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This post is about the no-spend year challenge review round one.
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January to March Quarterly Review
Please note: I have made the decision to show my figures in percentages as opposed to in absolute, real numbers.
Break Down of Expenses*
Shelter (living, home) = 24%
Food/Groceries = 15%
Personal/Discretionary = between 10-12%
Phone, Hydro/Electricity, Internet = 4%
If personal/discretionary spending and food/groceries remain within my budget, this frugal lifestyle allows me to roughly put aside almost half of my monthly income. The more frugal I live and get to postpone instant gratification, the more I get to save. In addition, I try to cut costs as much as possible. I do this by living on a strict budget, live way below my means in terms of lifestyle choices and try to get a bargain everywhere I go.
*Certain expenses are shared between my partner and I which is why I pay less than someone who is single who pays for everything on their own. With that said, I do believe that if you are a single millennial, in order to keep costs low start living with a roommate. This allows you to split expenses such as internet, hydro, groceries, and other items. It makes life so much easier. Even though you might want to have your own apartment, living with a roommate has its perks and you get to accelerate your savings rate enormously. So this is definitely something to think about if you find yourself strapped for cash and can’t seem to put much aside for savings.
January
January was a normal month with regard to expenses, however I wish I could have spent less on personal spending. I had a birthday in the family so I went ahead and splurged for that person. In addition, I pre-ordered my birthday present for February. Utilties were lower than December but groceries were definitely up. Food and groceries have always been a challenge for us.
February
February was a short month. We didn’t do anything for my birthday nor Valentines Day, which saved us some money for sure. Instead of spending money on fancy meals outside, I went ahead and ordered some clothes online, as I discovered that I was still missing some key pieces for my capsule wardrobe. My personal spending decreased a little bit. January and February are always months were personal spending is up for me due to birthdays! In February grocery expenses were down by $254.92 which made us really happy.
March
March was a really weird month and I don’t want to get into the topic really. I just hope everything will settle quickly and we can all move on from this nightmare.
Personal spending was up almost double compared to January.
Listen, I am never going to pretend that I am the most frugal person in the world. Call it self-care, self-love or whatever but I wanted to buy something for myself during this time. As a matter of fact, I bought some staple items for my wardrobe for the summer season because I have no summer clothes. I also purchased my wedding dress which is the reason why the amount for personal spending is so high. Little did I know I was being charged in USD and had to pay customs. Bad decision and not having paid attention at the check out is probably what happened here. But…you know what? I don’t care and I might sell my wedding dress in the future but I will see how I feel about it after the wedding I guess.
Savings Rate Quarterly Review
January to March Savings Rates
My January savings rate was only 41%. February’s savings rate went up by 7% from January which is great! March’s savings rate was down to 30% which is a bummer! My average savings rate goal this year is around 65%. Aim HIGH, right? I guess I will see if this will actually happen but we will drastically decrease our expenses moving forward now.
We also had planned to get married in April but that whole thing fell through pretty rapidly. We have literally put our wedding on hold until we can make a decision where, when, how, considering the current situation. It just really sucks but we’ve waited so long, what’s another couple of months, right? The good thing is that we can add to our wedding fund the next couple of months and becausse we plan to have a super cost-friendly wedding this should be doable. I have written a post about this if you are interested you can click the link below:
Salary Adjustments Due to Current Economic Situation
Due to the current situation our wages have been effected as well. This means for April and moving forward I will make sure to decrease my personal expenses and keep an eye out to not make any more unnecessary purchases. The current situation is just something that we have to live with and make smart adjustments so that we don’t suffer economically and miss our savings targets.
Final Note
As of today, I feel quite mixed about the No-Spend-Year Challenge. In the beginning I felt like I had to deprive myself from any spending. This quickly changed as I felt really down in March. Seeing a bunch of online offers and knowing I’d need some summer clothes made me just spend some money on myself. However, I will be sending back a bunch of items from my order and will get refunded the money. Yay! The big ticket item was definitely my wedding dress though. I don’t feel guilty now but I know that I will have to decrease my spending immensely in the next couple of months because of the economy. However, this whole economic situation actually motivates me to perform better going forward.
How’s your savings rate going? Are you on track this year? Are you also doing the No-Spend-Year Challenge?
Leave me a comment below, please!
This post is about the no-spend year challenge review round one.