No-Buy November Challenge

Christmas is the air the already and the dust from All Hallow's Eve has hardly settled. There is Christmas music on the radio and the stores are rolling the beginning of the Christmas sales.

People have been saving all year, and they're ready to buy as many gifts as they can fit into their budgets. And so a No-Buy November, for many, sounds simply counter-intuitive. 

It was suggested on my budget forum YNAB, and I was instantly captured by the idea.

With Black Friday Sales right around corner, this is definitely a wonderful time to take on a spending challenge.

What is No Buy November?

The basic rules of the challenge are to refrain from buying anything non-essential in November. If you have to get gifts, list that as a caveat and focus on not buying anything non-essential for yourself.

You can personalize the challenge to fit your own personal needs. For instance, if you find that you spend too much money on treats or sodas, you can tailor the challenge to only include those things.

In my case that means, no snacks, clothing, books, stationary or any take away.

Whatever you choose to do, make sure that it is something that motivates you and that you have a good plan for how you will stick to your challenge.

I plan to not visit any on-line stores, pack ample snacks and treats when I am at work or out on the town and use meal planning to avoid getting take-out.

I'm in my first week and I have already been tempted by the allure hot chocolate mocha to accompany my lunch at work. I resisted and drank my water instead, but it showed me that may I need to start adding coffee to my grocery list so I can prepare some for myself. It will be cheaper and healthier too.

I feel that I need to do a challenge like this because while I am pretty good saving, I am awful at resisting an impulse buy especially if I see something that I was planning to get on sale.

The more incredible the sale, the more likely I am to buy it, despite not having the money in my spending plan for the month.

This problem could be easily looked over since I am not in any debt and I have a pretty good financial cushion. I believe however that continuing this trend over a long period of time, will impact my future spending power.

We've all been there when the shoes we bought last week no longer have that same allure and you wondering what on earth possessed you to spend that money.

I am hoping to cut down on the instances of buyer's remorse and the budget walk of shame when I need to cut something out to fit in my unplanned spending spree.

November is a great month for focusing on family, gratitude and self-love and those things cannot to replaced by spending money on material things.

I encourage you to join me for a No-Buy November and focus on filling this month with fun family activities and staying out of the Shopping frenzy. Onward to Glory!