Welcome to the very first InACents Fiscal Fast. As I discussed a couple weeks ago, we were inspired by a segment in the new TLC show Extreme Cheapskates to start our own fiscal fasts. To briefly recap, every Wednesday of 2012, we are attempting to spend no money. In addition, this will be our first full week of fasting by spending no money.
Originally, I was hesitant that we would really see any impact as we really do not spend that much money on extraneous activities or purchases. However, gearing up for a full fiscal week really gave me some trepidation on what to expect.
Our fiscal fast started 12:00 AM EST on Sunday, January 22 and runs until 11:59 PM EST on Saturday, January 28, 2012. Over the course of the next week, and throughout the next year, I plan on sharing our experience and what we have learned from the experiment.
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Curious to see how much you spent preparing for the fast as well as what you spend in the aftermath. Good luck and Godspeed 😉
@Alyssa: I will be touching on this subject tomorrow. As you will see, I am struggling with a good way of organizing the process. This first fiscal fast will for sure be a learning process for ones later in the year.
Sounds interesting – I will be checking back to see what you guys do!
~Becca
@Becca: Thanks. The whole idea has really opened our eyes more than anything, and hopefully in the long run it makes an impact.
We’ve done this before-we called it no spend week. It was very successful and we found that it was pretty easy to stick to and save money. Good luck!
@Jessica: Good, someone else who has already been through this. I may need to turn to you at some point to discuss how you were able to really gather the collective data and impacts of the exercise. We have already learned quite a bit in a short period of time, as I will discuss all this week, but I am having trouble really looking at how to quantitatively show any savings without going through piles of previous statements. We will see as the experiment progresses both this week, and throughout the year.
Good luck guys! The only way I’d be able to go an entire week without spending any money would be if I was in the hospital, and even then I’d have to be sedated. I’m looking forward to see how it works out for you guys.