Could you stop spending for a month?

By Liz Pulliam Weston

A few weeks ago, I invited people on the Your Money message board to try a little experiment: a "buy nothing" month.

For the 28 days of February -- I picked the shortest month to make it easier on volunteers -- those who wanted to participate would buy only necessities. Each person would get to define what was a necessity for himself or herself. At the end of the month, everybody would report back on how their shopping fast went.

The point wasn't just to save money. It was also a way of examining our relationship with money.

I'd recently wrapped up a similar monthlong experiment, which was inspired by a number of factors, including:

• "Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping," a book by Judith Levine that explored her attempt to resist consumerism.
• The Compact, a San Francisco group of people who try not to purchase anything new except food, medicine and toiletries.
• A particularly expensive Christmas, which featured a roast that cost more than my first vehicle.

In the course of my own buy-nothing month, I'd learned some things about myself and my spending habits, plus I'd saved some dough. So I asked the Your Money gang if anyone else wanted to try.

Several dozen people volunteered, and in the process we learned a lot about each other, how we spend and how resourceful we can be when required. And, yes, a bunch of people saved some dough, sometimes quite a bit.

Why would you do this?

A month without unnecessary shopping can be a great way to jump-start your savings, free up money to pay off debt or get a budget under control. Indeed, a lot of people who signed up were hoping to do one or more of these things.

"I decided to do the challenge because I knew our spending had gotten a little out of control since buying our home in July," wrote Sara Harrington, 24, of Iowa City, Iowa. "We stopped saving like we had been for many months prior to the home purchase and started spending a little here, a little there. All those little things really added up, and I couldn't always account for it."

But many had less concrete reasons for wanting to participate. Even people whose finances were in pretty good shape had a vague feeling that money was slipping through their hands with little to show for it.

Brenda Segura and her husband, both teachers in Amarillo, Texas, live below their means, typically spending 60% of their gross incomes each month. They have traditional pensions that are scheduled to replace 60% of their income in retirement, and they contribute to 403(b) workplace retirement plans.

But Brenda didn't like the idea that she might be frittering away money on unimportant purchases.

"I think so much was spent just because we can afford it, but I'm questioning all purchases now," Brenda wrote. "Do I really need it? Most of the extra money was spent on 'I wants.' "

What do you really need?

In the beginning, a few people wanted me to lay out some rules about what was a necessity and what wasn't. I didn't bite because thinking about what is truly a need and what is merely a want is an important part of this exercise.

Participants did a good job of zeroing in on their problem areas without my help. Many acknowledged they spent too much eating out or on clothes and put those categories on their "no buy" lists. At least one went the month without buying groceries, stocking her freezer and shelves with enough food to avoid a single trip to a store. A few narrowed their definition of necessities to perishables only -- milk, produce, etc. -- because they were blowing too much on food.

Rose, 54, grew up in a home "where bread was rationed." The lack of abundantly available food in her childhood turned her into a bit of a hoarder. At one point, she wrote, she had 120 cans of tuna and "cases and cases" of toilet paper stashed away in her Upper Michigan home.

Rose thought she had largely overcome her hoarding habit and prided herself on buying food only on sale, but she was still "totally surprised" at the hundreds of dollars she saved on groceries by participating in the buy-nothing month.

"I resolved to let my little store in the basement go out of business," Rose wrote.

Some challenges, a few surprises

Concerns about feeling deprived were pretty common, at least in the early days. Many participants confessed they often spent money to ward off boredom or to lift a bad mood, or to socialize with friends, and wondered how they'd cope without that outlet.

A New York woman, Vanessa, dropped out early in the experiment because continuing, she wrote, would have meant being too lonely. New Yorkers socialize by going out to eat and drink, rarely entertaining in their shoe-box apartments.

Maybe it's easier for us Californians. Janelle Vannoy of Fullerton, Calif., wrote she started the experiment by turning down her friends' invitations to go out, but then her friends "started adjusting for this plan."

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"Instead of going to a bar or restaurant, we headed to a friend's house," wrote Vannoy, 31, who works as a warranty adjuster for a luxury-auto dealership. "Instead of shopping, we went to the park. Instead of going out to lunch, we began to brown-bag it and would walk afterwards."

Participants reported some positive side effects. Robert Underwood, a Seattle electrician in his 50s, wrote that the lunches and snacks he and his wife decided to bring to work contributed to their weight loss.

"Not only is this helping our bottom line, it fits right in with our diets," Underwood wrote. "She has lost 25 pounds since Christmas, I have lost 10."

Radha Avadhani, 35, also credited the month with losing a few pounds -- and with bringing her closer to her spouse.

Continued: A good excuse to de-clutter

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