What I expect to gain from the no-spend month

Only 3 days to go! I'm getting pretty excited about my month of reigning in the spending, so much so that I've already given up cafes! It's been 2 days now but feels like weeks...

So what am I hoping to gain from this little experiment? I hope to change my spending behaviour and for this to be an ongoing lifestyle, not just for the month. Of course I won't be as strict going forward, but I really want to stop spending so much on groceries and I think switching to a monthly shop (with weekly veggie boxes) would be a really good way for me to do this.

And of course I hope that long term this will save us a substantial amount of money. We have been living like we have two incomes for a year now and it's been me driving this. Having some redundancy money left has caused me to be quite frivolous with my money at times. I'm constantly planning crazy holidays that we just can't afford at the moment. I really need to accept that our holidays will be camping for the next few years and overseas and interstate holidays can wait until I'm working again.

I also hope that I learn to say no to people and not give into the pressure to spend money. There is a lot of pressure to buy expensive gifts for friends and family, and I also really want to re-think the school friend birthday gifts. I've been averaging $20 per party gift, which is pretty crazy as school has only just started and the party invites are piling up.

There is also pressure to go out for dinners/drinks etc. that is fine occasionally but I think I'll start suggesting more inexpensive outings to people. A bottle of wine at home is a lot cheaper than in a restaurant!

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how we go. I'll post every few days with an update. And I might come begging for food when we run out!