April No Spend Days – Review

Last month I tried to go for 25 days without spending any money. And it worked. I passed my April no spend days challenge.  Here is a break down of all my expenses.

April 2nd: Paid mortgage, strata, and some other reoccurring expenses. April 1st was a weekend.
April 3rd: Paid $58.24 for internet bill using my credit card.
April 12th: Paid $1492.50 for a special levy to clean and repaint the building’s exterior. At least my condo looks newer and more modern now.
April 30th: Paid $523.19 for my credit card balance, $29.19 for electricity, and $3.95 for the bank fee.

Since I only spent money on 4 days out of 30, I have successfully completed my 25 no-spend-days challenge \(^_^)/ It was easier than I expected. Most of my time in April was spent either at home, or at work, so there wasn’t a lot of opportunities to spend money anyway. Below are my April bank and credit card statements so you can see the details of my spending for yourself. I had to censor some sensitive information like my account numbers obviously but I kept visible the relevant bits to this post. The only withdrawal transaction I didn’t include with my expenses was a transfer of $1,500 on April 16th, from my bank account to my brokerage account. I don’t consider that to be an expense because I haven’t used the money to buy anything yet, only moved it around between my own accounts. My credit card billing cycle ends mid month so that’s why I included two credit card statements.

Left: bank statement. Right: credit card statements. click to enlarge

If I had a family then I would have failed this challenge for sure. But as a single adult, I don’t really need to buy a lot of stuff to be happy. The basics I want are shelter, food, transportation, and internet. Once these aspects of my life are met to a certain standard, I think everything else is a luxry ( ･_･). I didn’t buy food in April because I still had lots left over in my pantry and fridge, plus there are other places to get a free bite to eat like open houses, Costco, and sometimes even on the job (my workplace has a basket of oranges and bananas, free to all employees,) I usually commute by car but since mine is really fuel efficient I only buy gasoline once every 50 days or so.

I don’t drink coffee, or smoke, or buy apps for my phone. I also don’t mind cooking all my meals at home. In fact as recent as 6 years ago when my living condition wasn’t as comfortable as they are now I had to eat almost every meals at home, couldn’t afford a car or even a cell phone, and had really slow internet. Today however, my lifestyle situation is much improved (^_^). I even have a blu-ray player now. But I think old habits are hard to change because I don’t feel overly constrained about my old ways of spending. During the no-spend month of April I also lost 8 lbs because I was eating more healthy. I didn’t eat out at all. I incorporated more fruit into my diet (from work), and had smaller meal portions in general. So the best part about this no-spend experience has been about health, not money. No spend days are a great way to save for those with a habit of frequent, but unnecessary spending, but it’s not really effective for someone who doesn’t often spend money anyway. I’m glad to have done the challenge but don’t plan to do it again any time soon.