So I am doing a No Spend Year in 2021: one of my craziest goals to date.
Many friends, family and clients have asked “why?” Since we are still in the first month of this New Year, I thought I would take the time to share what has led up to this moment of taking on such a momentous task.
I have always been a fairly frugal person, partly because my family has never had money growing up and partly because money has always motivated me and my goals. My dreams have always been big. Last year I had many challenging goals for 2020 and a few of them have led me to do this No Spend Year.
My first goal of 2020 was to buy no new clothes; I could only buy second hand unless they were from a sustainable company. This included clothes for my husband, me, and our 2 kids. I successfully completed this goal and only bought 3 brand new items the entire year. What I really enjoyed about this challenge was that we got some very high quality items for way less than retail. My favorite purchase for myself was a Northface Thermoball Jacket for $38. As I am writing this I can buy the same jacket for $132 off their website. We made it through the year and I didn’t feel like we missed out…even a little.
The second impactful goal was to read/listen to 10 books. I really enjoyed audio books in 2020. With country living, a drive takes bare minimum of 15 minutes to get to the nearest store. Most places are an average 30 minutes away. This is a great time to listen to a book. There were a few books that had me thinking about this no spend year. The first was Meet the Frugalwoods by Elizabeth Willard Thames. She talks about how her and her husband achieved financial independence and cut a lot of unnecessary spending. The second was A Spenders Guide to Debt-Free Living by Anna Newell Jones. She talks all about how she did spending fasts and steps for anyone to do one. This is the book that initially sparked my interest for the No Buy Year.
Both of these books changed my outlook on so much regarding spending and I highly recommend both! After reading these books from September to October 2020, I officially made the decision to do a no spend year for 2021.
The next piece of this puzzle took place way back in 2015. I became hooked on Mr. Money Mustache. I read his blog posts endlessly. I tried to explain to everyone I knew about the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement. Let’s be honest, no one really understood the “crazy” stuff I was throwing out there, including my husband. At this point we were about 50K+ in debt and that seemed too crazy to wrap his head around. Fast forward 5 years later. We are debt free besides our mortgage.
We listened to Atomic Habits by James Clear in October and ever since then we have really been working on our habits and self-improvement. We listened to a few episodes of the ChooseFi podcast together and something really clicked with him. He was saying things I had talked about 5 years ago. He was really grasping the excitement and reality of “Financial Independence”.
Quick side note, we don’t want to actually retire. We just want the freedom to take contract work here and there, while doing what we want in between projects.
His excitement and being onboard gave me the final push to do this No Spend Year. By spending less money, we will be able to invest substantially more and give ourselves the jumpstart towards Financial Independence.
Overall I am excited for this year. We have so many big plans and I am even more excited to work together on some huge goals!
Note from the Husband *
Oh boy, if there isn’t a week (recently) that goes by where I’m kicking myself for not buckling down sooner and putting in the work! If only we had started down this path 5 years ago, we would be very close to being retired! But the journey is where all the fun is at, and it’s important to note that we have learned and grown immensely along the way. Many moons ago, I came upon the realization that I should just get out of the way and let my gorgeous wife do what she does best. Shay does an incredible job with motivating certain people to extract that extra hidden potential. Now all I can do is get out of the way and support her with hitting those exceptional milestones. These goals usually mean the weekends will be filled with housing renovations and working in the garden, resulting in would-be free-time filled with sweaty, manual labor. But here’s the thing, I find I enjoy getting involved and diving into things outside of my comfort area. The resulting projects lead to important lessons learned and useful skills, the boost in confidence to tackle the next, more difficult project, and the bonus of allowing us to save more money. Besides, I would find ways to fill my extra spare time if I wasn’t working on a project, with a Netflix binge or video game session.
