How to Go on a Spending Fast

Many of us just can't seem to make it anymore, what with prices sky high on gas, food, housing, utilities, and practically everything else. But there is a way to get control of your finances, and start saving money again.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• desire to save money

1. shoppers at Xmas When you are trying to get your spending back to reasonable levels sometimes you need to start with drastic measures then, once you've done that, you can ease off a bit and spend a little more.
   
   It's a lot like losing weight by going on a juice or water fast first for a few days and then starting your diet plan once the fast has ended. You feel a sense of accomplishment right away because, almost always, you will lose quite a bit of weight during the fast. That makes it easier to stay on your diet plan later on.
   
   A spending fast works on the same principles, except instead of fasting from food, you are fasting from spending money. You are literally in a no-buy time.
2. There are certain things you will still have to pay for or spend money on of course, like rent, utility bills, medicines if you need them, and things like that. But, even with these restrictions, you'll still be saving a lot of money during a spending fast because what's left are all the things we waste so much money on like eating out all the time, fancy coffee drinks on the way to work, movies and other entertainments we can't really afford, clothes and shoes we don't really need and many other things.
   
   In a spending fast you eat at home, no going out to eat at all; you try to eat out of your cupboards, your freezer and your refrigerator as much as possible, and only buying the absolute minimum foods and supplies needed to get by.
   
   You also don't go shopping; you don't buy any clothes or shoes or jewelry or dvd's, rent movies, or, well anything that isn't an absolute necessity. There are few of those. Shelter, clothing, and food, that's about it, and you probably already have those things.
   
   If you have shampoo in your bathroom for example, you use it up, you don't buy new bottles of shampoo just because you can.
3. savings are great Most people who go on a spending fast seem to pick a month as a reasonable amount of time for it, although even a week or two weeks can make a difference in your spending habits.
   
   The money you save during your spending fast is used to pay down debt or put into savings, or invested. It is not just wasted and spent as soon as you go off the spending fast. Seeing the money you're saving pile up is a real incentive towards continuing the spending fast, and then spending less on frills when the fast has ended.

Tips & Warnings

• Remember the idea is to stop buying things you don't need and at the same time to save some money. It's not to make you feel miserable or deprived, but to empower you and get you kick-started on a more frugal lifestyle.
• It can be really hard the first few days to not buy anything. We are used to buy, buy, buy; not save, save, save.