Who has heard of Ruth Soukup’s money saving challenge called “31 Days of Living Well & Spending Zero” challenge?
If you want to jump start your savings and/or your budget then you will want to sign up for this savings challenge! Leave a comment below if you are joining and we can help each other make it the entire 31 days!
You can go to Living Well Spending Less to get entire details and actually sign up. But let me tell you in a nutshell, what this savings challenge is all about.
You probably can tell by the title of the challenge that the goal is to adjust your spending habits for 31 days to spend ZERO dollars! Did you stop breathing? Don’t worry! You can do it! Let’s do it together!
Yes. The challenge is to spend as close to zero dollars as you can for an entire 31 days but there are a few exceptions to this rule. Things like produce and milk are things that can’t be stored very easily and can be purchased throughout this challenge.
My plan is to allow only $10 a week for produce and an additional $10 for other groceries like milk and meat. That means we are going to be bringing our monthly grocery spending from around $500-$600 all the way down to about $80!
When thinking about this challenge I do have a moment of panic but is quickly overshadowed by my excitement for all the money we are going to save!
What you get with this FREE savings challenge:
• Ideas on how to get your kitchen on budget, including tips on meal planning
• Help in cleaning and organizing your home
• Tips for getting creative on how to “make, do, learn, and create” all for free
• Last but certainly not least, ideas on how to earn a little extra money
Let’s sign up together!
To get all the details and to sign up, make sure to go over to livingwellspendingless.com! Let me make it clear that I am in no way being endorsed from this website to write this article.
I am just seriously excited about this challenge and want all of you, my friends, to do it with me! I have already signed up and now it’s your turn!
Now, why would anyone want to do this? I can tell you why I am doing this.
1. Reset our spending habits
There are many things in life that can side track our spending and distract us from our budgets. Most recently for our family, having a baby has done exactly that. Being exhausted for 9 months and then to have a newborn and to move past exhaustion to extreme exhaustion tends to result in convenience shopping. Not good! We need to get back on track and a spending freeze is just the thing we need to jump start our budget.
2. Build our savings
If we aren’t spending a big chunk of our income, we are going to have a nice chunk of change just hanging out. After doing a quick glimpse on Mint.com of where we have been spending our money, I’m estimating that we will be able to save around $500-$700 throughout this challenge! Our family’s plan is to put most of it into savings but to also use a bit of it for our Christmas/gifts budget this year.
Depending on your own family’s spending habits Ruth suggests that a lot of families could save over $1,000 in just a single month with this challenge! What would you do with an extra $1,000 in your pocket? (Figuratively of coarse! You should never walk around with that kind of cash! Are you crazy?)
3. Change our family’s mindset on money
We all know there is a difference between wants and needs. But actually following a budget and focusing more on the needs and not so much on the wants takes a lot of self-control. Especially if you haven’t been restraining yourself.
This is what we need to fix in our family! We need to stop spending so much money on our wants and start saving more money for our needs. Like buying a house!
At Living Well Spending Less they explain how to “freeze your spending” and how it will “change your life”! I think through doing this 31 Day Living Well Spending Zero Challenge we will be able to accomplish all three of these goals!
YOU can do it too! Make sure to check out the challenge for yourself at Living Well Spending Zero Challenge and then sign up!
So what are you waiting for? Let’s do this together! Go sign up!
If you like this article you will love these:
- 5 Things You Need to Stop Buying at Costco
- How to Start a Budget – Free Budgeting Template
- FREE Meal Planner and How it Will Save You Money
- How to Budget and Be Happy
Sarah Koontz {Grounded & Surrounded}
September 24, 2015 at 5:25 amI just got a copy of Ruth’s book in the mail, and am reading through the challenge right now. Looks fabulous, you are going to do great, girl! Hubby and I pretty much did a no spend year when we were trying to pay off debt, hard work but totally worth it.
Brittany Cooper
September 24, 2015 at 2:33 pmThanks Sarah! I am super excited to get started. I am a little weird and love doing challenges like this one to push myself!
