How to combat lifestyle creep with a financial fast

Since a financial fast can free up cash relatively quickly, many fasters use the exercise as a way to pay down debt or build an emergency fund. But one of the biggest benefits of a financial fast is more psychological than purely financial. Your fast encourages you to be more mindful and more creative with your resources, which can help you reset your lifestyle.

Specifically, radically changing your financial behavior for a set period of time helps you recognize which money decisions are nothing more than habits and which are important to you.

For example, perhaps you rely on the convenience of DoorDash because you regularly get home too tired to cook. But during your fast, you made and froze extra food when you had time on the weekends. This may remind you how much you prefer home-cooked meals and help you right-size your portions, while giving you a framework for replacing the convenience of takeout with the convenience of a well-stocked freezer.

On the other hand, you might have found that forgoing your biweekly massage negatively affected your sleep, ability to work out, and comfort, making it clear that your regular massage is not a luxury. Once you know that massages need to be a line item in your budget, it’s easier to give up your I-thou relationship with DoorDash.

To set up your financial fast, you’ll need to follow these rules:

• Decide on the timeframe: Singletary recommends fasting for 21 days, but committing to a shorter period of time can be beneficial and feel less intimidating. Start with a weekend or a week to ease into the process and get used to thinking more deeply about your purchases.
• Define essential: While “essential spending” sounds like a simple concept, you may need to take the time to determine exactly what’s on that list. Money can be such a convenient method of meeting our needs that we forget there are other options available. Spend some time thinking about what essential means before the fast begins so you’re in a better position to think creatively during the fast. For example, if your kid outgrows their shoes during your fast, is buying a new pair essential or might there be a hand-me-down pair you could easily find?
• Identify spending triggers: Both before and during the fast, try to determine what situations are likely to trigger unnecessary spending. You can commit to avoiding the spending triggers you’re already aware of, which means you might uninstall the Amazon app on your phone and decline the happy hour invitation. But the fast can also help you identify what situations prompt you to spend that you were unaware of.
• Create a wish list: One of the easiest ways to avoid unnecessary spending is to make a list of all the items you are tempted to purchase during the fast. Many people get to the end of the fast and can’t even remember why they were interested in most of the items on the list.
• Plan for a post-fast review: Instead of quietly letting the fast elapse, plan to do an analysis of your time fasting. What worked? What was harder than you expected? What did you miss and what did you forget about?
• Schedule regular fasts: Whether you are fasting for a weekend once a month, a week every six months, or for 21 days once a year, get into the habit of cutting all unnecessary spending for a defined period. This can help you remember what spending is important and what spending is just easy.

There’s a reason it’s called lifestyle creep—it inches slowly into your budget without you noticing.

So reclaim your notice with a financial fast. Regularly committing to this exercise gives you the time and framework for rethinking your money choices. Cutting out all unnecessary spending forces you to think creatively about solving your problems, recognize your spending triggers, determine what you value—and show that creep who’s boss.