If you haven’t heard of it before, it’s a YNAB challenge that has 3 simple rules. For 30 days you:

  1. Track your spending
  2. Only buy essentials
  3. No dining out

I haven’t been able to successfully follow this for 30 days, but I’ve made a lot of progress towards my financial goals in trying! I’m glad I did actual progress too, because I sure felt silly turning down friend dates at the bar and having them offer to pay.

What about you? Have you been able to crush your desires and go a month without going out or buying any fancy coffees?

  • GregorGizeh@lemmy.mlEnglish
    51·
    1 year ago

    Is this a challenge for privileged “middle class” people? Anyone who is actually struggling for money lives like this all the time.

    • 𝑔𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑥𝑖@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      It’s an official challenge that’s part of the YNAB blog. I was assuming that most of us from this community were from all different walks of life that may have challenged ourselves to cut back more than usual at some point, given that we all budget. Sorry to hear it isn’t helpful for you personally.

      • GregorGizeh@lemmy.mlEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        No worries, I just saw this pop up on my feed. Without further context it just seems very removed from reality for most people.

    • 𝑔𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑥𝑖@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Most people referring to whom? It’s great if you’ve got the self discipline to never eat out or do absolutely any non-essential spending, but I’m really skeptical of your claim for “most people.” At least in the US lots of people have huge amounts of consumer debt and areas they could cut back on. This is just a fun challenge from YNAB to try to get the most of your budget, it’s not really that different from doing a NYE challenge to get a bit ahead on your goals.

    • fer0n@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I get what you’re saying, but I highly doubt that most people are following all three of these every single month. Simply tracking every expense, I can’t imagine that more than 5% of people actually do that.

  • iamlyth@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    I definitely have seen this trend around tiktok, reddit and YouTube. I haven’t tried it but I feel like if I tried it I would just postpone my nonessential expenses and then go back to my normal mode of operating.

  • mapiki@discuss.onlineEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Hmm…

    I think I use YNAB to allow myself nice things while knowing I’m saving. I guess it’s because I’ve got a saver mentality instead of a spender mentality. So I don’t think the challenge would be useful to me…

    YNAB gives me permission to eat out with coworkers when they invite me on Friday… Before YNAB I would feel bad not to eat a packed lunch.

    I’m just not someone who buys unnecessary things on a regular basis. (I lean more towards splurging on outdoor gear once or twice a year.)

    I like budgeting because it meant I didn’t feel guilty buying two board games on FB marketplace this month even if I knew it meant postponing a purchase of an epilator until a future month.

    I’ve tracked all my spending since I first moved out of my parents place for university… I think I would struggle not to. My anxiety loves loves loves worrying about money. Forget the fact that I could have no income for six months and live my usual life…