How do you keep to your budget?

frosty

complimentschemistry wrote: »

My credit cards are "safely" chopped up so not going to spend there! I find it really difficult to take a tenner out of the cash machine and not buy things. It's a terrible and silly thing but trying to break the habit!

Try and turn it into a challenge........how many days can you make it last?
The same if you go food shopping......head for the reduced section and see how many days food you can buy,it becomes very addictive.

debtdesperado

I haven't quite cracked this one myself :-)

What definitely helps is to not have any recourse to any credit cards, extra money etc... once you have had a month or two of completely running out of cash and having to eat the dusty cans at the back of your larder as there is simply no other money until payday definitely helps crack the habit of randomly spending. It's painful to do at first though!

I also try and minimise my opportunities to spend eg I take lunch to work (so no need to wander round boots or M&S), don't buy papers or magazines (so no extra bars of choc/chewing gum), don't wander aimlessly round the shops. I don't look at shopping websites - i have found that if I don't see it, I don't decide that I can't live without it! That helps too.

I also try and do as many no spend days a week as possible. I usually aim for about 5. This slows me down on spending as I have to plan for it on one of my 'spending' days.

I also carry a bottle of water and snacks around so I don't get peckish and think, perhaps I'll just treat myself to [insert random spend!].

I make sure I don't have vast 'stores' of things, and decluttered/sold lots of stuff so that I can actually see what I have, which definitely helps me spend less (eg I needed to buy some foundation but checked my make up stash before I went to the shops and realised that I have an unused pot of facepowder, which I had forgotten about and which I would have just bought along with the foundation if I hadn't checked first).

I have also cut back on social engagements and try to limit these to two a week, max. If someone suggests dinner, I suggest coffee, if someone suggests coffee (and it's sunny) I suggest buying a can of pop and a walk in the park - I try and keep the cost right down. When you don't have so many social engagements you can plan for them, eg decide where you are going to go and look for discount vouchers etc.

Hope there is something useful for you there!

complimentschemistry

Debtdesperado, all of your ideas are fab! I'll make sure I try and make the most of them as they are all things I do that I should stop, esp. shopping websites. I know stuff's cheaper online which is why I look but then I see things I really want, convince myself I need it and then have no money left for things I actually do need!

Going to start on this right NOW!