30-Day No-Spend Challenge Turned Into 90 Days

Could you imagine not spending money for 30 days? I’m not talking about paying your bills, and keeping the lights on… keep doing those things. But what if you weren’t a consumer for 30 days? Or even 60? We’ve done 90.

We first did this challenge back in 2015. The goal: go 30 days without spending any consumer money (e.g. groceries, eating out, entertainment, fuel, etc.). And we did it… well, almost. We had to buy two tanks of gas.

You may be wondering why we decided to do this. There are a few reasons…

Why 30 Days Without Spending?

In 2018, American consumers spent $717.5 billion on stuff.¹ That’s retail sales… meaning pure consumption. Not food. Not necessities… just stuff.

Compare that number to the amount people gave in 2017. Including all types of giving—Christian and secular—Americans gave $410 billion to churches, charities, and organizations.²

The average American carries $16,061 in credit card debt.³ Why? Consumerism. People can’t help but buy more clothes, more toys, more stuff… and then there’s nothing left to give. If you expect there to be something “left to give,” you’re doing it wrong. There is a reason we give the “first fruits” of our labor ⁴.

I’m not here to get into the “does the tithe apply to Christians today?” debate. I’ve already written on that. My point is that consuming has become more important than giving. 80% of the people who give to churches have zero credit card debt.⁵ It’s easy to see the difference in thinking between a giver, or a good steward, and a pure consumer.

That’s why we decided to go 30 days without consuming. We kept giving to our church. We still paid for our home and utilities. We continued investing and saving. And yes, we bought two tanks of gas. That’s it.

No buying groceries. No buying clothing. No eating out. No movie theaters. No toys. No consuming. And… it was fine. It went perfectly fine. Here’s what happened…

What Happened in the 30 Days?

The first thing we noticed was that we had a lot of food in our house. We had a pantry full of meals. We could live off this for days, without adding anything to it. So we did. And it was nice to clean out everything that we were “never in the mood for.”

It didn’t end there. We wouldn’t have had enough food in our house to last the entire 30 days, but a funny thing happened. As soon as we decided to focus on our giving, and stop consuming for a time period, we were blessed for our efforts.

In the first week of the challenge, our neighbors were moving overseas, so they brought all the food in their house to us. That quadrupled our food supply. And no, I don’t think it was a coincidence.

The second week, we had a cookout at work. When it was over, the plan was to throw away a week’s worth of food that didn’t get used. You guessed it… we took it all home with us, and ate even better than expected. A week’s worth of Philly steak, hamburgers, brats, and vegetables.

My wife also found more ways to bring food in by volunteering at a local food pantry, and taking the stuff nobody else wanted. We weren’t on food stamps or government assistance, but she was bringing in all kinds of bread, pasta, and dry goods. We didn’t take the canned food, and the rest of the food that wouldn’t spoil.

We, Americans, take the food in our home for granted. We take our resources for granted. We take our community for granted. We all do it.

Between using what we had, and being continually blessed, we were able to go 90 days without spending consumer money. However, after a while, we did have to get creative.

How the Challenge Breeds Creativity

We don’t need as much as we think, and we get creative when we place limitations on ourselves. By the way, our kids loved the challenge. They thought it was fun, and we thought it was awesome for them to see all of the blessings flowing in.

Doing the 30-day challenge forced us to get creative, and when we ran out of ideas, God filled in the gaps. We also realized that we spent a lot more quality time together as a family when we stopped consuming so much.

If you go 30 days without consuming, you’ll realize how much you consume.

Typically, the more expensive an activity is, the less time you spend together doing it. Amusement parks and movie theaters are great sometimes, but how much quality time do you spend with each other when you’re riding rides, and watching a movie in silence?

Being frugal is fun. Getting creative about how you’re going to eat and live, without consuming, is an adventure. If you’re saying “this would never work for me” or “I couldn’t do this because…,” then you’re missing the point…

We did the challenge to see how we would respond. And it lasted 90 days for us. You may be able to go longer, or you may not make it to 30, but I recommend trying it. You’ll save some money, and get a new perspective on your consumption… and on your consuming compared to your giving. Food for thought.

Further Book Reading

• A Simplified Life by Emily Ley
• The More of Less by Joshua Becker
• Affluenza by Graaf, Wann & Naylor
• The Grace of Enough by Haley Stewart
• Minimalism vs. Consumerism by Seth Caraway