3684: What Happened When We Stopped Spending Money for a Whole Week by Philip Taylor of PT Money on Intentional Spending

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[00:00:58] USLAC store online for details. This is Optimal Finance Daily. What happened when we stopped spending money for a whole week? By Philip Taylor of ptmoney.com. And I'm Justin Malek. Welcome back to the podcast where I read an article to you every day of the year with permission from the authors. So with that, let's get right to it as we optimize your life.

[00:01:24] What happened when we stopped spending money for a whole week? By Philip Taylor of ptmoney.com. Remember seventh grade and the science experiments? Good times. Well, today I'm not going to make you dissect a frog. We'll be looking at more of a monetary experiment. Just a few more days till the end of the month, right? I'll get paid and we'll have a little more breathing room in the budget.

[00:01:50] You see, Mrs. PT and I have been saving aggressively over the past few months for some upcoming goals. We do our saving automatically a few days after we get paid. That way we have the rest of the month to spend the remaining funds on whatever.

[00:02:06] This month, however, our aggressive saving and spending finally got the best of us. Now we're running a bit low. So instead of dipping into our savings or using debt, we are challenging ourselves to not spend any money this week. One exception. If we make extra money by selling something or by returning something and getting a refund, we get to use that money however we like.

[00:02:33] Because of this exception, I made some moves over the weekend. I grabbed a few items around the house that we didn't need anymore and listed them on craigslist.org. Two have sold so far, giving us $38. We also brought some of our old clothes by a consignment store, which gave us an additional $10. That's almost $50 to spend this week without having to dip into savings.

[00:02:59] And if a few more items sell, we'll have even more cash. Sweet. More thoughts going into this week. Number one, I don't pretend to think that this is going to be easy. We've gotten into the habit of spending when we feel like it, especially dining out for lunch or dinner. So believe it or not, we normally spend a lot more than $50 on food in a week. It's our biggest frivolous expense, you could say.

[00:03:27] Plus we have all the other normal expenses to avoid. Groceries, personal care, and convenience items. Although I think the groceries will be easy since we have so much in our cupboard already. Number two, I know some of you guys are a lot smarter with your spending, do this sort of thing all the time, and are probably laughing at me right now. And number three, hopefully we can do it successfully and get more in tune with our needs versus wants.

[00:03:55] I see it as a chance to get back to the basics. Tips to avoid excessive spending. Besides prayers for contentment, here are some things we, and you, can do to help abstain from excess spending. Number one, turn off the TV and hide the magazines to avoid the tempting advertising. Number two, take your credit or debit cards out of your wallet and place them in your home safe for a while.

[00:04:25] Number three, find entertainment from the things you already have. For example, old movies or board or card games. Number four, have a clean-the-cupboard meals-only week. That is, eat at home till the cupboard is bare. Number five, spend more time reading or blogging. Number six, go to the park instead of the mall.

[00:04:52] And number seven, go to the library instead of the bookstore. Results of our no-spend week. The week without spending officially ended on Friday Eve. Today I'm sharing the results of our little experiment. So, how do we do? Here are the actual results, in no particular order. We started with a beginning balance of $0. Craigslist sales brought in $38.

[00:05:21] The consignment shop, $10. PT's return, $74. Mrs. PT's return, $16. Then, the spending. PT's Tuesday lunch, minus $10. Sunday dinner, minus $13. Sunday groceries, minus $60. Friday dinner, minus $3. Christmas cards, minus $42.

[00:05:50] And a birthday card and baby clothes, minus $7. That left us with an ending balance of $3. I'd say it was a success. We actually made $3 at the end of the week. The Christmas cards were a purchase we already had planned, and due to a sale price ending during the week, we decided to make the purchase this week, rather than next. Excuses, excuses, I know.

[00:06:18] The Craigslist sales and consignment shop money were quick money, as were the returns. The dinner on Friday night was a feast at Boston Market. They're running a $1 dinner special. We still have about $100 worth of items on Craigslist, which hopefully will sell soon. More thoughts about the week. Number one, it wasn't that hard to eat more meals from home, thanks to Mrs. PT creating some excellent meal choices for us throughout the week.

[00:06:47] This made the meals outside the home more special. Number two, making extra money to spend wasn't that difficult. While there might not always be things to return on hand, there seems to always be something lying around that we could sell on Craigslist. We have a bunch of clutter. Number three, the clothes consignment shop was easy money too. Although the lady at the counter told me my styles, the ones that didn't sell, were a bit dated.

[00:07:16] I took that as a compliment and quickly dropped those items off at goodwill. Number four, it didn't take much planning to prevent those impulse convenience items. And number five, this is something we should do at least once a month. We really could stand to do this sort of thing more often. Recently, we've gotten lazy with our spending and we haven't always made the conscious choice with our end goals in mind. This week helped us to be more aware about our spending

[00:07:44] and live more within our means. You just listened to the post titled, What Happened When We Stopped Spending Money for a Whole Week? by Philip Taylor of PTMoney.com And I'll be right back with my commentary. You know what's funny? We'll hit the gym, eat clean, track our sleep, then slam coffee all day to function. My stomach's sensitive to caffeine, so I've had to stop drinking coffee.

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[00:10:05] That's 15% off at oneskin.co with code OFD. After your purchase, they'll ask where you heard about them. Please support the show and tell them we sent you. Thank you to Philip. This was a fun one and kind of inspiring. I like the idea of a no-spend week as a little experiment rather than some big permanent lifestyle change. It takes the pressure off. It's just one week. You're not signing up forever. And I thought it was smart how he gave himself that one exception.

[00:10:35] Anything he earned by selling stuff or returning things, he got to spend. So he ended up going around the house, digging up clutter, and selling it on Craigslist. Which is kind of a two-for-one. You clear out stuff you don't need, and you fund your week. But I think the main point was near the end, where he said the week just made them more aware and helped them get back to spending with their actual goals in mind.

[00:11:03] Because I think that's what these little challenges really do. It's not about the money you save in that one week, which for him came out to $3. It's that it snaps you out of autopilot. So much of our spending is just habit and convenience. Grabbing lunch out, the little impulse buys. And a week of paying attention resets that. So if your spending has felt a little mindless lately, maybe give this a shot.

[00:11:30] Pick a week, set the rules, and see what you notice. But that'll do it for today. Have a great rest of your day. And I'll see you tomorrow, where your optimal life awaits.