Could you stop spending for a month?

"I was surprised and delighted at how well my husband and I worked together on this. To be frank, it gave us so much to talk about, we almost felt like it was romantic to be doing this together. . . . How sad is that?" joked Avadhani, a stay-at-home mother of two young children in Highland Park, N.J. "But we had been drifting in our parallel universes for a while, and it was great to re-evaluate."

Another participant decided the buy-nothing month was a good excuse to de-clutter. Diane Pettinelli of Embarrass, Minn., had already replaced her shopping habit with walking her Labrador and ice skating by the time she heard about the experiment. But she still had the remnants of her past life bursting out of her closets, and during February she was motivated to take 14 boxes of clothing and miscellaneous items to Goodwill.

"A few of the items still had the original price tags attached," she confessed. "Ugghh."

Getting in the habit of not buying has helped her see potential purchases not as desirable but as future clutter. She even sleeps better "with the regular exercise and no guilt over purchases that I don't need!"

Lessons in doing without

Several people commented on how much the experiment made them consider the difference between wants and needs, and how often we blur the line between the two.

"I hoped to learn how deep the 'need' to buy was or if it was just done out of boredom and habit," wrote Harrington, the Iowa City woman. "Much of it was just that. We found we can have a nice weekend together without going to the mall or home-improvement store and mindlessly buying things we might forget about two months later."

Not everyone ended the month deep in the black, although many did. Segura, the teacher, saved nearly $800 during the month. That was on the high end of the scale, but several people saved $300 to $400.

Much of Avadhani's savings wound up being used for an unexpected car repair. But that was OK, she said, because having the money available was much better than having to ask her in-laws for help.

That sense of empowerment infused many participants' appraisal of their experiences. Even those who fell off the wagon early and often -- like Nicole, who had to move unexpectedly during the month -- said the experiment taught them that they usually have options to spending money.

"I think what I've learned can only help me in the future," wrote Nicole, who lives near Washington, D.C. "That if I decide to do something, I can do it, and that I can make do with what I've got."

Falling off the wagon

Most of us, by the way, couldn't get through the whole month without an unnecessary purchase. Some beat themselves up for their lapses, while others thought their off-the-plan purchases were justified, like a celebratory dinner out after hearing about a promotion or a great deal on carpeting they just couldn't let pass.

Some stayed strong even with grave temptation. Underwood, for example, wrote that his hardest challenge was attending a free seminar hosted by gardening guru Ed Hume.

"I could have bought one of his books and gotten him to autograph it," he wrote, "but I didn't!"

Often, our lapses taught us as much about our relationship to money as our successes. One of my issues, being a working mother, is a tendency to throw money at a problem rather than to figure out a cost-effective way to solve it. That describes exactly one of my falls from the wagon: About midmonth, my high-speed Internet access went down, and I needed to file a column. I went to one of my coffee hangouts that had Wi-Fi, only to learn -- after purchasing an illicit brew -- that its network was down, too. A barista pointed helpfully across the street to the public library, which has a wireless network that's absolutely free. Who knew?

Another thing I learned, after a month of making meals at home, is that I'm never actually too tired to cook, but I'm frequently too lazy. Knowing the difference has made it easier to put down the phone and pick up a pan.

The final surprise

I couldn't wait for my own no-buy month to be over, so I was caught off guard by the number of people who wanted to keep going.

The woman who stocked her freezer to avoid trips to the grocery store confessed that she had been keeping a list of the splurges she planned as soon as the month was over. By the end of February, though, she'd lost the list and no longer cared. Now she and several others are continuing the experiment.

"I am going into March with the same no spend mentality. . . . Strangely, I want more of this thinking," wrote one. "Further, I've met the most amazingly friendly people in this thread and new ones have joined in the last couple of days and want to try this. . . . I'm in again!!!"

Even Vanessa, the New Yorker who dropped out, wants to give it another whirl.

"In the summer I may try this challenge again, because I usually meet my friends in Central Park for a walk, picnic or rollerblading," Vanessa wrote. "You can't spend money easily while rolling down a hill at a great speed."

If you'd like to join them, feel free. They're chatting right now on the Your Money message board.

Liz Pulliam Weston's new book, "Easy Money: How to Simplify Your Finances and Get What You Want Out of Life," is now available. Columns by Weston, the Web's most-read personal-finance writer and winner of the 2007 Clarion Award for online journalism, appear every Monday and Thursday, exclusively on MSN Money. She also answers reader questions on the Your Money message board.

Updated Dec. 5, 2007

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