The one week spending ban

Spending bans aren't exactly my strongest point - after trying many and usually failing after about a month, I've been trying to find new ways of saving money that don't require a complete cut down on purchases.

 

So when the lovely people at TSB asked if I fancied a a mini spending ban challenge to give up one type of purchases for a week to see how much I could save, I thought it'd be a good way to get back into the habit of saving.

 

 

Despite being a makeup magpie, I decided to give up buying lunches at work and bring my own instead. Working in central London means that there are lots of yummy food options about but these aren't exactly cheap and it's easy to spend £6 or £7 a day on lunch without even realising. So instead I set up a meal plan for the week and after a quick trip to the supermarket I was ready to go.

 

Over the course of the week I managed to take in my own lunch four days out of five - one day we had a team lunch at a local restaurant so I had planned around that but other than that I think I did pretty well. It did mean I had to be a lot more organised and spend 10 minutes the night before getting my lunch ready, but after a few days I'd really gotten into the habit and I could easily carry on for the coming weeks.

 

What shocked me the most was how much money I'd saved by doing it - almost £30 in just one week, which works out to over £100 a month! I'm going to continue on with my homemade lunches and put all the money I've saved into an TSB ISA - if I keep it up over a year then that will be around £1000 which is incredible when you think about it.

 

I have to give TSB credit - changing those small habits can really add up to substantial sums of cash. If you're trying to save more, why not give up your daily coffee or something similar and see how much you could save?

 

Would you take the one week spending ban challenge? What would you choose to give up?

 

*collaboration post