ONCE a week, every week, Leia Ku doesn’t tap her bank card for a whole 24 hours.
The 26-year-old technical recruiter is taking part in a money challenge she thinks will save her £1,440 this year. And she’s far from the only one – the trend is blowing up on TikTok with more than 30k posts and millions of views. Better yet, anyone can get involved and start reaping the benefits.
Leia, who lives in East London, takes part in no-spend days or NSDs at least once a week.
“I am really strict with it,” she tells The Sun. “I’m not tapping my card at all and actively trying not to make any transactions, whether that’s online or in person.”
That means she’s not spending any hard cash during her no-spend days either.
Challenges like no-spend days are becoming increasingly popular on social media as more young people try to live more frugally.
Each person can set their own rules on what a no-spend day should look like – but generally it means either refusing to tap your card or not making any “unnecessary” purchases.
If there’s something Leia needs to buy, she’ll wait until the following day to get it.
If she’s meeting a friend at the pub, she’ll stick to water. And if she’s missing an ingredient for her dinner, she’ll make do without it.
However, she does make an exception for transport costs – as she says that’s an essential.
Leia estimates she’s managed to save between £110 to £120 per month over the last three months thanks to no-spend days.
If she keeps it up for a year at the same rate she’ll have saved a huge £1,440.
“One of my resolutions this year was to be better at my finances,” she says.
But when it got to the middle of the year Leia realised she hadn’t been doing that well.
“It’s just things that add up. So you get a coffee when you go into the office, or you a beer or wine with colleagues,” she explains.
“That type of habit does add up and then you the next thing you know you’re spending at least £50 to £100 extra on a weekly basis.”
Leia, who is a basic-rate taxpayer, shares a flat in London with her boyfriend and pays £1,100 a month in rent.
Her council tax is £80 per month, while her household bills come to about £100.
Once she’s added her monthly subscriptions, she estimates her fixed costs are about £1,400.
Leia is savvy with her money and then sets aside £800 to £900 a month for savings.
After that she’s left with about £700 a month in disposable income.
How you can do your own no-spend challenge
DO you fancy taking a no-spend challenge? Consumer journalist Emily Mee explains how to set your own money goal.
Some people pick certain days where they don’t tap their card at all, while others choose not to spend on anything “non-essential”.
The best part is you can choose how to do your own no-spend challenge.
You could decide to do it just for a day and see how it goes, or you could do it once a week or once a month.
Or you could take it further and try it for a whole month.
One savvy saver is even doing it for a whole year.
The best way to get started is to work out what your “essential” costs are and how much you need to set aside for those.
This could be your rent, electricity bill, water bill, council tax and internet.
You should make sure you still pay for these even during your no-spend challenge.
Falling behind on bills can land you in hot water and end up costing you more money in the long run.
But you can make up your own rules about how strict you want to be with yourself on non-essentials – and what you class as a non-essential.
For example, you might want to set aside a certain “buffer” amount that you’re allowed to spend.
Or if you’re just doing it for a day, you might decide not to tap your card at all.
Make sure you plan ahead if you’re going to do this so you have food in the house and you’ve considered any social plans you might be going to.
Strict rules with simple meals and no snacking
Leia goes food shopping once a week, so she won’t be tempted to buy snacks or go to the supermarket on a no-spend day.
She’s disciplined with cooking and meals anyway to avoid splashing money unnecessarily – her weekly food shop usually costs about £30 in total from Lidl, for all her meals.
Leia, who is a micro influencer and documents her no spend days on her TikTok (@leia_ku), sticks to simple meals with a small number of ingredients.
One of her favourite lunches is a rice bowl with tuna, cucumber and eggs with a side of seaweed crunch.
“Most of my recipes are maybe five or six ingredients max, and whole foods like veggies or fruits are generally affordable,” she explains.
She’ll also buy in bulk to keep costs down and takes things so seriously that if she’s missing an ingredient on an NSD she just skips it rather than buying.
An example daily meal plan from Leia
HERE is one of the meal plans Leia has used during her no-spend days. It came to a total of £16.34 for all her meals.
