Right now is a great time for a fresh start and the perfect time to examine your budget. If you feel money has been disappearing from your bank account like a hole in your pocket it is time to look at your spending. This doesn’t have to be as difficult as it sounds and there are some easy tips to make it happen.
Today everything is convenient, particularly spending money. Today there is one-click purchasing on sites like Amazon. In addition, many applications on your phone now have your credit card saved ´for your convenience’. Ordering an uber or food has never been so easy but consider the old days when you had to pay for a taxi with cash. It made you think about that purchase so much more, while you probably still got in the taxi on that occasion you probably didn’t order one the next time and just walked instead. A good idea is to take some time and make these payments less convenient, don’t save your credit card on websites so that when you choose to make a purchase you have to enter your details. It may cause you to pause and consider your purchase and perhaps change your mind.
One of the biggest expenses is groceries. Too often we purchase groceries only to throw out half of them at the end of the week as we were too busy to cook them. Start making a plan before going shopping each week. Examine the week ahead and what time you have to cook and decide what meals you will cook each day. Be realistic with your time, your budget and your actual nutrition. If it comes to Friday and you have planned to have a vegan salad and take one look in the fridge and order a burger, you have not planned properly.
One other expense that has started to grow is premium products. If you are an avid runner, you need proper running shoes, that makes sense. But do you really need the most durable jacket that is chill proof to an insane factor and designed for those on Everest for your walk to work? Choose where in life you need premium products and cut back on the rest. You may not want the cheapest brand of toilet paper but you don’t need the most expensive.
These are three simple ways to stop spending so much of your hard-earned money. The easiest way, however, is to stop looking at yourself as a consumer. Your money is not earned just to be spent. All advertising, shopping and many other moments of our life are created to make us more likely to spend money. Businesses thrive off it. Wake up and start looking at the things in life that don’t cost money. Leave your wallet at home the next time you go somewhere and don’t need to buy anything. Be smart with your purchases and you will start to save with ease.
