what do you do on a no-spend weekend

[Zoe Girl]

this is the second weekend that i have almost no money, i caught up all my bills and am practicing living without the child support so it is okay but very tight. yesterday i had a pre-planned coffee date so i just allowed for that in my cash. Simple groceries but no extra snack foods. and both yesterday and today i let my son take the car to work since i didn't need anything or have anywhere to go so i have just been home.

so what do you do?

what i did was a lot of crochet, an all-day marathon of Law and order SVU yesterday and 3 star wars movies today as background, worked on the tedious tasks of cleaning my paperwork and moving all the documents from my old work computer to my new one, went for a walk at the park across the street and stopped to meditate, swam for 20 minutes, cooked from scratch, did work on responding to inquiries on Facebook about our meditation group, started studying something that interested me, and more crochet. Somehow i survived it.

what i wanted to do that i didn't was go shopping - even though it would be to use all the coupons and discounts to stock up, go to goodwill for halloween decorations and fun clothes, have my sunday morning coffee shop tea, drive to the Celestial Seasonings factory for my bi-annual shopping for special teas. None would have been large amounts of money.

[rosarugosa]

It sounds like you still managed to have a fun, productive weekend. Maybe you can spread out some of these low-cost shopping expeditions over the never few weeks? Halloween decorations will be greatly discounted on 11/1, so you could buy a couple of things for next year. I like to do seasonal decorations with cool-looking squashes and then we eat them, so they are groceries really.

[Chicken lady]

Well, this weekend I worked in the pottery studio (mine, next to my house) with materials I already have. That did add to the water and electric bill. I also slept late, kept up with the house, did laundry, read/talked online, e-mailed with mom and the kids, talked on the phone with mom, invited a friend over to join me for pottery, cooked our food, wrote lesson plans, did crosswords with dh, and took care of the animals. Other free stuff I didn't get to was sheering a goat, spreading mulch, canning apples, walks in the woods, putting the garden to bed and balancing my accounts. Fairly typical weekend stuff.

My weekends veer between "planned adventure" (concert, craft fair, trip to see kid, visiting kid, event like renfest) and "stay home and do stuff". I mostly hate to "go shopping"

[Ultralight]

A friend of mine is about to lose her child support. So she'll be having no-spend weekends... or longer. Her child support is her main source of income, along with the government sources. Though she does get some child support from her most recent kid's dad...


As for what I do on no spend weekends?

Read library books.
Watch a documentary on YouTube.
Go fishing if I have some fakin' baits in my tackle box already, or I can dig up a few worms.
Take Harlan on walks.
Write in my journal.
As of late, I'd try to learn some chords on the ukulele.
Go "tumbling" with my girlfriend. haha
Try to throw together some glorious meal with the oddball items in the fridge and pantry.
Ride my bike.
Take my canoe out.


For me, I can have lots of good times not spending money or by spending just a wee bit. haha

[lessisbest]

The same things I do on no-spend MONTHS - which is every other month (other than groceries, which I purchase weekly). I fail to see how everything I "do" needs to be connected to spending money?

-We have so many things to do that are free in this community, and often you can even find a free hot dog, so I keep an eye on the Community Calendar.

-Projects aplenty around the house, gardens to tend to, a basket of mending, knitting/crocheting projects, homemade "convenience" foods to make, hand-made paper using "junk" mail (which I use for gift cards, Christmas cards, gift tags, and a plethora of other things).

[Zoe Girl]

I think I like my regular low-spend weekends. That means buying things I need, getting a fancy tea sitting at a shop, visiting a friend, etc. But I did uber meditation

biggest issue with not shopping, no toilet paper! No one at my house who actually had the car told me that we were out.

[Aqua Blue]

No spend weekend for me, as the majority are. Saturday I Went and got my Bountiful Basket. Processed some of the veggies, washed the lettuce etc. Planned how I will use it, getting out recipes that I will need. Cleaned house. Played with my 4yo niece, we took a big piece of paper, I drew around her and then we "dressed" her with colors for Halloween. Great fun. Went with them to Sam's. I didn't buy anything, but did have samples. You can go "shopping" without buying. Came back to chili and bread sticks. Watched Netflix in the evening

Sunday, my other brother came over to pick up his 1/2 of the Bountiful Basket. Made coffee and treats. Read the paper together and caught up. He left. Played the piano. I read a borrowed book. Caught up on emails and forums. Took the dog for a walk. Did a couple of outside things. Made supper in the instapot. Watched a couple of episodes of a series on Netflix.

I think it was harder to fill in that time when I was working. It was like I was addicted to adrenalin and felt I had to accomplish something every single moment. Now I am much more laid back. I enjoy that moment a lot more.

[lessisbest]

I think I like my regular low-spend weekends. That means buying things I need, getting a fancy tea sitting at a shop, visiting a friend, etc. But I did uber meditation

biggest issue with not shopping, no toilet paper! No one at my house who actually had the car told me that we were out.

That's what we call "ox in the ditch" (a Biblical reference) situation, and it's something that could be deemed a necessity. Although we have enough TP for a year in our storage room, so running out would be unbelievably rare. Even then, I have cloth wipes and bidet bottles to use as a substitute.

I've never run out of milk, either, since I always buy enough powdered milk for a year (and have since 1981).

[ApatheticNoMore]

With company? See if they wanted to walk out or hang out in nature weather permitting (mostly not to hot or raining). And it would be a little tempting to get coffee after having walked ... a little tempting sure, but not necessary. Free events? Honestly yes some exist, so if it happens to be a weekend where there are some it works, but I don't find all that many. So I'm really not seeing free events all over the place, that's why I say nature, nature is good, available and free.

By myself? Any number of things. Read a book (that I probably bought earlier, yea well maybe). Go online. Clean. Cook. Walk. Go to nature by myself (although I really prefer company for this).

[Zoe Girl]

I did want to meet a friend for a walk, we both are good about not spending. However she had some family stuff and then was worn out (she has a lot of pain issues). I called the 3 people I meet for coffee now and then and they were not available. So a bummer on that end, I just pretended it was like a retreat weekend except for the TV/movie marathons.

As for running out of TP, mostly I realized that pretty late at night. There is a little convenience store in walking distance so I will check that out. However in a small place we do not store large quantities of anything. I finally got my mom trained so when she visits she buys 2 rolls of paper towels and not 8.