No Spend Month Challenge Results

I took part in a No Spend Challenge for the month of April, 2020! As part of it, I tried to limit my take-outs to 3 times a week. I didn’t want to eliminate my take outs (all restaurants in the state of Maryland are take-outs/deliveries only) because food is one of the only entertainments I have left during self-quarantine, and also because I wanted to do my part in keeping at least some local businesses afloat.

Unfortunately, most small businesses and restaurants have been closed since the mayor announced that all restaurants must shift to take-outs and deliveries only. So I’m only doing take-outs from big chain restaurants for the most part, because those are the only ones still open. But all in all, spending money = helping the economy, so I’m going to leave my fooding in my budget.

In conclusion, it was a success! We bought medical things and furniture (for WFH), and made a few donations, but other than that, I managed to keep myself from buying anything else. Since there wasn’t really anywhere to go or anything to do, can’t say it was very eventful No Spend Month… We also kept our take outs to 3 times a week (one week, we only did 2!), so that was good news too! Though I’m not sure if we saved much money in terms of food from bulk-buying at grocery stores and doing take outs so often… At least we went to pick them up so we don’t have to pay delivery fees!

(This $54 lunch definitely didn’t help our financial cause at any rate!)

No Spend Month Money Spent

Take Outs

  • Wednesday (4/1): Five Guys (2 burgers, 1 medium fries)
  • Saturday (4/4): Chipotle (1 burrito bowl, 1 burrito, 1 chips)
  • Sunday (4/5): Moby Dick (family dinner special)
  • Thursday (4/9): Five Guys (2 burgers, 2 medium fries)
  • Friday (4/10): Papa John’s Pizza (2 pizzas, 1 garlic knot)
  • Saturday (4/11): Chipotle (2 burrito bowls, 1 chips)
  • Friday (4/17): Five Guys (2 burgers, 2 fries)
  • Saturday (4/18): Chinese Take Out (tofu with vegetables, pork fried rice, mapo tofu)
  • Tuesday (4/21): Chipotle (1 burrito, 1 burrito bowl)
  • Thursday (4/23): Mexican Food (1 Burrito, 1 Burrito Bowl)
  • Sunday (4/26): Sushi
  • Wednesday (4/29): Chipotle (2 burrito bowls, chips)
  • Thursday (4/30): Papa John’s Pizza (2 pizzas)

Number of Take Outs in April: 13

Exclusions List

  • Gifts/Donations: $38
  • Health: $40 (Masks), $10 (Nasal Spray)
  • Furniture: $71

No Spend Month Money Not Spent

I would naturally have moments of “oh I want to buy this”… Here are some things I managed to say no to…

Hiroko Nishimura
AWS Community Hero. Special Education teacher turned IT Engineer turned Technical Writer. Author "AWS for Non-Engineers" (Manning Publications). Technical Instructor "Introduction to AWS for Non-Engineers" (LinkedIn Learning).

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