The Austerity Diaries: How Long Can You Go Without Spending Money?Daisy Luther Im not talking about your day-to-day necessities like house payments and fuel for the vehicle. Im talking about those little impulse buys that most of us make without thinking twice about them. We spend more money on silly things than we realize. If you spend money on the following, you could go a lot longer than you think without spending. Its these little things that add up and can take an enormous chunk out of your budget. Weve become a nation of consumers that think nothing of plunking down 5 times the value for something because were out and its convenient. By doing this, you could save thousands of dollars per year. My favorite calculation is this: If you went to Starbucks every morning before work and purchased a $5 coffee, you spent a whopping $1300 on that morning routine. One thousand three hundred dollars. And that is just for one frivolous expenditure. What if you added them all up? My guess is, youd discover you were spending far, far more money than you realized. Let me be clear: Im not saying we should never have a treat. We tend to go out to a nearby city for supplies once a month, and we often grab a coffee out when we do so. That day is our big outing, and picking something up then is a treat. Thats becausea treat is, by definition, something outside the norm. When you do something every single day, its no longer a treat its a habit, and an expensive one in this case. Consider these big questions. How deeply ingrained is your spending habit? Could you institute a spending freeze for an entire week? For a month?How long could you go without spending money? Spending itself is a habit. If you can break the habit of thoughtless spending, youll be much further ahead. You can put that money towards large investment purchases that you never realized you could afford. If you took you $1300 in Starbucks spending at the end of the year, you could make one large purchase that could help your family be more self-sufficient maybe you could build an outdoor kitchen or put a solar pump on your well. Now imagine if you corralled all of that frivolous spending what you could do. It might be more than just saving your pennies for a large expense. The way the economy is going, it might be a matter of survival to learn to limit your spending. Prices are going up, incomes are staying the same, and jobs are getting lost and not replaced. Its better to start now on the road towards non-consumerism, than when you are forced to do so in order to eat. Id rather these things be my choice, not just the effect of a personal financial downturn. Here are a couple of different ways that you can start a spending freeze: First, give yourself an allowance. Thats right give all of the people in your family who spend money an allowance. Make it cash, and collect the bank cards, credit cards, etc. This doesnt mean that purchases cannot be made, but it will take some effort to do so, and that effort will give you time to think it through. Do you really need that pair of shoes that goes with that one outfit in your closet? You know, the outfit that you wear once every two years? By giving yourself a little cool-off time, youre less likely to make regrettable purchases that just dont add enough value to your life. By having your spending money in cash, you have a very tangible way to see how much youve spent. Your goal should be to finish the week with a little money left over, instead of ending the week trying to dip into next weeks money. This also helps to limit the amount of frivolous spending that any family member can do. Second, challenge yourself to see how long you can go without spending money. Once youve gotten your food for the week, paid your bills, and fueled up the vehicle, see how long you can go without spending anything. Nothing will make you more aware of your normal habits than stopping them completely. Because I work from home and I have to drive half an hour to get to anyplace to spend money, this is a little easier for me than it is for someone who goes to work outside the home every day. But its possible. I know, because I havent always had this lifestyle, and as a single mom with no other financial contributions, it was a matter of survival for us. I tried to make it a game and came up with all sorts of creative ways to avoid spending money. Wed walk instead of driving, have movie night at home with stovetop popcorn when something good was on network TV, and read books from the library. Life without spending money does not have to be grim and miserable. Third, turn off your consumer button. Its time to stop being such a consumer. Think about that word, consumer it always makes me think of a horde of locusts, descending on a field and picking it clean. I dont want to be one of those locusts, consuming just because something is there, until its gone. Whatever it is you want to spend money on, you might not even need it. If you do need it, instead of buying it, try making it. Not only do you save money, but you develop skills too. Learn to entertain yourself without spending. Teach your kids to be entertained without electronic devices. Develop hobbies that are productive instead of expensive. Truly give thought to where your money is going when you purchase things created by multi-billion dollar conglomerates. Do you want to contribute to some executives annual million dollar bonus or do you want the satisfaction of doing something yourself? So how can you switch gears and become happy about making changes that might initially feel like a step down or a punishment? When you change your mindset, you can successfully change your life. Start with these 8 mental adjustments. 