Do you dream of curbing unnecessary spending and offering a cure for your finances? Thanks to the “zero expense” challenge, it is possible to spend a month without heating up the credit card. Here’s how.
To save money, you can count on your many bank accounts, but also on the zero superfluous expense challenge. Indeed, it is impossible not to pay your rent, your bills or your food shopping, so you necessarily fulfill everything that is essential. However, there are purchases that we could do without and that gobble up a huge part of the budget. For some time now, a challenge has emerged: the goal of zero spending. The concept: assess your necessary expenses and those who are made on impulse, hunt them down and arrest them. To do this, just follow this simple and effective guide. So you can say goodbye to unnecessary expenses.
First of all, it is advisable to complete this challenge over a month to have an overall view of the money spent and to be able to adjust and improve your challenge in the following months. If September is a decisive month with many expenses, the return to school knocking at the door, it may be better to do the zero expenses challenge after this period.
How to achieve your “zero expense challenge”?
First of all, and as indicated by the Instagram account of The Little Budgeterto motivate you, imagine what you can afford (love trip, massage, trip with girlfriends, starred restaurant, etc.) by saving on your unnecessary expenses. Next, set your own rules : you can either eliminate all superfluous expenses such as restaurants, shopping, books and focus on the essentials (rent, bill, loan, etc.). You can also give yourself a time limit to complete your zero-spend challenge, ie 15 days (in a row or any day) during which you respect your challenge while avoiding completely relaxing the rest of the month. We also do not hesitate to share our approach around us to avoid the pitfalls of glasses between colleagues!
Once these basics are established comes the moment of truth. When shopping, make a list, it will save you the temptations of chocolate and crisps for example. If your indulgence is shopping, it is better to avoid the traps of discounts and e-commerce sites that push you to consume. On the other hand, do the zero spend challenge should not frustrate you more than reason. If you want to offer yourself something during your challenge, why not try to sell an object to yourself and reuse this money to please yourself? Zero expenditure objective achieved and a little pleasure in your hands!
To help you in this process, you can use smartphone applications such as Loop – Habit Tracker or bankin’.