Lady Lilith
September 24, 2015 at 6:01 amThis is such a great idea. I am always looking to cut back especially before the holidays.
Brittany Cooper
September 24, 2015 at 2:32 pmIsn’t it perfect timing!? You should join me! We can do the challenge together!
Terumi
September 24, 2015 at 6:51 amWhat a great time to curb spending-just before holidays too! I think I might try this,even just to figure out what exactly we spend money on. I don’t think I even know what we spend on groceries!
Brittany Cooper
September 24, 2015 at 2:31 pmTerumi, have you ever tried the free website called Mint.com? It tracks all of your spending for you and categorizes each transaction. So every time you go to the grocery store it adds that balance to your “groceries” section. Super helpful! Here is a post I did that talks a little bit about using Mint.com. http://www.penniesintopearls.com/starting-a-budget-free-budget-template/
Becky @ Disney in your Day
September 24, 2015 at 6:52 amWow, what a cool challenge! One of the things I did to get my spending under control was create a budget and record every single thing I purchased. Once I saw how much I was spending and on what it had me thinking twice about making certain purchases.
Brittany Cooper
September 24, 2015 at 2:29 pmWhat a great idea Becky about recording every single thing you bought! I just started keeping a record of what items I buy, what date I bought them (so I know how frequently I should plan for) and how much I paid. I’m hoping this will help a little more when it comes to a detailed budget!
Maggie
September 24, 2015 at 7:18 amThis is awesome! I’ve been talking to my husband about doing a no spend one month! So cool to see others would be doing it as well! Thanks for sharing!! 🙂
Brittany Cooper
September 24, 2015 at 2:28 pmMaggie you guys should join in and we can do it together! I am so excited to get started and I think it is better to just jump in rather then plan for it. 🙂
Amberly
September 24, 2015 at 8:08 amI’m just listening to your broadcast while I read this!! October is SO hard for us to spend zero because it’s both of our birthdays 😛 Maybe I’ll sign up and save the e-mails to participate a month when I can do it! October is just so hard.
Brittany Cooper
September 24, 2015 at 2:27 pmThat’s a great idea Amberley! (PS thanks for watching my scope!) It’s my birthday in October also! The 21st. When is yours? Birthday month buddies! My hubby already bought me a gift and I plan on signing up for every email freebie that I can. Haha! Let me know when you start the challenge!
Angela @ Setting My Intention
September 24, 2015 at 8:18 amI love this idea…but I don’t think I’m ready to do it yet this month. I’m still trying to establish the meal planning habit. Budgeting is coming next though!
Brittany Cooper
September 24, 2015 at 2:26 pmI’m a little nervous to get started but I am also way excited! Make sure to check out my budgeting series when you are ready to get started! http://www.penniesintopearls.com/starting-a-budget-free-budget-template/ Thanks for stopping by Angela!
Eryn
September 24, 2015 at 10:25 amGood luck on your challenge! I’ll be curious to see how you do only spending $80 a month on groceries. We spend at least $100 per week on groceries, and use everything we buy. I don’t think we could live off of less than that.
Brittany Cooper
September 24, 2015 at 2:24 pmThank you Eryn! I can’t wait to see how we do also! I know it’s going to be tuff since milk alone is over $5 a gallon. Right now we go through about 3 gallons a week but I think if we stop eating things like cereal we can bump that down to one gallon a week! Are you going to join the challenge with me!?
Lacey
October 9, 2015 at 4:37 pmHey Brittany! I’m doing the LWSZ challenge too, and I am so shocked at how much I am actually enjoying it. I expected it to be so awful, but I think the “challenge” part of it has really helped me get stuff done! I love seeing you on Periscope! You have such cute tips and ideas!
Brittany Cooper
October 16, 2015 at 10:52 pmYou are so sweet Lacey! Im so glad to have found another LWSZ challenger. I feel exactly the same about the challenge as you do! Not as bad as I thought it was going to be and I love how much I am learning about where I can cut back in our finances even more!