As a frugillionaire, I love a good spending fast. Maybe it’s due to an anti-establishment streak, but sometimes nothing feels better than keeping my dollars out of corporate coffers.
I like to think of it as a kind of strength-training, as I work to keep my finances in shape.
Spending fasts can range from daily workouts to year-long marathons. Here are some ways you can exercise your fiscal restraint:
* Resolve to buy nothing for the entire day—no coffee, no lunch, no snacks or bottled water, and certainly no material goods.
* Have a no-spend weekend. Don’t dine in restaurants, go to the movies, set foot in a mall, or do anything that involves money leaving your wallet.
* Resolve to buy nothing frivolous for an entire week. Only gas, groceries, and absolute necessities are allowable expenditures.
* Resolve to buy nothing frivolous for an entire month. Same as above, only three weeks longer.
* Resolve to abstain from a certain category of consumerism for an entire year. In 2008, for example, I completed the “No New Clothes for a Year” Challenge. You can undertake a similar challenge for electronics, books, movies, restaurants, or the category of your choice.
* For black-belt frugillionaires: Resolve to buy nothing frivolous for an entire year. This challenge is the Olympics of frugality, and the prize: all that extra money in the bank.
Start a spending fast today—the sooner you develop consumer restraint, the financially stronger you’ll become!
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