Motivation

marie2000

Hi, Does anyone have practical suggestions for how to not spend money. I find that I seem to spend money on coffee, sweets papers ect which really builds up and is a complete waste of money as well as making me fatter. I have tried not taking money with me and that does work but it is often not practical. I am trying to aspire to be more frugal which used to come automatically but over the past few years, I have become more undisciplined. I am good at everything else e.g. cooking from scratch, clothes from ebay but i still seem to fritter too much on rubbish. Thanks.

eleanor73

I wish there was a magic solution and I have the same problem. The only way I can do it is work out my daily spends (by dividing money left after bills and rent paid by days left til payday) and then see them building up each day I spend less (or nothing). So when I look at that £2 coffee I think about my daily budget building up when I don't spend it. Also give your self a treat every now and then and it'll make it easier to say no to spending on a daily basis!

EC12345

Hello. I always use cash - and once it's gone - it's gone - it really makes me question whether I really need to buy something or not ....

lilac_lady

Plastic spending makes it veryeasy to buy the non essential stuff. If you always carry a debit/credit card it'll be harder for you to stay within your budget.

BitterAndTwisted

As an experiment buy a little note-book and write down every single penny that you spend. Take a good, hard look at the end of a fortnight. If that doesn't concentrate your mind I don't know what will other than only walking about with the very basic amount on you in cash. No two quid for a Starbucks in your purse? No Starbucks

Penelope_Penguin

marie2000 wrote: »

Hi, Does anyone have practical suggestions for how to not spend money.

Have you a goal that you wish to save for? Pin pictures of it everywhere around your home, workspace, car, in your diary Then think twice and thrice before spending :T Put the money you save into a deposit account where you can't get your hands on it.

As this isn't Old Style, I'll move it to the budgeting board later.

The_Thrilla

What Bitter and Twisted says is absolutely right. I have elsewhere said that in an interview Carlos Slim, the Mexican billionaire was told by his parents to record everything he spent his pocket money on. I tried it and found that there were certain things that came up - eg chocolate bars - that I was spending more on than I thought.

Penelope Penguin is right when she says that it helps to have a goal. Mine was this: to arrange my financial affairs so that my earnings would be under the tax threshold, and still live comfortably; as I refuse to pay the government to kill off innocent Afghanis and Iraqis, and send our soldiers over to these countries to fight for American oil companies. That I think I have succeeded in doing.

Also, be patient. It is unlikely that you will turn from a spendthrift to a cheapskate overnight. So do things a bit at a time.

ubamother

It is so easy, if there's change in your purse, to buy something you probably wouldn't bother going to the cashpoint to get the money for, or maybe even not break into a tenner. Somehow once a note is 'broken' it is very easy not to count the 'little' spends!

I have one of those big tin can money boxes that can't be opened without taking a tin opener to it, and post in all my coin cash - whether pennies or pounds - if they're not in my purse for a specific spending reason - metro fare or pocket money, that kind of thing. If the change isn't in my purse, I can't spend it.

My tin is getting amazingly heavy and I am going to try and keep it for a huge emergency (so the emergency doesn't affect my spending and saving plans with my 'proper' money) and if there isn't any emergency, well it means when we're ready to buy another big thing if we want to up the spec of the item without going over our planned spend we'll use the tin money. It is actually quite addictve - my husband got £40 more tax rebate than he expected, which in our heads makes it 'free money' so he actually got it out of the bank and put it in the tin!!!

Ladyhawk

I found that having No Spend Days (NSD) really helpful in focussing my mind. I was dubious at first but only after really doing it for a month I can see how much I have saved by really thinking about whether I need to have something or not. I like being able to record my NSD's on my calendar as well.

I also empty my purse of any coins less than a pound and any £2 at the end of each day and put them into a change jar.

Any money that I have received from surveys or found or refunded goes into Eamonn my mortgage pig. My aim of all of this is to pay my mortgage off as quickly as possible which also focusses my mind.

Zazen999

I now work in a place where there is a cafe with a staff discount - it's somewhere that I used to visit on my way back home after a day's work in London so I'm well used to the cafe!

However, since working there I am loathe to spend my hard earned cash there.

So, I bring instant coffee and make one myself; and limit myself to one treat a week. And take bottled water [I fill it up the night before from the filter and pop it in the freezer, so it stays cold all day and I drink it as it melts]. And take a lunch

; you've just got to make workarounds once you have identified your weaknesses.

ceridwen

The_Thrilla wrote: »

What Bitter and Twisted says is absolutely right. I have elsewhere said that in an interview Carlos Slim, the Mexican billionaire was told by his parents to record everything he spent his pocket money on. I tried it and found that there were certain things that came up - eg chocolate bars - that I was spending more on than I thought.

Penelope Penguin is right when she says that it helps to have a goal. Mine was this: to arrange my financial affairs so that my earnings would be under the tax threshold, and still live comfortably; as I refuse to pay the government to kill off innocent Afghanis and Iraqis, and send our soldiers over to these countries to fight for American oil companies. That I think I have succeeded in doing.

Also, be patient. It is unlikely that you will turn from a spendthrift to a cheapskate overnight. So do things a bit at a time.

I would be interested to know any hints you have on this - ie ensuring that one can live comfortably at income that is lower than tax threshold. I struggle with the fact that some of my tax money is being spent on things I don't approve of - like those wars you mention. Hence - I am aiming for very similar objectives in some ways.

PS; Do you have a blog set up? I imagine it might be quite interesting...(now wondering if you're also an ITNJ too - ie Introverted Intuitive Thinking Judging according to that Myers-Briggs personality test.....)