I don\u2019t think of myself as a particularly extravagant person. Unable to justify the exorbitant expense, I never even flirted with the idea of obtaining Oasis or Taylor Swift gig tickets<\/a>. Holidays are usually cobbled together from the cheapest train fares available and accommodation consisting of mates\u2019 spare rooms or reasonably priced Airbnbs. I don\u2019t own a car, designer clothes or any expensive jewellery. The one time a former housemate and I had our flat robbed, the burglars stole precisely nothing from my room. Which was, on reflection, mildly insulting.<\/p>\n Yet my day-to-day expenditure seems to spiral ever upwards, especially when it comes to life\u2019s little extravagances<\/a>. The birth of the \u00a315 salad<\/a> has made lunches al desko less of a last-minute necessity and more of a remortgaging-your-house type investment. A casual dinner out with the girls seems to have more than doubled to a \u00a350 minimum spend. I recently decided to be \u201cgood\u201d, trading the usual glass of wine for a kombucha at the pub \u2013 only to be punished with a \u00a37.50 bill. <\/p>\n It\u2019s not just me feeling the pinch. Cost-of-living pressures are only getting further exacerbated as international conflicts lead to escalating oil and energy prices. Though there had been a notable downturn in food inflation<\/a> in January, the dip reversed and UK grocery inflation edged back up to 4.3 per cent in the four weeks to 22 February, reports The Independent\u2019s food and drink editor, Hannah Twiggs<\/a>. <\/p>\n I decided the only way to fight back was to see if I could slash my own outgoings for a month. I would still have to pay for utilities, public transport and food from the supermarket, of course \u2013 no need to go all Jean Valjean and flush my life down the toilet for the sake of a loaf of bread \u2013 but when it came to extracurriculars and unnecessary expenditure, I would aim to be as frugal as possible. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n In the pink? Overspending is all too easy thanks to spiralling living costs (Getty\/iStock)<\/p>\n Week one<\/p>\n Things get off to a strong start. Similar to the beginning of a new diet<\/a>, I\u2019m full of hope and determination at this stage, poised for prudent success. I batch-cook \u2013 twice \u2013 something that had dropped out of the routine and been replaced by expensive grab-and-go lunches. I grow a little taller at the thought of the hit to Pret\u2019s takings as I fill tupperware after tupperware with healthy grains and vegetables.<\/p>\n This easy win is satisfying enough to propel me through a week populated by the word \u201cno\u201d: I refrain from buying a coffee<\/a> at the station while waiting for my train; manage to go into an M&S Food with a friend and emerge without picking up a cocktail in a can and packet of Percy Pigs; and do a pilates<\/a> video at home instead of paying the usual \u00a320 for a bougie studio class in central London.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not prepared to fully relinquish my social life in the name of becoming a skinflint; luckily, the rain makes going into the outside world a deeply unappealing prospect. I convince a friend to have me round for dinner instead of going out (though this does require the purchase of supermarket flowers \u2013 turning up empty-handed being too outrageously rude to even consider). Another friend is moving house, and I successfully lobby to spend the evening helping her pack instead of totting up a gargantuan tab at our local wine bar. Win!<\/p>\n Week two<\/p>\n I lean into the activities available to me that don\u2019t cost extra. My membership to a local community sauna<\/a> has never felt such good value: \u00a395 for the whole year, with no additional charge on top. You can go as much as you like, and I do, combining frequent visits with runs along the coastal path and dips in the sea<\/a> (both also mercifully free). <\/p>\n I\u2019m not prepared to fully relinquish my social life in the name of becoming a skinflint<\/p>\n The batch-cooking continues, and one evening I decide to take my time over a new recipe and treat myself to a solo night in, with dinner by candlelight followed by catching up on The Night Manager<\/a>.<\/p>\n The rest of the week sees me head to a mate\u2019s house for a roast and jump at the chance to take a friend\u2019s set of weights she\u2019d planned on chucking to facilitate more at-home workouts.