How to Keep From Overspending

Education

April 23, 2020

In the past two blog posts, I discussed:

  1. The App I use to create my monthly budget
  2. The breakdown of my finances into percentages

Today’s post is about how to keep your budget in tact.

In plain terms, how to keep from overspending.

One of my favorite pieces of financial advise that I’ve ever heard came from my Step Dad. He said in his extremely Southern voice,

“When I was young, I used to think about how many hours I would have to work to buy the thing I wanted.”

He was likely calculating how many hours he had to deliver newspapers to buy an ice cream cone. I use this when I’m thinking about buying my “extras” like clothing or home decor.

For example, if you want a new chair from Home Goods that costs $300, and you make $20 an hour.

You would need to work 15 hours to purchase that chair.

FIFTEEN HOURS!

That puts spending money into perspective REALLY quickly.

Maybe you’ve been saving for the chair for months so you do buy it. Now, every time you look at it, you feel a sense of pride.

OR

Maybe you don’t need anything new. Knowing you’d have to work 15 hours to pay for the chair is a different story.

I constantly I pull out my calculator in the middle of Target to see how many hours I would have to work to pay for something.

It’s the perfect tactic to use when I’m trying to talk myself out of buying something that I don’t need. It works every time.

Another thing that I do to keep from overspending, is taking my time purchasing bigger ticket items.

A “big ticket item” means something different to everyone. In my current season of saving, if something costs $50, I must wait 24 hours before I buy.

I give myself time to decide if I really need it. If I wake up the next day and sill want the item, I’m allowed to buy it. Not until then.

Many times buying something is truly an impulse decision. Planning things out works out much better and keeps you from breaking your budget.

When you are just starting to stick to a budget, it feels good to get to the end of the month having kept the promises you made to yourself. If you do that month after month, you’ll develop a habit that will serve you well!

I hope this helps!

Links:

The Everydollar App

Rachel Cruze’s Blog

-Chelsea

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