Could you go a week without any non-essential spending?

As we approach Budget 2024 and the cost-of-living crisis continues to impact on families around the country, Lunchtime Live presenter Andrea Gilligan has taken on a ‘no-spend challenge’ for the week.

Under the rules of the challenge, she is banned from spending on any of the things she usually enjoys – be it going out for lunch or a coffee during work or getting the hair and nails done for a night out.

Fresh coffee served for breakfast

On The Pat Kenny Show this morning, she told Pat that she did the big shop on Sunday afternoon - and now she has to live off that and nothing else for the rest of the week.

“It's probably a bad habit but normally, I kind of tend to shop every two or three days and I'll buy bits and buy stuff as I need it,” she said.

“I might decide, you know, on the way home today, what I'm going to have for dinner and then I'll buy that and make that.

“So, I went and did a shop on Sunday and that's it. There can be nothing else.

“If I want to eat, I have to, you know, come up with something from the press or the fridge and the freezer, and it's just to try and basically not spend.”

Blue and yellow double decker bus in Dublin city centre

She said her “big mistake” in preparing for the challenge was forgetting to top up her Leap card – meaning she’ll be walking everywhere for the week.

“Aside from that, as you know, we have the radio awards on Friday night, which would usually mean, this week, I’m dress shopping, I'm looking at my nails and all of these things that I would typically tend to do in the lead up to the radio awards are now not going to happen this Friday night.”

She said the point of the challenge is to learn more about where our unnecessary spending comes from, how frequently we tend to do it and most importantly, how difficult is it to tighten the belt.

You can hear more about the challenge all this week on Lunchtime Live.