs, restaurants etc closed currently, but I don’t have anything that will mean I need to spend a particularly large amount of money on. However, if something like a birthday comes up I will allow a small budget to gift something.
What is banned?
Now onto the things that are banned during this no buy month and for me, the biggest expenditure that I incur each month is eating and socialising out. Of course, with the government closing all restaurants etc currently, this won’t be too hard to cut back on but obviously a lot of places are still allowing takeaway services, so these are on my banned list. As well as eating out, I do find at the beginning of the month following pay day, I always have a little treat myself moment whether it be some new home bits or clothes and with every retailer offering some amazing discounts at the moment i’ve really had to restrain myself. So any unnecasary purchases including clothes, home ware, tech etc are completely banned as well.
How Am I Sticking to it?
Good question! Well I typically use my Monzo for just food/drink and socialising, so I won’t be topping that up at all through April. I will also being making a conscious effort to not go anywhere where I may find myself wanting to buy anything, so no quick window shopping trips to Home Sense, because they always result in some kind of purchase. Now, with my job being in fashion I always find myself browsing online shopping sites and to be honest i’m usually quite restraint but again, i’ll be making a conscious effort to not browse websites that I would typically purchase from.
So those are my plans for a no buy April and i’m quite looking forward to see how I get on! I’ll of course being doing an update style post at some point in May to update you on how I get on, but I also hope this post inspires some of you to try a no buy month too!
Have you done a no buy month before?
