How do you know what to cut back on if you’re not paying attention to what you’re spending in the first place? Becoming aware of what you’re spending money on is half the battle. Below I have 3 easy ways to help you cut back on your spending.
Use Cash
Using cash can help make you more aware of your purchases. You could do this for a couple weeks on all purchases or choose one particular thing to use cash on. This will make your spending easier to track. You could even set a budget. Say your grocery spending is out of control. Set aside a set amount of cash (obviously this will vary depending on how many people you’re feeding). Be reasonable, but don’t give yourself too much room for buying “extras”. If you decide to try the cash route, leave your debit card at home. What did people do before debit cards? They carried cash.
Make a Spreadsheet
Now that everyone has access to their accounts online, you don’t have to keep every receipt to track your spending. Too busy or lazy to keep up with daily spending? Designate one day a week to log into your bank account and update your spreadsheet. Once you see all the individual charges compiled you may be surprised. I manage the finances, so when the Mister made a spreadsheet and was blown away by how much we spent on groceries every week…I don’t want to say “I told you so”, but yeah…
Get Rid of Temptations
Those sales flyers you get in the mail…unless you genuinely need a new pair of shoes, why are you looking at them? What about those weekly email flyers you get from every website you’ve ordered from, ever? Every flyer says this is the “best sale of the year”. I know how it is. Even I’m tempted, so that’s why I’ve decided to start clicking the Unsubscribe button to clean out my inbox.
