I’ve seen people talk sometimes about having a no-spend day. They buy nothing that day. It can be a help, certainly, if you tend to buy something every day. But if you’re like me, working at home all the time, it’s not going to change your spending habits that much.

In some sense, of course, you do spend every day. The food you eat was bought at some point, and it certainly costs you something when you consume it. There’s the cost of your housing. Any subscriptions you have, whether to a magazine, your cable television, even power and telephone bills.

However, if those little daily purchases are eating up your income, having no-spend days regularly can really help. You can have the kids bring lunch to school instead of using money to buy it. You can eat at home rather than eating out, or bring lunch if you have to go to work. Odds are these will save you over eating out, although school lunches may be pretty cheap.

The idea can be extended to the shopping you do need to do. No-spend can be no impulse purchases when you’re at the grocery store. Stick to your list instead.

Take the idea of not spending, and apply it to the various times that you do need to spend. If you have the habit of buying lots of little stuff you don’t really need, it can help more than you might expect.