Join the No Spend September Challenge: Let’s Save Some Dough!

All right, imagine this with me.

For one whole month, you only buy what you absolutely need.

I'm talking no Amazon impulse orders, no late night drive thru runs, no scrolling and adding to your cart, just the essentials.

What would that change in your finances?

Hey, what would that change in your faith?

Well, this September I'm inviting you to join me in a bold experiment.

I'm calling it the no Spend September challenge.

Together let's discover freedom, discipline and the joy of living with less.

Welcome back to Financially Confident Christian.

I'm Ralph and today I've got a special bonus episode because I think it's a great time to do a September reset.

Yes, after the summer spending, it's a great idea to start preparing for the holidays.

Now Listen, this next 30 days is not about restriction, it's really about building freedom.

So let's get right into what is no spend September.

This is a time when you're going to commit right now you're going to quit today only spend money on essentials.

Now let's define what essentials look like.

Essentials are things like your rent or your mortgage.

I don't want you to be homeless.

Utilities, groceries, hey, you got to eat.

Fuel, medical needs and all other non essential things are going to be put on pause until October.

And what I want you to do is I want you to write down whenever you choose not to spend.

We're going to do sort of an opposite of the budget where going to talk about a savings goal and I'll keep it on a list.

And this is what you didn't spend money on.

You can always put that on your want list.

Later they might be saying, ralph, why are you doing this?

Well, as I was thinking about preparing for today's bonus episode, I thought one of the things that a lot of people do is summer.

We get out of our routines, we get doing different things.

And I thought September is a great time to do this financial reset.

It's a great time to cut waste.

It's a great time to rebuild our savings.

And yes, it's actually a great time to start preparing for year end.

So that's exactly what we're talking about, a financial reset.

But here's the best part of this.

It's also a time for a spiritual reset.

This is a great time to start to battle those temptations, those impulse buys it so many of us battle with on a daily basis.

It's also a great time to build contentment and it's a great time to trust God as our provider.

And while I'm Talking about that, I found this book in the Bible which nails this 100%.

It's from First Timothy, chapter six, verse six.

And it says this.

But godliness with contentment is great gain.

And I think that's what our verse should be.

That should be our theme for the month of September.

Godliness with contentment is great gain.

Because, listen, contrast this with culture.

Culture constantly tells us to buy more.

To buy more, you got to have that stuff.

But faith is telling us something completely different.

It's telling us to be content with what we have.

So now you might be saying, okay, Ralph, this sounds like a fun challenge.

It sounds like a way to save some money.

But how do I make this happen?

I've got some practical tips right now to help you make this happen.

The first thing I'm going to encourage you to do is plan your meals.

So many of us waste money.

We spend extra money on eating out.

Well, the way to battle that, and I've done many shows on this, is to start planning your meals ahead of time.

You can put together a whole calendar for the entire month of September.

What you're going to eat.

Once you put that together, then build that grocery list, and then you won't have that urge to order out or to go out and eat.

I'm not telling you not to treat yourself, but for the month of September, let's really focus on not doing those extra spending.

Here's another great thing you can do.

You can do this right away.

Look through your subscriptions.

Look at where your money's going out of your bank account.

There's what I call small leaks.

A great time to pause or even, hey, maybe just cancel those subscriptions for a month.

And then you can ask yourself, hey, am I able to get by without these anyway?

And here's another tip I'm going to recommend.

Make this a family challenge.

This is a great time to bring the kids and the family together to really keep track of where our money's going, with the goal of really setting aside spending for the month of September.

Like I said, I want you to track this.

I don't want you to track what you spend.

I want you to track what you save.

And let's just see how much we can save by the end of the month.

Now, you might be sitting there right now going, saying, ralph, you know what?

That all sounds good, but, man, the temptations and the impulses are still going to be there.

So here's what I'm going to encourage you to do.

You know, I'm a faithful guy.

And if you're listening to the show, you probably are faithful as well.

So what I'm going to encourage you to do right now, when you feel that urge, when you feel that nudge, oh, I got to spend some money, Ralph, just stop right there where you are and just pray about it.

Just ask God to give you the strength.

Ask God to give you that resolve to get through this.

Because you're building that spiritual reset.

You're building that gratefulness and you're building that contentment.

I know you can do this and trust me on this.

So many of us have that dopamine hit when we swipe that credit card or we scroll online.

And I just want you to trade that habit of spending and trade it for prayer.

So share how much you personally caught yourself with impulse spending this month.

What I'm going to encourage you to do, I'm going to put a link to it in the show notes.

I'm going to do an audio and a video release of this show.

Go to the video release on YouTube and make your comments.

Talk about what you're experiencing as you're going through this challenge this month.

Let's build each other up.

Let's all make this work for each other.

Hey, because if we work together, we can accomplish this.

So again, join me all of September for this challenge of a no spend September.

Let's share our wins, let's share our struggles, let's share our prayers for each other.

And remember, it's all about progress, not perfection.

So at the same time, I want to encourage grace if someone slips.

So here's your one action for today.

I want you to just start by picking one non essential item that you often buy and commit to skipping it for just 30 days.

All right, well, let's pray together.

I always like to end each show with a little bit of prayer.

So Lord, help us to see that our joy and our security doesn't come from spending, but it comes from you.

Lord, we ask that you would teach us contentment.

Give us discipline, Lord, and give us gratitude.

Help us embrace a season of essential living.

Only we ask this in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

So that's my challenge for you.

And hey, share this with as many people as you can.

Let's make it a big open wide challenge, a no spend September.

And don't forget, go to our website or go to the YouTube link that I put in the show notes and tell me how it's going for you.

And at the end of the month, let's talk about how much we've saved by doing this.

No.

Spend September.

God bless you.

And I hope to catch you on the show here very soon.