Join us for the March Spending Fast Challenge!

From March Monday 25 through Sunday 31, we’re going to do a YNAB community spending fast. That means no unnecessary spending during that week. Let’s bring March to a close by bringing some of our categories in under budget!

We've created an event on facebook so you can comment on how it’s going, share what you’re learning and support others. If you don’t have a facebook account, you can leave thoughts here on this blog post.

Obviously, you’ll want to pay your bills and all that good stuff. It’s important to be responsible. But everything else is on the chopping block!

So what’s unnecessary?

I think that’s a line that each of you should draw for yourselves. It’s easy for me to say “No eating out! Period!” as a guideline, but I don’t know your specific situation and you may have to eat out for a very legitimate reason. (Work lunch meeting, too far away from home at meal time, etc.) I myself have a dinner meeting next week and I’m going to proceed with that. So look over your budget, think about the upcoming week and set your own parameters. This is really about increasing awareness on YOUR spending habits, so I’ll leave that up to you.

Here are my personal parameters. I will not spend money during that week on:

• Groceries (If you choose to not spend on groceries make sure you have enough food in the cupboards for the week ahead)
• Restaurants (except for the pre-scheduled dinner meeting)
• Pet Stuff (I tend to go overboard with stuff for the dog, and there’s plenty of pet food in the house right now.)
• Gas
• Household Stuff
• Clothes
• Entertainment
• Hobbies
• Software, technology, etc.
• Books

Basically, I’m just going to make sure bills get paid. That’s about it. A spending fast isn’t sustainable over the long term, and that’s certainly not the goal. This is just for a week. Hopefully, that’s long enough to be meaningful. The point is to become aware of places where you could cut back and where you might be spending wastefully.

So join us and comment as the week goes along to share what you’re learning about your spending habits! Naturally, we’ll be giving away a handful YNAB T-shirts when it’s over for insightful comments, deep words of wisdom for others, and meaningful lessons learned.

Share your successes and challenges with us as the week unfolds. And be sure to keep track of what you think you're saving so you can share that at the end!