A woman saved more than £6k doing a "no spend year" by sacrificing all but essential purchases - and says it's done a "factory reset" on her relationship with money.
Mia Westrap, 26, decided to overhaul her finances in January this year - by ditching all non-essential spending.
Mia realised she was splashing out too much on socialising - and was regularly spending £200-a-month on eating out and £100-a-month on alcohol.
Mia ditched nights out, meals at restaurants and cancelled almost all her subscriptions to in a bid to save £4k as an "emergency fund".
She stuck to her commitment and even exceeded her £4k target - having saved £6,200 on her no-spend journey.
Mia Westrap, 26, decided to overhaul her finances in January this year - by ditching all non-essential spending.
Mia realised she was splashing out too much on socialising - and was regularly spending £200-a-month on eating out and £100-a-month on alcohol.
Mia ditched nights out, meals at restaurants and cancelled almost all her subscriptions to in a bid to save £4k as an "emergency fund".
She stuck to her commitment and even exceeded her £4k target - having saved £6,200 on her no-spend journey.
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FunTranscript
00:00I cannot believe I'm coming to the end of my no-buy year in the next month and a half or so.
00:04This year has literally just flown by. If you don't know me, my name's Mia. I'm doing a no-buy
00:09year this year which means that I can't buy anything that's not an absolute necessity.
00:14So those necessities include things like bills, rent, groceries and that's about it. But so far
00:21it's gone really well. I've almost got £6,000 in my emergency fund and I've started thinking
00:26about how I am going to take the habits that I've formed this year and take them into next year and
00:32the years going forward. Next year I'm not going to be doing like a no-buy year or a low-buy year
00:38in any formal sense but I feel like next year that it is going to be naturally a low-buy year
00:43because I've changed so many of my habits this year just by completely going cold turkey. Like
00:49some of the habits that I've built this year is I will borrow books from the library. I don't go
00:54shopping for the sake of shopping. I haven't been getting my hair done or anything like that, like
00:59I've just been cutting my hair myself and it seems to be going well. I know a lot of people make fun
01:04of my poorly cut fringe but I don't mind it. So yeah, my problem areas last year were caffeinated
01:11drinks, specifically Cherry Pepsi Max. I spent over four figures a year on that drink and I haven't
01:17this year and I have felt absolutely fine. I'm enjoying my coffees at home while I work from home
01:23and ever since kicking that addiction I don't feel like I'll ever go back to spending as much
01:28money I did in the previous years on that. I haven't ran out of any makeup so I haven't had
01:34to repurchase anything except for some tinted moisturiser but those tubes of tinted moisturiser
01:41that I get, they last me like over a year. Like the last time I bought one I think was like two
01:46years ago which is gross but it doesn't break me out or anything so I don't really mind. Again,
01:51probably won't be getting haircuts or anything next year but I will be treating myself to
01:56getting my eyebrows done because that's one thing that I do miss this year. I like look at my face
02:01and I'm like oh it's so obvious that you've just been doing that yourself. And my other big problem
02:06areas were books and clothes. So again with books I'll be going to the library, I'll be borrowing
02:11books from friends and I'll be reading the ones that are on my shelves and any new releases that
02:16I do want to pick up they will be very like thought out and I won't be just kind of walking
02:22into town to go to a bookshop on a day that I'm bored because I feel like buying a new book that
02:27I'm never going to read, like that's not going to happen again. Same with clothes, they're going to
02:32be thought out purchases and yeah I'm feeling very positive about the years going forward
02:38all because of this year and the motivation that you guys have given me.