My family is testing 'spending blackouts' to save more money in 2023

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• Although my husband and I have minimal debt, we're trying to build our savings and pare down expenses.
• My husband hopes to retire in two years, so we're adjusting our spending habits now.
• Instead of a complete shopping ban, we decided to start with smaller spending blackouts.

My husband and I are both retired from the military, so we have a substantial amount of pension income. My husband has a full-time job and I'm a full-time freelance writer and content creator. We have two kids in middle school. In addition to my husband's retirement, our goal is to move within the next three years.

To reduce impulse spending, set realistic budgets for groceries and entertainment, and better plan for purchases instead of spending based on "see it want it" or "I forgot we were going to need that" situations, we did no-spend November, December, and January — with a few agreed-upon ahead-of-time exceptions. 

For us, no spending didn't mean not spending anything. There are different approaches to no-spend no-buy periods but for us, it meant no extras and streamlining our grocery budget. For our spending blackouts, it didn't mean no extras ever, but buckling down on our finances for a specified period to work toward our goals.

Purging our closets and unsubscribing from emails helped with impulse buying

Although my husband is occasionally guilty of impulse purchases, most of our family's frivolous spending is on me. I'll spend money on clothes (for myself and my family) and personal care items, such as high-end cosmetics, more often than I should. I looked back at my Amazon purchases alone and spent an average of $400 per month for things I could have done without in 2022.

Some of the inspiration for doing no-spend pockets of time comes from the fact that we seemed to have a lot of excess after a huge closet purge. I'd also caught myself buying things similar to what I already had.  

Aside from being disciplined and telling myself no, one of the things that have curbed my spending is removing myself from email lists. Dedicating time to go through my inbox to unsubscribe from store emails has (mostly) removed temptation to buy things that aren't part of my plan.

I've also reassessed the way I respond to things I think I need. Instead of going straight to buy, I think of other solutions. A recent example is discovering I didn't have any cold weather running tops. I purged most of my winter workout gear but cooler temps and renewed interest in running made me regret throwing all my tops out. I found a shirt in my husband's drawer that works for now.

I'm trying to establish new muscle memory that doesn't equate "Wouldn't it be fun to have" with "Buy that immediately."

We're steering clear of restaurants

For now, our weekly grocery spend is about $50 for perishables and essential toiletries. We're currently planning our meals around what's in the freezer and the pantry. This is both a money-saving initiative and an effort to make sure our on-hand food gets rotated and used.

We purchased Walmart+ right before our no-spend period began. We did this strategically to save money on gas and to get a free streaming service network. I spend less when I have my groceries delivered (free with Walmart+) than when I go into the store.

For now, we've decided on no restaurants, including pizza delivery, and no movies, arcades, or other entertainment. We have several streaming services for movies, although a couple might be on the chopping block, and season passes for Six Flags we were gifted last year.

We've started tapping into our community's free events and free museum days. We became familiar with our local outdoor spaces during the early part of the pandemic, so we're far from dealing with "There's nothing to do." The objective isn't permanent deprivation, but more mindfulness about our spending. 

We're looking ahead for ways to save money

After years of instant gratification spending, it's a challenge to get into the habit of forecasting smaller purchases. While we're cognizant of college savings and when we need to look at a new car, things like replacing sports equipment or seasonal gear always sneak up on us. We hope more communication about spending will help us in the end.

Here are some additional things we're forecasting to help us save and get us through future no-spend periods:

• Looking to thrift stores and yard sale sites more often.
• Borrowing versus buying, especially for items you seldom use, like snow pants or a carpet cleaner.
• Getting buy-in from everyone. Our kids understand what we're not buying for a specified period. They're old enough to process the reasons behind no-spend and they've become more mindful about what they asked for.
• Take a very hard look at subscriptions and autorenewals. We cut out several things we don't need or could do without before we started our no-spend periods, such as a wine club and apps with a monthly fee.

We'll reassess at the end of January, but we're hoping our frugality will be the start of better financial habits to help us reach our goals and live a simpler, less cluttered lifestyle.