‘I NOW KNOW WHAT I NEED AND IT’S NOT A LOT’

‘A lot of people expected me to go crazy at the end of the year, indulging in a shopping frenzy afterwards. It didn’t happen. I think this says a lot about the way we’ve been trained to consume. People were fixated on what I was going to acquire, rather than what I had acquired, which was a huge amount of savings and lots of knowledge.

One of the big goals of the year was to cut down the amount we owed on our mortgage. Over 12 months, by cutting spending to essentials only and taking in a lodger, I had overpaid by £22,493!

I now know what I need and it’s not a lot. Not only is it a great feeling to break free of consumerism, but also all that time I used to spend buying things I now have free to spend doing things I actually care about, things that enrich my life in a way that purchasing never could. The less I buy, the more I have to save and the closer I get to the financial freedom of no mortgage.

I couldn’t have predicted the impact of the No Spend Year on my life. I knew my parsimony would save me lots of money. I knew my mortgage would be significantly lower after the 12 months ended. But the impact of those 366 days (it was a leap year!) has been far more wide-reaching. It changed me in more ways than I expected or thought possible. I’ve become far more adventurous and confident in my own abilities, and I appreciate the small joys in life far more.’

◆ Extracted from The No Spend Year by Michelle Mcgagh (Coronet, £6.99), out now