Breakfast
Yoghurt and banana granola bowl with a banana cream top matcha latte
Ingredients needed:
- Oat milk
- Banana
- Plain yoghurt
- Granola
- Double cream
- Matcha
Total = £3.14
Lunch
Deconstructed tuna rice bowl with seaweed side
Ingredients needed:
- Eggs
- Cucumber
- Tuna
- Sriracha
- Kewpie mayo
- Chilli flakes
- Seaweed
Total = £4.60
Dinner
Chicken wrap with a glass of wine
Ingredients needed:
- Tortilla wraps
- Hummus
- Tomatoes
- Cucumber
- Chicken thighs
Total = £8.60
You can have treats but they are DIY
Leia tries to make versions of treats that she enjoys buying from cafes at home.
For example, she’ll whip up a yoghurt bowl topped with granola and banana, as well as a matcha latte, for breakfast.
It costs her just £3.14 in total.
If she’d gone to Pret, the matcha latte alone would have cost her £4.15 and a Big Apple yoghurt bowl would be £4.10.
Making this swap once a week would save her £265.72 over a year.
No-spend days have affected her social life
Generally she tries to plan her no-spend days so she doesn’t have too many social plans coinciding with them.
“It’s also a day for me to to get my stuff together and do something else outside of my 9-to-5,” she says.
“Even if I were to socialise with my friends, I just don’t spend any money – so if we were to go to a pub I would just get a glass of water.
“Or I would suggest hanging out with someone else’s house instead of going out.”
Leia says she’s also lucky that her friends are pretty financially responsible too – but she has been known to say she’s busy rather than making plans to ensure she can stick to her challenge.
“A lot of the time we hang out at each other’s houses, go on walks or to parks,” she explains.
“I’m not a big drinker and none of them are either so I think that is really what saves a lot of money.”
They’ll also try to have dinner before meeting up most of the time so they don’t spend too much on eating out.
“It’s always nice to dine out once in a while but I try to keep that to a minimum because trying new restaurants is so expensive,” she says.
Five other spending challenges you can try to save money
NO-SPEND challenges are increasingly popular – but there are other challenges you can try too.
The round-up challenge
The concept is simple: every time you pay for an item, simply round up the cost to the nearest pound and save the difference.
So if you bought a bottle of wine for £7.50, you would save away the remaining 50p.
You could do this yourself, but a much easier way is to check if your bank account has round-up challenges.
Moneybox, Chase and Starling Bank all offer this feature, or you could link your bank account to money app Plum.
Every time you make a transaction with one of their cards, the bank will round up the cost to the nearest pound, then save the spare change in a separate account.
The match-the-spend challenge
This would help you save even more as it requires you to match what you’re spending.
If you spent £3.50 on a coffee then you would put £3.50 into your savings.
The challenge can help encourage you to cut back on frivolous spending, especially small amounts that quickly add up.
The cashback challenge
Cashback rewards you for spending money with certain companies.
For example, Topcashback will pay you when you sign up and make a purchase through its links.
The deals are often advertised as a percentage, so for example you might get up to 5% back when you spend £30 or more.
If you want to be savvy, you can put the extra money into your savings.
Remember though, only use cashback to make a purchase if you were going to buy the item anyway.
The rainy day challenge
You could also decide to set aside cash every day that it rains.
Decide on a set amount that is manageable (considering that we’re in the autumn/winter months now as well) and store it away each time.
If you link your bank account to money app Plum, you can set it to automatically save away a set amount every time it rains in your area.
The cash and carry challenge
If you’re prone to impulse purchases, it might help to switch to cash when you’re out.
It can help you to think more about your spending than if you’re just tapping your card.
Plus, you can give yourself a set amount for each day in cash.
Of course, it’s not a good idea to carry around too much in case your purse or wallet is stolen.
Most of Leia’s friends are aware she’s taking part in the challenge and are understanding that she wants to be wise about her spending.
But saying no to plans can be hard a times.
“That is definitely a difficult part, being able to having to say no and not being able to spend on things that I feel like was necessary for that day,” she says.
“It’s actually been very, very challenging, especially when I first started out.
“But if you think about the wider picture, I can always get it tomorrow or I can always hang out with my friends tomorrow.
“So it makes you take a step back and look at things a little bit differently. It’s made me really think about how I use my time as well.”
