024. 'No Buy' July

My rules and goals for a month of savings.

It doesn’t feel real that it is almost July. June flew by so fast. But here we are, nearly there.

In last week’s post, I talked about how I’m doing a “Sprint Month,” which I’m so excited to start. With that, one of my goals is a no-buy month, so I wanted to share my official rules and game plan for the month.

But first, a quick reflection on the first half of the year.

As many of you know, I am doing a challenge this year where I put $20 into my savings for every 'no spend day’ that I have, meaning where I only buy the necessities or nothing at all. I stuck to that for the first three months of the year: I was really good at tracking it, updating you guys on TikTok, and hitting 4-5 no-spend days a week consistently.

April and May were busy months for me, and I slowly started to let that challenge slip. I wasn’t tracking, I wasn’t as focused on having no-spend days. And June wasn’t all that better.

I still feel really good about the progress I’ve made with my shopping journey. I buy fewer items but of much higher quality. I don’t impulse shop as much. But I am still not where I want to be in terms of my financial goals. I know I can be doing a lot better; I can focus a lot more.

That is the mindset that I am going into the second half of the year with. I just want to realign with my goals and reset where I am. With that, let’s get into the rules.

Honestly, the no-buy rules are pretty simple: no buying anything other than the necessities. The essentials include groceries, paying my bills/subscriptions, transportation, and any home items I need (like toilet paper or cleaning supplies).

I am not allowed to buy…

• Any beauty/skincare/haircare products, unless it’s somewhat of a necessity, like shampoo, and I run out of it completely.

• Coffee from a coffee shop. I will be making all of my coffee from home this month.

• Anything else lol. No impulse shopping. No books. No random items or even items I’ve wanted for a long time. I can wait one month to buy something if I really want to.

There are a couple of exceptions, though, so I’m outlining them here:

• 4th of July Weekend: My sister and cousin are coming to stay with me this weekend, from Friday to Sunday. While we will be having many meals at home, we will also be getting dinners and treats here and there, which I am not going to deny myself. I’m going to only spend what I have to and will not be going completely overboard, but I do already know I will be spending money this weekend, so I’m allowing the exception.

• Gifts: My best friend’s birthday is in July, and I was hoping to have her gift by now, but I am still on the hunt for the perfect item. This is, of course, factored into my budget and is an expense I am more than happy (and want) to make.

• Dining out: I am allowed to go out to eat once a week, but only if I am doing so with friends. I don’t eat out much on my own because I prefer to cook my meals anyway. However, I will allow myself to go out if I have plans with friends, because while I think sacrifices need to be made to achieve your goals, I think it’s even more important to maintain your relationships.

• Nails: I just started getting my nails done again a few weeks ago, and I found a private nail tech who I ADORE. I have an appointment scheduled with her this week, which I will not be cancelling. I will also need to get a refill at some point in the month, so I budgeted $170 for this for the month.

I feel really good about this list of rules and my goals. It can be really easy to spend $10 here or $5 there, but it adds up at the end of the week. I hope that this will help me become more conscious of where my money is going once again. I will check back in with you guys on how my sprint month and no buy went once it’s done, so be sure to come back!

Xo,

Jess