How To Turn The No Spend Lifestyle Into A Game

Make it interesting

To turn aspects of adulting such as frugality into a quest or a game can be an excellent way to do what you need to do. All while simultaneously entertaining the inner child and letting your own playfulness come alive. As adults, we forget sometimes that we still need to make time to play. While we do need to make time to rest and sleep, we also need joy in our lives. We need to have fun.

Being adults simply means that we have more responsibilities, that we are older. We’re still big kids inside, and we still carry our inner child with us. To be a successful adult, or rather, a successful and happy human being, we need to have a good relationship with our inner child.

So how do you turn saving money or getting things for free into a game?

It’s simple really. There are so many parts of a frugal lifestyle and freeganism that caters to the inner child and our inner playfulness. Urban foraging, for example, is like a scavenger hunt for adults where the treasure is almost guaranteed. Even so, it makes you feel like a kid again, and that is something that I think we all need to feel on a regular basis.

Foraging in nature requires a bit more knowledge beforehand, but it can be like a treasure hunt, and the time spent in nature, in forests, is excellent for your mental health.

The benefits of freeganism

While I am not a freegan full-time and have no intention to be, I certainly enjoy freeganism. The financial benefits, and the benefits for your physical health and mental health can be great. Finding alternatives, creative solutions, lights up several parts of our brains and that helps us maintain good brain health.

Freeganism also builds up our community, as it is rarely a solo sport, and it can help create a stronger sense of belonging. Our problem solving skills will certainly improve and over time, we get better at multitasking. We become more creative, and we spend less money, which allows us to work less and be even more creative. When we work less, we have more time to pursue our passions in life.

Help the planet

Not to mention that freeganism often has an incredibly positive impact on the environment and can help reduce our carbon footprint. Urban foraging reduces food waste, which helps reduce cities carbon footprint. And depending on what you go foraging for, you can reduce all kinds of waste.

There are many who would rather throw their things away than recycle them. Luckily, there are also many of those people who first give others the option of taking the item in question off their hands for free. That way they won’t need to arrange for it to be disposed of, nothing gets wasted and someone else can save money and get something that is new to them.

Freeganism is almost too easy

These days it is almost too easy to be freegan. As the housing situation is still shite globally, more and more people create alternative homes, mobile homes, or take over and renovate abandoned homes.

There are many countries who struggle with their population growing older, the young people emigrating, not enough children being born, and as a result, homes and whole cities are being abandoned. To solve this, several countries offer people – citizens and foreigners – the opportunity to buy abandoned homes for a symbolic sum, take over them for free or they even pay them to take over and restore abandoned homes.

The free alternatives are out there

The system does do its fair share to make things more difficult with regulations, building permits, parking etc. Even so, there are more people every day that begin living in an unconventional home. People acquire homes for free, or build them themselves with free materials.

In this day and age, a very important skill to have is to able to find ways to provide for yourself with what you can acquire for free. Learning how to do things yourself is never a waste of time. Be it carpentry, learning how to drive, learning how to cook, clean or make your own clothes – the more you can do for yourself, the less dependent you are on the system and others.

So we can get homes for free, food for free, furniture for free, clothes for free, the list goes on. Is there anything we can’t get for free?

What we shouldn’t get for free

This is something I’ve thought a lot about as I began to embrace the no spend lifestyle. Most things in life can be acquired for free, that’s true. But there are things when we must either spend money or trade a service for a service. The main thing that comes to mind is health care. Whether it is dental care, eye care or prescriptions, it is essential that we only use what was meant for us to us.

Health is wealth

For example, wearing another person’s glasses can ruin a person’s eyesight. When we wear glasses or contacts, they need to be of the correct strength, and an optometrist or the like needs to be consulted. The same go for dental health. We need to take care of our teeth and have them checked regularly. And if something is wrong, like an infection or a cavity, we do not go for a free DIY filling. We must seek out an actual dentist.

That being said, there is a lot we can do for our own health for free. By taking care of our bodies and listening to them, we can keep the health care visits down to a minimum. Some need prescription medicines, but for many, there are alternatives. Ways to improve your health enough that you at least require less pharmaceuticals. Herbalism is certainly worth checking out, and food can truly be thy medicine.

Every want and need is an opportunity to learn how to do or make something yourself

This is something that I have found to be true over the years, and something I live by. During a No Spend month- or however long you do it for – there are certain tips and tricks. One of them is that when you want to buy something, you put it aside, perhaps create a bookmark for it, and then wait thirty days or at least a week or two. If you still want and need it after that time, then it is worth getting. Most of the time. You do still need to use your own best judgement.

Since I try to live life with a No Spend mentality, as a personal quest, I always do this. And let me tell you, I hardly ever go back to the things I bookmarked. Every three or six months I go through my bookmarks and I just end up deleting them. That impulse to spend emotionally may not ever go away completely, but it can be trained to quiet down to a point where you barely notice it anymore.

When someone has completely run their finances into the ground, it almost always has a mental cause. Emotional spending is a huge issue globally. People worldwide numb and distract themselves by buying online. But it solves nothing, and creates a world of new problems. Both for themselves, their finances and the environment.

Patience is a virtue

So the next time you need something, wait. Be patient. Journal. Evaluate the need. Convince yourself. Why is it a need? Is it really a need?

The question I always ask myself before buying something is, “If I had this in my possession, and was about to declutter, is it something I would keep or donate/sell?” A lot of the time, I have had to admit to myself that I would likely donate or sell it. Many things that we want to buy are momentary wants, but those things would instead become clutter if they came into our possession.

And if what you want is a need, then ask yourself: How can I fulfil that need without spending money? Can I make it yourself? Can I borrow it? Can I rent it?

There is almost always an alternative solution. One that will be the healthier option, and the more affordable one.

Start your quest

List your expenses, variable and fixed, and determine where your money usually goes. When you have your list, it is time to do your research. How many items on that list could you find a no spend alternative for? How many costs could you cut or lower?

Good luck and remember to HAVE FUN!