Note
Going over one challenge a week works really well for me, but let me know if you need more.
🗓️ Upcoming
No spend isn’t going to be completely zero… Any spend not keeping my family and me alive will be explained though 😉
Unless you buy everything in advance for a no week spend or just have enough around to make it possible. It’s not feasible to spend nothing on a random week. I’m not gaming the system though, so I’ll break it down on how I do as much as possible with very little excess.
Pending : 23 Nov, 2025
Next weeks Challenge will be in the Social category
Stay tuned to see what I try to take on in a money challenge.
Social challenge: Next week
Last weeks review
I knew it was going to be cold, but the weather was definitely not in my favor.
Winter and water: I swear I checked the forecast, but it changed and the result was a cold and wet experience. I wore an extra layer and had a water proof jacket. All that and I was still questioning this weeks choices.
Time and Energy: I was pretty much spot on with my estimates here. It took me about 50 minutes to work and 50 minutes back, so right on target. Getting to work after a bike ride was definitely a mixed experience though. For the first half of the day I felt great. Exercise completed and some time spent outside. After getting home from the second bike ride though, I was a walking corpse. All I wanted to do was clean off, eat and go to sleep.
Packing and Clean: I did 3 days back to back and because of that I was able to bring most of the repeat things I needed on Monday, laptop, towel, clothes/shoes ect. and leave them there for the next couple days. Coming back on Wednesday though was definitely one of the tougher moments though. Not only because of the extra weight from all the stuff. I spent most of the way back getting rained on.
Missing pieces
I have a gopro somewhere in the house, I have still yet to find it.
I did one ride with music, courtesy of shokz headphones, but riding without music was also nice. Hard to decide which was a better experience.
Even with the right attire, water is wet.
Was it a success?
Three days ✅
I go into the office three days a week and I managed to bike each one of those days. As far as I’m concerned, challenge complete! Here is a link to the bike to work. Taken via my cellphone so honestly the quality is terrible. No stabilization like you have with action cameras. (There is a video of the way home on the channel but again… cellphone)
Afterword: I’m definitely interested in continuing to bike, but I’ll probably be a little more selective. I’m also going to try sticking to more moderate weather. I’ve looked around and studied the well-known commuters of the Netherlands, but it seems like biking in the winter is just one of the lower points in daily cycling.
Extra takeaways: I’m glad to have tried the biking to work and that it is somewhat of a reasonable option for me. I’ve seen a lot of talk that everyone should bike and that it comes with all sorts of benefits. I can see the inspiration, but I’m also confident that it isn’t for everyone. Humble brag alert, I would say I’m relatively fit, regardless the effort in biking was definitely not a walk in the park. Sure, my distance to work was on the medium to far side (14 miles), but I like to imagine that most people are commuting further than a couple miles. All that being considered, biking is not exactly a drop in replacement. It definitely requires a little more awareness and effort in general. Some easy examples… the weather, having to pay more attention during the travel, packing and planning is a must.
This weeks finance challenge
No money? No Problem!
What does no spending look like for the challenge?
Something that I can’t seem to get away from on the daily, is eating. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can live without it. Other than food, there isn’t really anything I can’t live without, especially if it’s only for a week. So, as a conscious effort, I’ll keep track of whatever spending happens and how necessary it all is. Some bills are also done on a monthly basis, so I’ll add in what a weeks worth of that is into the running total.
Foreword: Sometimes it seems like all the money that’s made from work just disappears into the abyss that is spending. This challenge is just to get a rough idea of what a true baseline could be and trying not to spend any money this week while figuring it out.
“I can’t believe you like money too! We should hang out.”
Key Points: Keeping track of the spending and finding out everything that is being purchased is more of the effort involved than any sort of effort in not spending. We are not big spenders (wife and I), so I imagine any spending is a death by a thousand cuts more than a single point of failure.
Last weeks post
Goals that give your life meaning
If you are looking for inspiration for change and are looking for ways to take action. Give it a read and see if you find the motivation to get started. If you do make a change, please share it with others and let us know about it!