Ky and I are trying to have a No Spend September, which is really just a hard curtail on as much discretionary spending as possible.
This is things like Amazon, coffees or meals out, events. It’s certainly not dumpster diving.
It hasn’t been too hard so far, but conversely, we haven’t seen the benefits of it either. It feels like dieting, you need to stick with it until you a) get used to it and b) see the results compound.
And like dieting, I feel that smarter choices always beats strict rules. Starving yourself is always going to be a short term solution.