<\/p>\n However, the week also brings Valentine\u2019s Day. Much as I\u2019d like to be cynical and roll my eyes at the very idea of celebrating romance, I\u2019m four months into a new relationship \u2013 right in the staring-gooily-into-each-other\u2019s-eyes sweet spot. I can\u2019t bring myself to suggest we sack off marking our first V-Day together, and so I throw the rules out for an evening in the name of true love. We go to a friend\u2019s supper club event and finish the night with devastatingly strong cocktails at a speakeasy bar. Je ne regrette rien.<\/p>\n Week three<\/p>\n My Bluetooth headphones<\/a> break and I go to replace them as I normally would \u2013 immediately, thoughtlessly, with zero appreciation of what a huge privilege it is to have the funds to solve problems at the touch of a button. But I stop myself; this, technically, is more luxury item than vital purchase. I won\u2019t be able to listen to music as I stomp between my house and town, or stream the latest Netflix garbage via my phone while on the train? So be it. It feels like the most first-world of first-world problems. <\/p>\n There is an unexpectedly lovely silver lining. For the first time in a long time, I feel present as I move through the world. One morning, when the sun is miraculously shimmering through hazy mist, I walk past a shoal of gilded daffodils, hear the chirrup of birdsong, and find my cheeks are wet with tears as my heart swells from the pure joy of it all. I would have missed this, I think. I would have walked right past it.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Going to the pub and refraining from buying a drink can be a challenge (Getty\/iStock)<\/p>\n For half of my week, the no-spend challenge is particularly easy to stick to: I\u2019ve booked a few days\u2019 silent retrea<\/a>t<\/a> at an abbey. There\u2019s no charge for stays (though donations are welcome) and, with nothing to do but think, pray and read, my expenditure is as saintly as the nuns themselves.<\/p>\n When I return home to the real world, however, keeping it up becomes significantly trickier. A friend\u2019s birthday on Friday has me shelling out for a musical bingo ticket; another friend\u2019s anniversary party on Sunday results in me buying two drinks. I\u2019ve realised just how strange and antisocial it really feels to turn up to a social event and sit there nursing a tap water \u2013 not to mention borderline disrespectful if it\u2019s an independent local pub struggling to break even<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n Week four<\/p>\n The more you slip up, the easier it is to slip up, it seems. Once I allow myself to cheat a little under the guise of not becoming a social pariah, it\u2019s like I\u2019ve broken the seal. I can\u2019t seem to stop myself from wantonly wafting my credit card every time I leave the house.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t seem to stop myself from wantonly wafting my credit card every time I leave the house<\/p>\n I get invited to an early birthday lunch; a pre-theatre set-menu dinner; an all-afternoon pub crawl. I have always been much more comfortable with \u201cyes\u201d than \u201cno\u201d, and consequently end the month having succumbed to financial incontinence and feeling like a failure.<\/p>\n And yet, despite cracking as easily as an egg, my 28-day attempt at no-spend life did have a subtle yet profound impact. The likes of Amazon have made shopping so frictionless that it\u2019s easy to forget you\u2019ve spent any money at all. Before every frivolous impulse purchase, I now find myself questioning whether I really need whatever it is. Couldn\u2019t I do without that new skirt? That cinnamon bun? That extra glass of wine? Couldn\u2019t I stick a couple of potato waffles in the toaster rather than order a Domino\u2019s when I\u2019m tired and peckish? Mightn\u2019t I ask a friend to help with putting up that mirror instead of hiring a handyman? After a lifetime of throwing money at the situation, this feels quietly revolutionary.<\/p>\n Scores on the doors: when I compare January and February\u2019s extracurricular outgoings, I\u2019ve cut my spending by more than a third. Far from perfect, but a saving of several hundred pounds \u2013 enough to galvanise my tentative desire to cultivate a thriftier mindset. If the best things in life really are free, maybe it\u2019s time to start making the most of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[45,49,48,133,131,132],"class_list":["post-539727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/iStock-1226950460.jpg\")
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