It’s time to Save Your Money on the Just For Today Challenge – 31 Days To A Better You. It’s about time we talked about money, and particularly about saving it.
I intend to write many articles about finances later on for this blog - after all how can you have a meaningful existence if you are always worried about money?
But, the Challenge Just For Today will be not to spend any money at all. That’s right, for the entire day today, do not spend any money.
That means no buying coffee in the morning. You can feed your latte vice tomorow.
No buying the mid-morning snack or going out for lunch. Bring your lunch to work.
No spending money at the grocery store either. You have plenty of food in your cupboards – look through them and see what you can put together using the food you have already bought. Or have yesterday’s leftovers for dinner tonight.
No renting a movie for tonight because you’re bored. Turn off the TV and read a book, instead.
No filling the car up with gas. See if you can carpool with someone so that you don’t have to spend any money today.
Oh, and no ordering anything online using your credit cards either. That’s even worse than forking over your hard-earned paper money to someone.
Definitely do not buy any cigarettes today, either. Make today the day you quit.
The goal is to see how much money you will save if you don’t spend any money today. Believe me, it all adds up faster than you think. Especially if you are unconsciously spending.
When I worked in downtown Toronto, it wasn’t unusual to spent anywhere from $20 to $100 per day on frivolous items. Going for coffee on the way to work and again at 10:00 am and 3:00 pm. Going out to one of the food courts with friends every single workday. We frequently went out to restaurants to take a break from the food courts. Any excuse would do. Going to the drugstore to pick up one item during lunch and then easily spending $50 just on Stuff that I thought I needed. Going to a clothing store and browsing around at lunch could cost me anywhere from $25 to $75 and more. Retail therapy at its worst. I was better off just staying at my desk instead of taking a lunch break. That’s all in the past however. I am so much better at saving my money. My wallet (and my waistline) has vastly improved 
Let’s say you spent $5 per weekday on something frivolous like a coffee and muffin in the morning and maybe a snack in the afternoon. Do you realize that small amount adds up to $25 per week, $100 per month and $1200 per year! You can be funding your retirement or building your emergency fund with that kind of money.
Make 2010 the year you finally get out of debt. Start with the money you would have spent today to pay down one of your debts. I advocate paying off the debt with the lowest balance and psychologically it really make a difference.
If you have no debt, put today’s money into your emergency fund. Or add it to your investment account. You have both of those, right? If not, what’s your excuse? You have the money you would have spent today to start your emergency fund. So what if it’s only $5? You have to start somewhere and as I’ve shown, it all adds up pretty fast.
There are tons of financial resources out there, but I will highlight some of the sites that I read frequently and recommend that you check them out:
- Get Rich Slowly
- Making Money Make Sense
- The Simple Dollar
- Dave Ramsey and his Total Money Makeover book
These books have also made a huge difference in my life and are highly recommended (contains affiliate links):
- Your Money Or Your Life by Joe Domingo and Vicki Robin
- Smart Women Finish Rich by David Bach (in fact, all of David Bach’s books are highly recommended)
- The Wealthy Barber by David Chilton
How much were you able to save today by not spending any money at all today? Let us all know by leaving a comment. Thanks!
For a list of all of the Challenges, see the Just For Today Challenge page.
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Since I only just found this, I should probably start from day one lol. However, just wanted to say great post and sound advice.
It’d probably have an impact on people that are away from home every day more than me (though I’m almost as guilty some days of course =) ) but I can see a lot of savings from just choosing a day per week, and not spending money on that day.
Welcome Heather and thanks for the comment.
I agree that if you are a SAHM and you don’t leave the house most days, you will be saving a lot of money that the rest of us who have to go out to work will spend. There are so many costs associated with working outside the home.
Definitely, saving your money just for the weekend and either staying home or doing free things around your neighbourhood will result in more money in your pocket over the long haul.
We all do what we can
Karen
Or if you’re a student (as is the situation with me) the same thing applies really. I would say that staying at home has its own set of expenses too though, but perhaps not on the money side of things.
I agree with Matthew’s comment about working part time, you can easily find yourself in a situation where you’re better off not working – especially if you’re a new addition to the work force and possibly don’t get paid the adult wage yet (as is the case in the UK, this probably varies from country to country).
Thanks for the welcome! I look forward to reading the rest of your series
Heather´s last blog ..Challenges; Are They Worth It?
Thanks, Heather.
You bring up a good point. I sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that everyone is like me – working in a corporation
Yes, I remember eons ago when I was paid minimum wage (I think it was like $3.15/hr at McDonalds) and there definitely was costs that added up. It almost wasn’t worth going to work for your 3 hour shift to make less than $10.
But, and here’s the important part – stay in school and get your education so that you don’t have to take the miniumum wage jobs for the rest of your life. If you do get any extra money, sock it away in an high-interest or investment account and don’t touch it. Believe me, even if it’s not very much money, it will add up quickly. You’ll be thankful you did it at an early age.
Looking forward to hearing your insights on the other Challenges
Karen
Hehe, I think up to a point we all do that
I was lucky enough to avoid the minimum wage thing until relatively recently; left a good job about a year and a half ago to return to education full time (I had been planning to take a year break), then the next job I went to I got paid roughly half my hourly rate. Not exactly fun
I love what I’m doing though, and thank you for the reminder to save (personally, I think you can’t be reminded enough times ever. Just when you think you won’t forget…)
You say that now Karen. You say that now.
