No spend challenge

I have been doing a no spend challenge these past couple of weeks and have been really impressed with the blue and gold stickers on my calendar. Gold stickers are for days when I have only spent on essentials - things like milk, petrol, phone/power bills etc and blue stickers are for days when I spend nothing at all. I started on Sunday 15th and have 7 blue stars and 2 gold so 9 of the 12 days have stars to sparkle at me when I sit at the computer.

The concept of the no spend challenge is from Simple Savings and it's amazing how it changes your perspective on the things you purchase and whether or not you decide to purchase them. For me the big thing is knowing that if I have to purchase something essential I can still have a star as with children in the house we always need milk and without petrol I couldn't get to work therefore wouldn't get paid. And also it makes me think smarter about how I do my shopping. For example tomorrow the boys are having tuck shop so there will be no sticker for me. So while it's looking that way I may as well get the groceries too and then I might be able to manage some spend free days over the weekend. That way my calendar will get even more sparkly.

Any money I save from these no spend days will go into the holiday fund - the best place for it I think. There will be no no spend days while we are on holiday I can assure you!