8 Simple Money Tips To Get Ahead
Filed under: Manage Your Money — Gloria and Alpha @ 6:15 pm
Do you feel that you could handle your finances better? Are you finding it hard to get ahead? How often have you vowed to take a grip and spend less, only to find that you slip back into old over-spending ways?
Spending money is a habit. In fact, everything we do is a habit. And, just as we created that habit, we can also get rid of that habit.
Notice I didn’t say, “Change that habit”. I said, “Get rid of that habit”. Habits cannot be changed, they must be replaced by another habit, so that it fades ‘off into the sunset’.
Just imagine back to when you first started work and you received your first pay. You had all these good intentions to save, didn’t you?
Put this much away
- for commuting
- for entertainment
- for clothes
- for personal care products
- for expenses (you diligently made a list of each legitimate expense)
- for unforeseen expenses
AND the rest was to be SAVED!
How long did this last? A month, 3 months, a little longer?
And then, what happened? Temptations started to get you off track. Oh, yes, you could always justify them, couldn’t you? Yes, we humans are good at justifications.
Here are 8 simple tips to get you back on track.
1. Revisit your original list. Make a poster and put it where it will be constantly visible; where you can’t miss seeing itsave money
2. Make a grocery shopping list and don’t buy anything that isn’t on that list unless it is absolutely vital. Don’t buy things because you think they could be useful at some time in the future.money habits
3. Look for ‘specials of the week’ when grocery shoppingcredit card spending
4. Look for bargains when doing other shopping. Don’t buy something just because it’s a good price if you wouldn’t have bought it at full price.
I have a friend with whom I go shopping sometimes and she gets so excited at the hundreds of dollars she has saved, forgetting however, that she wouldn’t have bought those things in the first place.
5. If it’s clothing, go to op-shops, factory outlets, charity shops, online auctions; many designer clothes end up there, as do many brand new clothes. I speak here from personal experience. I’ve sold clothes I had never, ever worn.
6. Buy good-quality non-branded products, whether food, clothing or anything else
7. As a rule, don’t buy anything that you couldn’t pay cash for. Credit cards give people a false sense of ‘wealth’. They incur overdraft fees if you don’t pay the full amount when due. Rule-of-thumb, leave you credit cards at home.
8. Learn to say ‘NO’ to yourself and to others, especially to those best negotiators of self-will and self-interest…children
One of the most difficult habits to address in today’s consumer-oriented world is to delay gratification. Yet, it is absolutely necessary if you want to reap long-term rewards and live the life you want years down the track.
BREAK DOWN the cycle of spending money that you do not have.
SAVE UP for what you want.
These are just eight ways you can get back on a saving track. Add tips of your own to individualise your new money-saving project so as to make it your own.
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