The detox spending challenge can save you a bundle in just one week. Here’s how to do it

What if you completely turned off the taps on spending for a week — like a detox from alcohol, screen time or chocolate?

I’ve detoxed my spending every January for almost a decade now, for three beneficial reasons.

First, it provides a great opportunity to save a pile of money fast. Last year I socked away $800.

Second, it reignites my financial mindfulness. When I can’t spend, I start making the most of what I already have.

Third, I learn something insightful about myself. Two years ago amid the pandemic and on maternity leave, I dealt with a bad habit I wasn’t totally conscious of — I’d been comparing myself to other parents in our neighbourhood. With that knowledge I started to interrupt the comparisons with a walk, a homemade smoothie or a healthy conversation with another new parent.

If you’re looking for a money reset, or simply more money to help pay the holiday bills that are rolling in, here’s how to start your no-spend challenge.

Step 1: Try the challenge for a solid week. I’ve done it for five days (too short), thirty days (too long), and have landed on a week being just right in order to see benefits.

Step 2: Commit to stopping spending on anything non-essential for the full seven days. 

Step 3: Each day, transfer what you otherwise would have spent into your savings account. Look for trends about your daily saving capacity. Is it $5 a day on average or maybe $75 a day?

Step 4: Pay your normal bills and budgeted expenses like rent or groceries. There's no payment holiday from your obligations.

I’ve taught the no-spending challenge to thousands of Canadians and the greatest opportunities for savings, and money mindset transformation, are in the following ways:

Make all your meals and drinks at home

Not only does this almost always result in significant savings, it’s a great way to bolster your health goals.

Meal planning is a surefire way to succeed with this goal. Personally, I use ChatGPT to help prepare one for my family. I ask for a healthy seven-day meal plan, tell it what my kids simply won’t eat, and voila, I have a plan. Then I ask the bot to make me the associated grocery shopping list. The whole process takes minutes.

If you're tempted to preorder your latte or load your app with your favourite takeout order, put your phone down for 30 minutes, and go back to your meal plan. That’s about the amount of time you need to shift your mind out of spending autopilot into a ‘take control’ mindset.

Shop from your fridge and pantry before you shop for groceries

The sign of a good no-spending challenge is a nearly empty fridge, storage cabinet and pantry. It means you consciously used up what you already have on-hand, rather than buying duplicates or triplicates of tomatoes, pasta and toothpaste. When you’ve inventoried your current supplies, hitting the grocery store to get what you actually need then makes sense. 

My pro tip is to be the flyer checker and coupon cutter and price matcher so that when you shop, you’re doing it from the discount supermarket that has the very best prices. And yes, those are the stores where you need to put a loonie into the cart to unlock it, so be prepared with change. 

Cancel subscriptions and negotiate your plans

You can cut unnecessary spending permanently by cancelling subscriptions and memberships. Both large and small, these can be substantial opportunities for savings. Last year one of my students cancelled $350 a month in subscriptions which ranged from streaming services to tech subscriptions to make up refills to fitness memberships that were only modestly used. Review the subscriptions and plans (cable channels and insurance are good examples) you do need to ensure you actually require everything you’re paying for. Otherwise, modify it accordingly, and negotiate wherever you can.

Insert a 24-hour pause when tempted to impulse spend

Clothes, records, video games, kids’ gear — if you’ve been suffering from overspending for a while, during your no spending week (and beyond), insert a 24-hour pause before checking out. That might mean walking away from your digital cart or literally leaving the store. An entire day is a powerful period of time where you can reflect and determine if what was in your cart was absolutely necessary. Chances are, you can do without.

Use up all your gift cards, points and anything prepurchased

Do you have a credit somewhere or a gift card that still has a balance? Use this up for essentials during your no-spending challenge. I also like to use my loyalty points for groceries and gas during this week. The longer you hold on to those points, the less valuable they become. If you’ve been sitting on prepaid fitness classes, book yourself in for some wellness. 

Purge, purge, purge …

The way to make money at purging is to sell items that have value. It could be a jacket, boots, books, electronics, strollers and more. The way I like to organize my purge is I go room by room and choose three items that need to go. If they have value, I post them on Facebook Marketplace or Kijiji and price them well so that they sell quickly. The other items that I can’t sell, I either donate or dispose of. This clutter clearing is a huge stress reliever and tends to offer some reflection points where you can think back on what that purchase was all about, and if it was worth it. 

Once you’ve detoxed your spending for a full week, your savings account is going to be nice and full, and you’ll feel good. Mindfully use that money toward important goals you have like paying off your credit card balances, building an emergency fund or making your RRSP contribution before the deadline.

This article was originally published in The Star. Lesley-Anne Scorgie is a Toronto-based personal finance columnist and a freelance contributing columnist for the Star.