1. Be grateful.An attitude of gratitude is the most vital part of embracing your cheap side. If youre happy with what youve got, you will find that you need far less than you did before. Thats because you arent seeking some momentary hit of joyous adrenaline by purchasing something. That rush rarely lastsand youre just left with more stuff and less money. 2. Be creative.How can you make something, save something, or repair something in a totally original way? Embrace the challenge and tap into your creativity you may just discover that, in your originality, youve come up with something far better than the purchased alternative. (Weve found this to be especially true with fashion accessories, home decor, and birthday parties!) 3. Give.Dont let your pursuit of frugality make you stingy. There are always people who are worse off than you. Its important to give a hand up to those people. If your kids were hungry, or cold, or without shelter, wouldnt you hope that some kind person would help them? Even at our absolute rock bottom financially, we donated one can of spaghetti sauce and a package of noodles to the food bank every week, which hopefully provided a warm comforting meal for someone who needed it. It isnt really necessary to debate whether people are truly in need or just milking the system. That is a subject for them and their consciences. Just give. You are responsible for your intentions, not theirs. 4. Spend your money where it really matters.We opted to move to a very small community into a drafty little cabin in the woods. We made this decision as a family, in order to reduce our monthly output. By getting rid of city rent and all of the bills that came with it, we cut our monthly output in half. This means that I can spend a little extra on high-quality meats and dairy, for example. When my daughter needs new glasses, its not a problem to pay for them. It means my older daughter can get through college without crippling student loans. 5. Less need equals more time.Not only does a thrifty lifestyle mean that I can refocus where my money goes. It means that I can refocus where my time goes. I dont have to work quite as hard on stuff outside the home and can focus on farm and family. I have the time to make hats and scarves instead of purchasing them. I have time to garden and can the harvests. I have time to perform money-saving tasks like cooking from scratch, which goes into a big happy circle of having more money to put towards important things. 6. Stay home. When youstay home more, you are tempted less. You arent thirsty, requiring a beverage. You arent hungry, requiring a snack. You arent using the car, requiring gas. You arent tempted by all the colorful and wonderful things in the stores. 7. Hang out with like-minded people. It is so much easier to embrace your cheap side if you dont have people telling you how deprived you are all the time, or berating you for being too cheap to spend $27.85 on a movie ticket, popcorn, and a soda pop. Most of my closest friends are thrifty. We swap clothing, we borrow and lend tools, and we cheerfully hang out without spending a dime. Instead of going out to sit in a boutique coffee shop sipping a $6 latte with whipped cream, we sit in the garden at one of our houses sipping a coffee that one of us made, along with a nice fresh blueberry muffin. We enjoy the same conversation we would have had at that coffee shop too. Instead of heading to the mall, we chat on Skype. When your nearest and dearest are on the same page, life is a whole lot easier. 8. Turn off the TV.People go to school for years to study how to make people want what they dont need. That great big brainwash box sitting in the living room is a direct pipeline into your brain. From the beautiful homes on the TV programs, the fancy clothes and cars, and the ads for food, recreation, and new cars, the whole racket is designed to make you feel you what you have now is inferior to what you could have. Kids are the biggest target of product placement advertising in popular shows. If you watch TV, limit it. Become aware of the scams and discuss them with your kids so that they can easily identify how marketers are attempting to manipulate them. (Confession: we do watch a little bit of TV in our home, and when we do, its a big game to identify the hidden ads. While this may sound contrary to the advice to turn the TV off, I believe that some limited viewing coupled with an awareness of the marketing techniques inoculates my children against the sales pitch.) To switch over to a frugal lifestyle successfully, you really have towantto do it. If youre constantly bemoaning what you dont have, youll be miserable. If you are resentful that you cant have stuff then you wont stick to your frugal plan. The most important thing of all is to switch off your personal want button. When you dont want or need the things that the elite and the big corporationsare selling, then you are suddenly free of their restrictions. You are no longer a slave to the wages you must earn to pay for the things they tell you that you should have. You dont have a lifestyle built on expectations, debt, and the never-ending search for happiness bought from a store. (This previous numbered section is an excerpt from a previously published article, found HERE) If you put yourself and your family on a personal spending freeze, how long could you go? Heres the challenge for the week ahead. Make a careful list and plan out your meals, 3 per day, for the next week. Fill up your car with gas, and put aside money for more gas if you use more than a tank per week. Then lock up your bank cards and credit cards and put away your cash. Can you go for an entire week without spending money? Post your results here! Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor. Her website, The Organic Prepper, where this first appeared, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca If you enjoyed this article, please Vote for The Organic Prepper as a top prepping web site. 