I've been kicking this idea around for a while, but have been unsure whether I would be able to pull it off.  I've decided that I'm going to give it a try in October.

The idea is this:  I want to go one entire calendar month without spending any money.  No money for groceries, restaurants, games, CDs, newspapers, strippers, muscular dystrophy, or anything else.  For one month, I want to be able to remove myself as a consumer.  I want to see if I can break the habit of buying anything that I feel like buying, whether I need it or not (I blame the internet and its easy access to consumer goods for this, and not my astonishingly weak willpower).

Unfortunately, I do have some automatic withdrawals set up to pay for rent and utilities.  I can't stop these.  I also have several outstanding orders that have been in place for, in some cases, several months, which I will not cancel.  However, I can prevent myself from ordering anything new.  My girlfriend is on board with this idea, and has agreed to cover food costs for the month.  I would love to avoid paying even rent and utilities for the month, but our financial situation does not allow that.

Am I doomed to fail, or will I emerge triumphant on November 1st?  Stay tuned to find out.

You're not going to eat for an entire month? Mmm, okay...

His girlfriend's covering the cost of grub, which means that he shacked up with the right lady.

I'm a little upset that Crash isn't going to give money to strippers and muscular dystrophy. I mean, going on this ideal, you could get more bang for your buck if you found a stripper with MD, but I heard they only have those down in San Fran.

Zane, that was funny.

Crash, not feeding yourself may take you out of the consumer mode for a month but it places you squarely under bum.  Interesting experiment, let us know how it goes, but I think it is a bit extreme.

Good luck!

About 6 or 7 years ago, when I was living in Arizona, I didn't have much income and had to go an entire week without spending a penny.   

I was pretty damn happy to have actually accomplished that, but of course I was FORCED to, since my account was dry until next payday.  It sucked yeah, and fortunately I still had SOME food left in the fridge to keep me out of the grocery store, but even 1 week of no-spending is very difficult.

Just to clarify, I will be eating during this period (although I could survive for a month on what I already have in the house.  Vitamins and a 10-kilogram bag of rice can keep me fed for a while).  As I mentioned in the original post (and as Zane said), my girlfriend will be buying food in October.  This won't be as impressive as Carl's feat, but it will at least give me a feeling of control over my spending.

Good luck to you. You don't realize how quickly a bunch of little stuff adds up (at least until you look at your bank statement), so hopefully it will work out.

I haven't had to go no spending, but I did have to basically live on $20 per week at college my last semester (not counting rent, bus fare and books, thankfully). Figure a quick Taco Bell stop will drain off 10-20 percent of what you have for the week and it puts things into perspective. I ate a lot of pasta that last semester (one $1 box of spaghetti was breakfast, lunch and dinner a number of days...Ramen was cheaper, but I had gotten sick of the stuff 4 semesters ago) and scrounging together enough for a game (or anything) was a huge ordeal, as it usually involved trading in stuff or selling stuff on these boards.

I'm pretty careful nowadays, but I think that period really affected my judgement on things...I still remember getting my first paycheck and blowing it almost on the spot (before I had to worry about saving...I still get this sinking feeling in my stomach whenever I look at my copy of Colony Wars) and I did that for about 2 years before I had to start saving for college. Still, if it's something I've been waiting for, I tend to peg it as an expense moreso than a luxury.

Hmmm, this is interesting!  However, if your girlfriend is purchasing food for you, is this not akin to reverting to being a child, in the sense that you are dependent upon others for food and shelter...although in this case just food

Also, you already paid for gas, electricity, rent...so I guess the only real way to not spend money in some way shape or form, is to leave society (deserted island, or hermit somewhere).  I'm guessing this will never truly happen for any of us...  Still, I think it's a neat experiment!  I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say!  Also, say you want to go see a movie, will you not go?  What if your girlfriend pays, is it OK then? 

cheers,

-avatar!

ps What is your feeling at the moment, will you make it through the entire month?  If so, will you try for 2?  Is this necessarily good, or is it right for us to be materialistic?  Are we TOO materialistic?  OK, I'm getting TOO philosophical I suppose

Edit: fixed typo

Not to deflate you or anything, but this doesn't sound all that hard to me, especially given the fact that everything you need to survive is being taken care of and even your discretionary stuff is already prepaid.  Maybe you should delay the test to a future time period when you can truly fast from consumerism.

I disagree.  A month of not spending money (other than for utilities, rent, and basic food) sounds very challenging to me!  Think about it, you're out with your friends, you get hungry...can you purchase food?  No!  Can you take a bus?  No!  Can you purchase socks?  No!  Can you purchase that game you wanted which is now on sale and going fast... No! 
We're such materialistic people, I think it's not as easy as you say (although you might be less materialistic than most of us)!

cheers,

-avatar!

I think if I tried that, my employers would get pretty angy when my car ran out of gas and not buying more would prevent me from going to work for the remainder of the month.  :\

Good luck! Although I agree with others that the true test would be spending no money at all (as difficult as that would be to set up). Especially last year, I had long stretches where I only had about $20-30 of money a month to spend on niceties like games, movies and eating out. You learn to spend wisely.

