The No Spend Year - Michelle McGagh - Part 1

The No Spend Year: How I Spent Less
and Lived More - Michelle McGagh

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 43

 February 12, 2017 

Book 14 - The No Spend Year
by Michelle McGagh (2017)
 Part 1 - Pages 1-46
Reading Time - 1 hour

Confession time: I am reading Aldo Leopold's The Sand County Almanac and am a bit stuck in it. So, I've jumped to another book... which happens to me quite a bit sometimes. I end up reading 4 or 5 books on once. I figured this new book, which actually isn't on my reading list, is a quicker read and I can keep up with the blog posts.

Sooo... I came across The No Spend Year on a news site and thought it sounded interesting, so I ordered it. It's written by a British author so some of the details are more relevant to UK readers, but the overall idea still works here, across the pond.

The Friday after American Thanksgiving has become known as Black Friday - the biggest shopping day of the year. In some minimalist and anti-consumerism circles, it is also known as No Spend Day, sort of a counter-balance to the crazy shopping that usually takes place. The author thought that it required more than just one day and toyed with a week, a month, and then decided on a year.

Other than the necessities, she couldn't spend money on eating out, coffee shops, car or bus transportation, no gifts, no holidays. Basically, she could spend money on groceries and toiletries. Her husband, who wasn't bound by the no spend challenge, did join her for the grocery challenge.

This first section looks at how to save money when shopping for groceries: buy no-name brand, shop the discount grocery stores, don't shop while hungry, plan your meals ahead of time, etc. A lot of this stuff isn't new to me so I can't say there were any ah-hah moments in there.

She also touched on the issue of saving. Pay down your consumer debt and make sure you have an emergency fund. Yup, got those covered.

I'm hoping there might be some better tidbits of wisdom in upcoming chapters.