I went on a one-week spending freeze and saved $200. Here’s how you can too.-awdailynews

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2025-12-05

I went on a one-week spending freeze and saved $200. Here’s how you can too.

As a personal finance writer, I’m often thinking about new and creative ways to save money. This year, especially, I need to be careful about my spending and saving habits because I’m about six months away from my wedding. I’m taking any and every opportunity to save for the big day.

That’s why I recently embarked on a weeklong spending freeze, which helped me save an extra $200. Here’s what I learned, and how you can do it too.

A spending freeze is simple: You choose a period of time during which you spend as little as possible to give your savings a boost.

You can customize the details and parameters of the challenge to fit your lifestyle. For example, it may not be feasible to spend no money at all. Maybe your rent is due, or you need to fill your gas tank to get to work. The point of a spending freeze is to cut out discretionary spending while still ensuring your essentials are covered.

Before embarking on my spending freeze, I had to take steps to set myself up to thrive and not accidentally break my freeze. Here’s what I did.

The first thing I did was set a goal for myself. Admittedly, my goal was a bit ambiguous since I wasn’t trying to save for one particular thing. I simply wanted to be able to put a bit more money into my savings account this month.

I decided to start with a flexible goal of saving $200. When setting this goal, I estimated how much money I might spend in a week on discretionary purchases, plus how much I could potentially save by cutting down the costs of certain essentials. I felt pretty confident that I could reach my goal by making a few smarter choices.

I set certain rules for myself, taking into account some major expenses I had already scheduled. This included wedding vendor payments that I’d need to make during the week. I also decided to keep the freeze flexible when it came to fuel because my household fuel needs and costs can vary from week to week.

From running out of toilet paper to chipping in for a friend’s bachelorette party, I tried to anticipate every surprise expense, no matter how big or small, that could potentially throw me off my spending freeze and planned accordingly.

I went grocery shopping ahead of time to make sure I had plenty of sustenance available at home and was stocked up on any household supplies I may need. Buying in bulk is often touted as a way to save, but I don’t do it often because there are only two people in my household, and I’ve found that most things will expire before we have a chance to eat it all.

However, this particular week, I made sure to stock up on nonperishables and household items. When calculating the cost per unit, buying in bulk not only helped me save money but also afforded me a few more weeks of not having to worry about grocery shopping.

It’s impossible to predict every expense that could come up, but I tried to be conscious of my day-to-day expenses, as well as one-off expenses that were on the horizon.

I’m proud to say that I managed to make it through the entire week without spending any money that I hadn’t accounted for and set aside ahead of time.

It’s important to choose a time for your spending freeze that doesn’t align with a big spending period. For example, choosing to do a spending freeze the week of a significant other’s birthday or the week of a major holiday probably isn’t the best idea.

Before deciding on when and how long my spending freeze would go on, I had to do a bit of pre-planning to find a time that worked best for me.

Ultimately, the spending freeze challenge was a good financial reset for me. The end of the year is typically when I face many “out of the norm” expenses, like a last-minute outfit for a holiday party or holiday hosting costs. And this year, there is some added pressure on my budget with a major life milestone just a few months away.

Overall, I found the experience to be refreshing. Although I wouldn’t say it was difficult, it definitely required me to think outside the box. At the end of the week, I saved about $200 that I would have otherwise spent on discretionary expenses.

Some of the key ways I saved money included:

I know this can be controversial. Although I’m never going to shame anyone for buying coffee at a coffee shop, a few dollars each day does add up — maybe not enough to cover a mortgage payment, but every little bit matters for me right now.

Over the course of a week, I used about half a canister of instant coffee, which chalks up to about $5 worth. I don’t typically go to a coffee shop every day, but had I stopped by my usual spot, I would have spent about $7 for a latte each time.

It’s not uncommon for my husband and me to order food once or twice per week. However, between meal delivery app upcharges, tips, and fees, takeout for the two of us can easily range from $30 to $60 per meal.

That doesn’t mean we slaved away in the kitchen each night. Instead, I shopped around ahead of time for frozen meals that felt a bit more like a treat, but didn’t cost nearly as much as delivery.

Experts often advise you to cancel memberships as a way to save money. And I’m in full agreement if these membership fees strain your budget and you don’t use the membership enough to justify paying for it.

However, there are instances when certain memberships essentially pay for themselves through the savings they provide. For instance, my husband and I have a monthly movie theater membership that allows us to see up to four free movies each week. In fact, the monthly cost of the membership is less than the cost of buying tickets to two movies, so it more than pays for itself quickly. We were able to enjoy two free date nights during my spending freeze.

We also have a Costco membership that we use to purchase items such as toilet paper, paper towels, cereal, and other nonperishables in bulk to save on the per-unit cost. I can stock up on these ahead of time to avoid making one-off trips to the store and paying top dollar.

Making some extra cash and cutting recurring expenses

The same week I did my spending freeze, I also looked for ways to generate a bit of extra income and kill some time by clearing out my closet. I managed to sell an old lamp and some outdoor furniture cushions that added an additional $80 to my savings that week.

I also looked for ways to trim my monthly costs. One evening, my husband and I went through all of our streaming subscriptions to either keep, cancel, or downgrade our memberships. We ended up downgrading two of our streaming subscriptions to more basic plans with advertisements to save about $20 per month moving forward.

In a typical week, it’s not unusual for me to have at least one social event on the calendar. So, I wanted to challenge myself to find ways to get out of the house and do something without spending any money.

There were plenty of free events and places to visit in my area. I spent an afternoon with my dog at the dog park, walked around a local farmer’s market to get some ideas for potential holiday gifts, spent a day at my apartment complex pool, and had a movie night at a friend’s house. There was no shortage of enjoyable (free) things to do; it was just a matter of taking that extra step to do the research and make a plan.

I managed to give my savings a decent boost by taking on this challenge, and ultimately, this will help me get a bit closer to reaching my personal goals.

It’s not lost on me that a weeklong spending freeze can be a pretty big commitment and might deter some people from taking on the challenge. However, you can give this type of challenge a try by taking baby steps. Even designating one day each week as a no-spend day could help you save a bit more each month. Eventually, you can work your way up to a seven-day spending freeze or even longer.

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