7-Day Spend Smarter Challenge
Welcome to Week 11 of the 90-Day New Page Challenge!
This Week, We’re Talking About Money Again.
Sort of.
This week is our 7-Day Spend Smarter Challenge
But before we get into it, how did week 10 go? Did you send the appreciation text? Attempt the 20-second hug? Try a whole day of no defensiveness?
I hope you gave the most important people in your life a little more of the good version of you. And if the device-free date felt awkward for the first ten minutes because you didn’t know what to do with your hands without a phone in them—same. And then it got wonderful. That’s how it works.
Now. Let’s talk about Week 11.
Ready to chat about money? (Ish)
Not the same conversation we had in Week 6 about auditing subscriptions and spending time getting to know your bank statement. This week is different. It’s about the everyday spending habits that quietly drain your budget without ever feeling like a big deal in the moment.
The “it’s only $12” purchases that are never only $12. The replacing instead of repairing because fixing things feels hard and buying new things feels easy, never mind the dopamine hit it gives. The forgetting that the library exists, is free, and is genuinely one of the most criminally underused resources available to us.
Week 11 is about spending smarter.
Why This Week Matters
Here’s something I’ve learned about budgets: most of us don’t blow them on one giant irresponsible purchase that we can point to and say, “That was the problem.”
We blow them slowly. Quietly. In approximately one hundred small decisions that each feel completely reasonable in the moment and somehow collectively add up to “wait, where did all the money go, and why does my account look like that?”
The daily coffee that is actually a daily coffee, plus a pastry, plus a tip, plus the gas to get there. The thing that broke and seemed easier to replace than fix, even though a YouTube video and fifteen minutes probably would have handled it. The full-price checkout you clicked through on autopilot without pausing to wonder for even thirty seconds if there was a better deal anywhere else on the internet. None of these things feels like a budget-buster when you’re doing them. But they add up. Fast.
This week, we’re slowing down enough to notice and making a few small choices that keep more money in your pocket without making your life feel like a sad experiment in deprivation.
Week 11 Nudges — Pick a Few and Actually Do Them
Same rules as always: pick two or three, actually do them, and feel quietly brilliant about yourself for the rest of the week.
No-Spend Day: You did a No-Spend Day in Week 6, and you survived, which means you are fully capable of doing it again. Pick one day this week and spend absolutely nothing. No coffee runs, no online carts, no “it’s only a few dollars” purchases that are never only a few dollars. Eat what’s in the house. Use what you have. Prove to yourself once again that you are the boss of your money and not the other way around. You did it before. You can do it again.
Repair instead of replace: Before you buy something new this week, stop and ask yourself one honest question: Can this be fixed? The ripped seam, the broken zipper, the lamp that just needs a new bulb, the phone case that’s cracked but technically still doing its job. We live in a culture that defaults to replace because replace is easy and repair feels like effort. Fix one thing this week instead of replacing it. YouTube has a tutorial for literally everything. You will feel like an absolute genius when it works, and you will tell people about it, and they will be impressed, and it will be great.
Visit the library: The library. Is. Free. It has books, audiobooks, DVDs, magazines, kids’ programs, and in many cases a digital app called Libby that lets you borrow ebooks and audiobooks from your couch in your pajamas without even leaving the house. Go to the library this week. Get a card if you don’t have one. Use it like the free treasure chest it absolutely is, and one we have all been criminally ignoring.
Compare prices before checkout: Before you complete your next online purchase, spend 2 minutes checking whether the same item is available elsewhere for less. A quick search. A browser extension like Honey that does it automatically while you sit there doing nothing. Just look before you click confirm. This takes almost no time, costs zero effort, and can save you a genuinely surprising amount of money on things you were going to buy anyway. The better deal is almost always out there. We just never bother to look for it.
Ready to Level Up? Here’s Your Bonus Challenge:
If you’re feeling ambitious this week, try the Level Up Challenge:
Save $100 this week.
One hundred dollars. Seven days.
Now, before you say “Jordan, that is literally impossible,” I want you to think about it differently. The goal isn’t to find $100 you didn’t have before. The goal is to make choices this week that keep $100 in your account that would have otherwise quietly disappeared into the void of small purchases, full-price checkouts, and things that seemed reasonable at the time.
A no-spend day saves some. Skipping takeout saves some. Comparing prices before checkout saves some. Repairing instead of replacing saves some. Choosing the library over buying saves some. It adds up faster than you think.
And at the end of the week, you move that $100 to savings before your brain can come up with a very compelling reason to spend it on something else.
If $100 feels out of reach right now, aim for $50. Or $25. Or just more than last week.
We’re In This Together
I’ll be on Instagram this week sharing my own smarter-spending attempts in real time — including whatever I find at the library, whatever I manage to repair instead of replace, and any moments when I heroically did not impulse-buy something that was calling my name.
Come find me and show me what you’re doing!
- Sign up for weekly emails — every Sunday, the new theme and nudges land in your inbox
- Follow along on IG — daily updates, behind-the-scenes, and more shenanigans than I probably should share publicly
- Download the 90-Day New Page Challenge calendar – download and print the free 90-Day New Page Challenge calendar and write down your nudges each week to help you stay organized.
- Tag me and use #90DayNewPage — I will find your posts, cheer loudly, and repost you. Share the messy parts. Especially the messy parts.
If you’re just finding us and want to join, learn more about the challenge here: https://lifeonanewpage.com/the-90-day-new-page-challenge-lets-level-up-together/
Let’s keep getting 1% better every day. Now go check if that broken thing can be fixed before you order a replacement. I promise YouTube knows how.