The Fiscal Fast - Consolidated Wealth Group

New Year is always a good time for evaluating where you are with your career, your health, your family and of course your finances. I have always been very good at tracking my expenses against my budget but I have often struggled to stay within my budget, sometimes through no fault of my own because life just happens. Then I came upon this concept of the Fiscal Fast and my research into this money saving technique led me to this article.

What is a fiscal fast?

A fiscal fast is when you decide to not spend any money on food, on petrol, on entertainment or on miscellaneous items (e.g. household repairs) for a set period of time (7 – 30 days) and make do with what you already have. Many people in this world already live like this, especially those without credit and it is a great way to:

Save some money
Use up things which you already own
Become more aware of your spending habits

So the plan is to take a break from all things money related for a set period of time because everyone likes a good challenge, and everyone likes to save money.

Additionally, a fiscal fast will force the entire family to work together and build stronger relationships. You’ll spend more time as a family, and if you make it fun, it can be quite an entertaining month in your house.

The Rules

You do not buy anything that isn’t necessary to live. If it isn’t essential food, medicine or fuel, you don’t buy it. While food is necessary to live, you will reduce your spending on food drastically by making it a point to cut food waste and use up what you can. Go through the freezer, finally cook up those frozen foods. Use up the cans of veggies, the dried pasta and the non-perishables that are collecting dust, doomed to expire. You will still spend money on fresh fruits and veggies, but ONLY if they are needed to complete a recipe with existing foods that you find in the cupboard.

Declutter, donate and repurpose. Dust-collecting video games & DVDs either should be donated, sold or played. Instead of going out to shop, focus on making space in your life. You will have free time, so free up that closet space. Donate what you don’t use, fix what you can, or sell it. GUMTREE is a wonderful website for selling all those unused and unwanted items.

Make do with whatever you have in the house. Use up those hotel soaps and shampoos that are lying around. Decide if clothes can be repaired or repurposed to new outfits or donate them.

Focus on finishing those annoying unfinished projects since you will not be spending money on entertainment. Your half-finished scrapbook will finally get done. That empty recipe book should finally get filled. Any craft projects or household chores will finally get nipped in the bud. Fill up the free time you’d normally spend on shopping, spending money out or entertaining yourself with things that need to get DONE.

Limit Transportation Costs. Since you’re travelling less (remember no entertainment) see how far you can stretch that tank of fuel by using lift clubs and planning your necessary trips to work or to the shops carefully so that you don’t have to make unnecessary trips.

DO NOT Stockpile. It’s tempting to go out and buy a bunch of stuff just for the sake of being “ready” during your fast, but that’s missing the point. You are going without shopping in order to make do with what you have, reduce waste, make it last or, alas “go without”. You may have to come up with 15 different ways to eat rice but you’ll think twice next time you insist on buying more than what you can actually use.

Use the money you’ve saved wisely by paying off debt, create an emergency fund (an accessible account equal to 3-6 times your monthly living expenses) or start investing it wisely.

Going on a Fiscal Fast helps you spot spending patterns that were previously on cruise control. You’ll also find ways to do more with what you already have. Use it as your spending reset to get focused on dreaming bigger in 2025.

GOOD LUCK!

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