See you at the next step ^_^
Heather
Heather´s last blog ..Challenges; Are They Worth It?
ditto Heather’s comment here about going back and starting at Day 1!
I think this is great advice – you raise an interesting point about how much it costs to go to work (don’t forget you go to work to earn money!!) yet, spending on coffees, newspapers, transport and lunch all mount up.
When you add these items up (especially those working part time) then you might be surprised to work out that you’re better off not going to work at all – work it out, you might not need that second income.
I think Heather’s last comment is key here. Saving money as a one off exercise, to be honest, is not going to make a great difference to your life. Doing it once a week will.
Hi Matthew,
Yes, Heather brings up a good point.
But, when you look at the big goal of building up an emergency fund or saving for retirement, it can seem overwhelming to many people.
Each of the Just For Today Challenges can be done for just that day so give you gain the confidence to do something to better yourself Just For Today.
I obviously want you to continue past the 31 days and incorporate changes into your daily life, but I think we can all agree that you can save $5 today. If you can save $5 for each day of the week starting today, you’ll have $20 at the end of Friday. You can easily add that to any other savings that you managed this week and put it against your existing debt or save it.
The point is to start small and build upon the momentum. The sooner you start, the better off you will be
I think that this can be a hard Challenge for those of us who spend money unconsciously during the day. It doesn’t seem like much buying that coffee and donut in the morning, going out for lunch, taking a walk to get a chocolate bar or some snack in the afternoon, maybe buying a lottery ticket or picking up a magazine after work, etc. The Challenge is to think about your actions towards unconscious spending Just For Today.
Yes, some people choose to stay at home because of all the “hidden” costs of working outside the home are not worth it.
Great advice, Matthew!
Thanks,
Karen
Hi Karen,
Oh, the money I’ve wasted on eating out over the years. When you mentioned about eating out everyday, I used to be the same. Thankfully now I work and eat at home. It saves a ton of money.
Gordie – Lifestyle Design For You´s last blog ..The Three “F” Words You Must Know To Succeed.
Hi Gordie,
Tell me about it! Every week day for 10 years I bought lunch at either a foodcourt or a restaurant. We didn’t even think about it – it’s was just the price of working in a corporate enviornment. Take my lunch to work? – that was for poor people.
Times have changed. I was able to go home for lunch for almost a year – that was a real eye-opener of how much money I was saving. Now, I am more conscious of my spending as I have life goals that require lots of money
Thanks for stopping by,
Karen
Great challenge! I did save a bit of money today though
Great! That’s the purpose of the today’s challenge today.
What did you do with it? I hope you add it to your savings or pay down some debt.
Welcome to the site,
Karen
Hi everyone,
Except, wasn’t yesterday the 12th?! Oh well! I can promise you I won’t spend any money today.
It’s my daughter’s birthday tomorrow but thankfully I bought the balloons yesterday so I can stick to this one today
I work part time as a supply teacher and since the school is closed because of the snow, I won’t be needed. But I can totally relate to what you say about how easy it is to spend money as part of the working day. Most of the time I spend very little as I’m home with the children but on those days I do go out to work, I almost always end up in the bakery at lunchtime. What is it about going to work that we feel we have to reward ourselves for going?!
Can’t wait to see what challenge 13 brings up. Hopes it’s not ‘avoid all caffine for the whole day’ as I’m about to drink a lovely hot cup of tea
El
Eleanor Edwards´s last blog ..Paypal and the 20p Showdown
Hi Eleanor,
Yes, we look at it as a reward for going to work. I know that I fall into that trap a lot of times.
Happy Birthday to your daughter!
You guys are on the other side of the world, so it’s one day ahead of us. I’m writing this in Canada – you guys get the Challenges before anyone else
Nope, that comes next week! Just forewarning you…
Thanks again,
Karen
This is actually really interesting. Years ago my husband had a business as a propriotorship that went banrupt. Since it was not a corporation/partnership you declare it as personal bankruptcy even though it was a result of the business failing not him spending himself into bankruptcy.
That said they make you go through bankruptcy school which was actually really valuable. The teachers would make everyone collect every receipt for literally everything they purchased and add them up. This showed how people literally bankrupted themselves little by little by all these little purchases. It wasn’t big ticket items, it was all these little purchases adding up that sunk all these people.
So in addition to this challenge I’d say it’s worthwhile for a week to collect the receipts for everything you spend (even a pack of gum) and add it up at the end of the week. It’s astounding.
Hi Rachel,
Thanks for the suggestion. I think that it’s a great idea to expand the Challenge to not spend for more than one day and see how much you can save, If you do end up spending, keep and tally your receipts. It’s amazing how much we spend on frivolous things in our lives when we are spending unconsciously.
Thanks,
Karen
There are numerous ways to save money and just starting with one idea is better than none. All good ideas to consider here and I myself quit smoking months ago so that money is already done flying from my hands.
Easier than you might think it is to quit too.
Eric´s last blog ..The Most Money You’ll Ever Make With Your Blog
Hi Eric,
I have never smoked (thankfully), but I can appreciate how difficult it is. Congratulations on kicking one of the hardest addictions!
I remember a few years ago standing in line in a store where another customer in front of me was being a pack of cigarettes. They were something like $11 at the time. I couldn’t believe it! I know some people who smoke a pack a day. That’s >$4000 per year – up in smoke (literally)! It’s an very expensive habit.
Good for you for quitting and putting that money to better use.
Karen