At the end of August, I discovered Bullet Journaling. If you are Type A, like myself, then you need to head over to Pinterest and check this out. Its a cute way to lay out your planner pages to make them user friendly and fun. Since happening upon Bullet Journaling, I have been making a page for each week…At the beginning of September, I took it one step further and did a monthly challenge. I called my challenge “No Spend September” and attempted to avoid online shopping, buying Q anything and everything, and shopping for no reason.
Overall, the challenge wasn’t terribly hard and I did okay. You see the days in red, those are the days I failed. I bought some makeup on one day (This may be more of a need than a frivolous item though because I NEED makeup to feel ok about myself and my skin color has changed since I lost my awesome summer tan so I don’t know if this one really counts) and I bought myself two long sleeve shirts from Target (on sale so I mean that counts for something, right?). I also confess: I took the above picture a few days early. I failed on the 27th too but I went into a local women’s consignment shop that I happened upon and while browsing, I came across a $200 pair of jeans I wanted for only $22 so I bought them. Its against the “no spend September” rules but IT WAS A GOOD GREAT DEAL and I couldn’t risk them not being there in a few days!
Avoiding Jane.com was easy…avoiding Zulily was hard. I checked it some days, just out of boredom, but the minute I saw something that kinda sorta tempted me, I closed out the page and found something else to look at. One day I was having a rough day and I really needed some online shopping so I ordered my groceries online. (Thanks Shipt for helping me fuel my online shopping addiction while not breaking my NSS rules!) I never once made it to the gym though, other than for a makeup class, I never made it to the mall either (and if you want to get technical that shouldn’t count either because the mall was closed and the only open store was the makeup store.) I didn’t go to any craft stores. I resisted purchasing fall decor items from the Target dollar section. I found some cute cups for Q the other day and I passed on those too. Really, I did well. Despite my failures, I did much better than I thought I would.
I didn’t get around to any of my ideas for extra money but that’s ok because instead I started this blog so my time was well spent. I don’t think I will be rewarding myself with a massage because technically I didn’t 100% successfully complete the challenge. I won’t say I won’t buy any shoes because all month long I have been eyeing a new pair of duck boots and as soon as they go on sale I will own them and justify them as my “reward” for surviving No Spend September.
Overall, the hardest part was coming home to ZERO packages at the front door. I get some sort of sick thrill out of opening a package. Its like Christmas or my birthday or a reward for surviving a work day when you come home to a fun package on the front door. I am hoping that I have overcome the need for that thrill and can continue to pass on purchasing frivolous items and over-online shopping!
So what’s next? OCTOBER! Duh! Stay tuned for October’s challenge. In the meantime, get your bullet journal and get ready to tackle the next challenge with me!
Hot Mess Momma Club 
5 thoughts on “No Spend September”