The 1-day challenge

Does anyone else see something a little ironic about the concept of a one-day challenge? Maybe that it’s only one-day long? I mean, there’s probably little that you couldn’t survive for just one day, even people diagnosed with the black plague were given a few days to go.

Well The Simple Dollar suggested a new way to save money - don’t spend anything for one day. Now if that sounds completely outrageous to you, I think you’ve got some serious financial woes ahead of you. If you’re saying, one day? I can do that easy - then I think you should do it for a week.

It’s all about budgeting - think about what it would really take to spend $0 one week, fill up your gas tank on Sunday, buy groceries that last (eggs, rice, frozen meats, pasta, coffee - yes, that’s a food group), maybe some alcohol to get through the weekend and what else do you really need?

It may seem like you wouldn’t really be saving any money because you’re just spending it all on Sunday instead of throughout the week - but what the challenge does is make you think about what you need and what you don’t need, how much you really spend on things, and how you can reduce that. If you did this once a month, I think the savings would be significant because eventually, your whole outlook on spending, saving and consuming would change.

Ramit picked up this story on I Will Teach You To Be Rich and featured a reader who took the challenge and saved between $50 and $200!

We do a week with NO spending. We fill the car with gas and hit the grocery store on Sunday. Starting Monday, we cannot spend a CENT. Sort of a fun little challenge. And it is only for a week. So, if I see something I need or want, I can get it next week. No cheating. AMAZING results. The first time I did it, I was flabbergasted to have the same $20 bill in my wallet. I got very used to it and so it is a nice little “shot in the arm” technique. Kind of like a fast to begin a diet regime.

Take a shot at it, if you can’t make it for a week, try a day. Let me know how it goes for you.

Posted November 14, 2008 at 12:57 pm by Erin | Share on Facebook
Categories: Eating out, Living on less, Managing money, Saving, Shopping, Student Finance, money advice

Comments (1)

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  1. Charlie on February 10th, 2009 2:28 am

    Hey there!

    My name is Charlie Hoehn. I’m working with Ramit Sethi of iwillteachyoutoberich.com and he pointed me to this post.

    Couple of things I wanted to ask you:

    1. Ramit just put out a private video on automating your finances and we wanted to send it to you as a thank-you.
    2. His new book is coming out, and we’ve been cooking up some pretty interesting stuff to go along with it. Can I send you some more info? If yes, please shoot me an email soon!

    Thanks,

    Charlie

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