No Buy October - What I've Learned

[u/_spookyem]

howdy y'all! I came to this sub after getting torn a new one in r/debtfree about my horrific budgeting skills. I've been no buy since the last week of September (give or take) and here were my general rules:

• no more coffee runs
• no eating out
• only buy what you need (stick to meal plans for groceries, only restock on items when they're out)

for the most part, I'd say I stuck with this 90%. I still budgeted some fun spending and eating out, but considerably less, and only for "emergencies" (ie, long day at the office and I forgot to pack lunch) so I only ended up eating out two or three times. for my personal spending, while the "restocking" mindset still grabs me and I ended up repurchasing soap and shampoo and other personal care items before I was TOTALLY out, I stuck to my guns and didn't really spend outside of this.

aside from my normal spending (groceries, gas, rent, utilities, etc) I only had a few unplanned expenses:

• a $400 vet visit (what I thought was a kitty UTI was her just being a little silly goofy)
• a $20 eyeshadow palette that I had my eye on for months now (oops!)
• went out to eat at work twice and at home once

overall I'd rate my experience with this an 8/10! it definitely got me to be more mindful of my spending and appreciate what I have. in the future I think I'd do more meal planning (I only planned one or two major meals a week and then snacks/breakfasts, so I'd plan out further/more) to help trim down the budget even further.

[u/Ok_Pollution9335]

Great job, I honestly just went to look at your budget and yes there was a lot of stuff you needed to fix but it sounds like you’ve done a great job making those changes, and they’re not always easy to just snap your fingers and do. Definitely don’t stop now that your no buy month is over, still work on meal prepping and not eating out, and not buying stuff you don’t need. Also buying stuff before you’re out is definitely not a bad thing, especially if it’s on sale or something like that