People, especially young ones, often spend money on what brings the immediate feel-good gratification. While satisfying your physical and mental needs may be fantastic, you need to take stock and hold yourself more accountable where spending money is concerned.
Having an excellent spending habit helps a multitude of things in your life, some of which could include having better credit scores, having savings that could come handy whenever you need it, being able to pay off student loans, etc. These time tested tips aim to help you spend consciously and save more.
- Write the items down! Writing the items you intend to spend money on helps you put things in a proper perspective. You can tell whether it is a necessity or not. Just before you head out to do your shopping, make a list of what you want to buy and strike off the ones that you can do without.
- Never impulse buy. How many times have you used an item you bought on impulse? The urge to shop til you drop doesn’t encourage frugal spending; hence, when you step out of your house, and you pass by a store with a fantastic shoe sale, don’t go in! If it’s truly calling your name, you can come back later.
- Cancel unnecessary subscriptions. To help you remain accountable, you need to sit down and determine to help yourself spend better. Check the list of sites or programs you are subscribed to. Next, check how frequently you use those sites, and if it is not very frequent, cut them off!
- Give up something unhealthy. Unhealthy doesn’t deal with the food you eat alone. Unhealthy in this context refers to habits that do not encourage conscious spending. It could come in the form of your favorite designers, online shopping, shopping at discounts or sales, shopping on a whim or impulse, etc.
Conscious spending is an act that needs a lot of nurturing. It is bound to feel as if something has been yanked away from you in the first few weeks. With constant practice, you will begin to see the rewards that come with spending less.