Are you serious?! How much money, I wonder, do you think you'll have at the end of it? Anyways, I similarly wish you good fortune in such an endeavour.

Maybe I should try this out sometime?

Yeah, to truly spend no money in a month, I would have to:

1. Own my own home, but do so in a place with no homeowner's association dues or property taxes.  I doubt there's anywhere in the U.S. where that's even a possibility anymore.  The alternative is to go the homeless route or the insane-guy-in-the-dilapidated-cabin route.

2. Have either no power or solar/wind power.  Difficult to do, but possible.

3. Have a well and septic tank to avoid paying water/sewer charges.

4. Have no insurance (life/health/dental/auto/homeowners). A very risky proposition.

5. Have a large supply of non-perishable food on hand, or grow/hunt for all my food.

6. Have no car, and rely solely on rides from others or walking/biking.  Since I wouldn't be spending any money, there probably wouldn't be any place to go anyway; just to work and back.  It should be noted that I'm currently in this situation (no car, walk to work, get rides if I want to go elsewhere).

So, it could be done, but not without a very serious change in lifestyle.  Essentially, it would be a third-world lifestyle, and I don't think I'll ever be ready to voluntarily make that leap.

As far as money saved, well...I keep track of all my expenses, and for 2006, I'm averaging about $3,500 a month in spending.  This includes rent, utilities, food, clothes, games, CDs, and everything else.  During this time, I've been supporting both myself and the girl while she got her Masters.  Now that she has a job and is contributing to rent, etc., that number should come down substantially.  I will probably save $1,500 or so if I can last the month.

Edit: To address avatar!'s question, if I want to see a movie in October, I will make no mention of it.  If my girlfriend says that she wants to see the same movie, and volunteers to pay, then I will go, but I don't want to coerce that action.

That's what I ws thinking. Well, maybe not your description of it being a Third World lifestyle, but more like being a hermit living in a forest.

Anyway, I think it's an interesting experiment, but, as others have said, it's a bit extreme and rather unrealistic. Because this is the kind of thing you plan for in advance by stocking up on food, unless you have serious outdoor survivor skills -- and access to such -- or plan to see how far you can get by on water alone (oh, wait, water service is a bill too, isn't it? guess you'd be out of luck there also...unless of course you bum off from work or others). It'd be more interesting for you to go camping for a month instead. Or, it'd be a lot more interesting to see how much you can keep your spending to a minimum by spending only on utilities and basic necessities (i.e., groceries and water) -- no new clothes, no eating out, etc.

Oh, and did you give someone all your credit/debit cards, ATM cards, checks, cash, and other monetary vehicles? That way you can be sure you don't spend money.

In any case, good luck with your monthlong hermitage.

You know, one way to get a taste of not spending money/isolationist living, without getting your feet dirty is to play Lost in Blue   What a great game...

cheers,

-avatar!

Rich bastard.  :-)

No kidding... I think that $1500 a month is my rough budget (and I live in the city).

OK, time to bug Crash for the 1st Month results.

Give us the grueling details of consumerism denial.

Here's what happened:

I had the misfortune to see a dentist for the first time in two years the last week of September.  My teeth are categorically awful; I don't drink soda or eat candy, and I brush my teeth like a fiend, but apparently, that's not enough to fend off decay in my case.  So, I ended up having to make two follow-up appointments the next week (the first week of October) to replace five fillings and get three new ones.  And lucky me, the dentist already has me down for a crown and a probable root canal for next year.  Even with my insurance, I was out $550 out-of-pocket.

Given those circumstances, I had to delay my adventure for a week, but I did make it from October 6 to November 6 without spending any money.  Honestly, it wasn't so bad, but that's because I am a fairly boring individual.  I never really felt the need to go out and spend money on anything, and I was able to keep my internet spending in check for once in my life.  Part of this had to do with the fact that I was studying for a test the entire month (hard-core studying, about 6-10 hours a day the entire month), so I didn't really have time for anything else.  The only times when I found it difficult to restrain myself were:

1. When the Ibara Pink Sweets CD was announced
2. When the IIDX Happy Sky Konamistyle edition PS2 game was announced
3. Walking home at lunchtime, realizing I couldn't stop in to eat anywhere
4. Wandering around the DVD section of Best Buy over the weekend, seeing a great number of TV shows that brought back fond memories (believe it or not, Jack of All Trades topped that list)

I think it was actually harder on my girlfriend than on me.  She hadn't had to spend money on groceries now for about a year and a half, and I think she had forgotten just how much food costs.  She also really likes to eat out, and since I pick up the tab about 75% of the time, that wasn't really an option last month.

I would like to limit my spending in the future, but I already have quite a few things I've been wanting to buy for some time, like a white PSP and an arcade-style Pop'n Music controller.  It does feel good to look at my credit card statement, though, and see such a low balance.

Now, onward to the flurry of pre-holiday spending, almost exclusively on myself!

So, in other words, it's hard not to spend money. :-)

Uh oh, Fasting and then Binging isn't a good recipe for Financial health 

Keep the course slow and steady!

Moral: Autarky sucks!

Yes, I think I can safely agree with that conclusion.

Now, to peruse the marketplace listings...

This is a brilliant experiment.  I'm inspired.

.