Unexpected Benefits of a Simple Spending Challenge

I LOVE this lesson. One of my faves.

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We recently posted a video about a very cool technique a couple shared with me — they employed a spending cleanse after putting together a spending summary. Excellent combination. Great stuff here — watch it. Went over extremely well with people. But I held back on sharing what they thought was, perhaps, the biggest positive of the entire exercise.

By agreeing not to do any discretionary spending for two weeks, they were forced to look for free ways to amuse themselves. As the wife said, “I certainly didn’t want to sit here just talking to this fella for two weeks. We had to come up with something.” Well, this lead to some great discoveries. They both started reading more.

You know, all those books we all have purchased but not really got to yet. They played board games. Apparently things got a little heated there. They picked up on lessons they’d taken before and started looking at the guitar for the first time in years. They went for more walks. They had plank contests.

They finally cleaned and organized the garage. Oh, and they said there was something else they did a little more of too. I love this. Inexpensive, even better free, hobbies are wonderful. It’s not just the saving of the money — their original intent. It’s the creativity involved that gets your mind going.

It’s the feeling of accomplishment that often takes place like with the garage cleaning. It’s the growth that can come in — look at the guitar. All of these things. It’s the togetherness — the walks, the board games, the dot dot dot. They both reported being happier. Wow, this is a true double win. But if you notice the missing ingredient here? Something I haven’t mentioned? That’s right. No devices. No social media.

They were worried the spending cleanse would lead to non-stop scrolling — good call by them. So they agreed, nothing digital except 30 minutes a night, say from 6:30 till 7. Inexpensive hobbies. Less phone time. Powerful combination.