Sean Pyles

I'm Sean Piles.

But first, Elizabeth and I are going to mix things up with our money habits, at least.

February is a popular month for no spend challenges where you either don't spend on non-essentials or maybe just choose a specific category to not spend money on.

And this year we're taking that idea, but we're taking it in a slightly different direction.

And friend of the pod, personal finance nerd Amanda Barroso is here for the conversation.

Hey, Amanda.

So Amanda, Elizabeth, are you guys big no spend people?

What's your thoughts here?

So it's maybe not structured around a single month.

Like we're talking about.

Amanda, I know you do have some experience with this.

Yeah, I've been seeing a lot of people say that they're generally striking how much money they're going to be spending on non-essentials.

And that's a smart idea.

I like a no spend challenge, but I do think their utility can be limited.

You know, I like that they can help you reset your spending and help you reevaluate your relationship with how you are disposing of your money and maybe non-essential ways.

But it can also lead to this binge and purge pattern where maybe before you start this no spend challenge, you actually buy a bunch of stuff that you didn't need or that you thought you might want in the coming month.

And then you have this month of abstinence where you're not spending money on things.

And then afterwards, you feel like you've done such a great job.

So you end up buying a bunch of stuff that you didn't need, and it ends up actually not really helping you at all.

I think it can actually make you worse off after all of that.