Unexpected Lessons I Learned During A Spending Fast
By Literally broke
Call it what you want: a spending fast, a spending challenge, a spending detox. What it’s been for me is 4 (almost 5 days) of not buying anything.
Don’t worry though, I have enough groceries, frozen food, and pantry items to feed myself for a week. My boyfriend is away in Los Angeles so I don’t have any appetite for a Friday night date. And while I could go out with friends or go to the bodega to fill my 5 days of loneliness, I thought it would actually be useful to do something I haven’t done in years: spend no money while spending time alone. So I basically was left to live out an episode of Survivor.
I’ve been in a relationship for four and a half-years, and my most single time was spent in the six months I studied abroad right before I met my boyfriend. Even though I was depressed in a foreign country and my roommate sucked, I remember feeling oddly independent and fulfilled during that time.
And then I came back to NYC and I fell in love.
I am still independent, don’t get me wrong, but so much of my daily life is a series of to-dos that revolve around my relationship and my cats and my writing and my day job. These things are routine, and spending money is routine, too.
It is so easy to feel used to New York, and apparently it takes a spending fast (and some alone time) to remember what (and whom) is of value.
So I’ll be here reading and writing and thinking of ways to love my life that don’t involve spending any money at all.
Scarlett Grace McCarthy is a playwright, screenwriter, and the founder of Literally Broke. In 2019 she increased her net worth by 15k while living and writing in NYC on a 35k salary. She is a graduate of NYU.
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