BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) – September has been gaining traction as a challenge to cut out unnecessary purchases for an entire month. <\/p>\n
\u2018No Spend September\u2019 has become popular on social media and is a time to spend money on necessities, but to build long-term financial habits. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe big idea is to help people start learning how to get a little bit more control of their expenditures and maximize their income,\u201d explains Western Kentucky University finance professor Zachary Jones. \u201cThe question becomes, what\u2019s really important for you to actually spend money on?\u201d<\/p>\n
Deciding on financial goals and making sure your budget aligns with those goals is key. Jones says short-term desires can hold you back from future opportunities. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe call it opportunity costs, like people have to remember anytime you say yes to spending money, you\u2019re saying no to some potential opportunity in the future,\u201d he explained. \u201c…So, if there\u2019s a lot of small yeses all the time and never any noes, then you\u2019re going to end up in a situation where the big things that are really important you may not have enough money for.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018No Spend September\u2019 can be utilized as an introduction to saying no, but experts say you have to keep those habits. At the end of September, Jones says the money saved should be used towards an emergency fund, high-interest debt, or even a small reward.<\/p>\n
Jones emphasizes the importance of tracking finances and that \u2018mental accounting\u2019 is very hard to actually keep track of your money. Written budgets will keep you best aligned with your goals, whether that\u2019s using apps, a spreadsheet, or even pen and paper.<\/p>\n
If \u2018No Spend September\u2019 seems like too big a leap, there are smaller steps you can try instead. Looking at bank statements and writing out all expenses can help you gain a sense of where your money is going.<\/p>\n
In addition, writing out financial goals can be a reasonable step if cutting spending immediately doesn\u2019t seem like the right fit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think that a lot of times, getting control of your money. Yes, it does have something to do with what your true expenses are, and your income is, but a lot of times it\u2019s more in our head and then the practical things like do we have a written budget,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
He explains, exercising self-control and delayed gratification daily can help finances can be helped the most.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 WBKO. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) – September has been gaining traction as a challenge to cut out unnecessary purchases…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[7740,28,10048,152,2066,76585,147,530,3421,27830,2897,76586],"class_list":{"0":"post-118565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-bowling-green","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-expenditures","11":"tag-finances","12":"tag-money","13":"tag-no-spend-september","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-personalfinance","16":"tag-saving","17":"tag-september","18":"tag-spending","19":"tag-wku"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}