How can I change this habit?

lindens

I seem to havre trouble with small amounts of money not being big enough to do anything worthwhile with. For example if I had £10 left at the end of the month I feel i should pay it off one of my debts. But it's a small amount and sometimes my debt feels sooo huge i just think "£10 is so small compared to my debt it's not worth bothering" so I'll use that £10 to buy myself something nice and giving me a nice feeling instead.
How can I change this way of thinking?
I'm good at clearing out my purse regularly and putting my shrapnel in a savings jar, but that only works if the jar is small and I can see it filling up quickly. I have an enormous whiskey bottle which i won't use for savings because of the same reason as above - i just think "Oh that bottle is soo big i'll never fill it so i won't bother".
Any suggestions please?:wall:

immoral_angeluk

You need to start forcing yourself. Little things soon turn into big things and then the feeling you get when you pay a big amount off your debt willmake you feel 10x better than treating yourself with little things.

Snaggles

I know exactly what you mean - £10 hardly seems to make a dent (although if you did it every month, it would reduce your debt by £120, give or take a bit of interest, with no effort at all).

I think one of the hardest things about becoming debt free is realising that ANY small amount you can repay helps, and it all adds up - have you used the snowball calculator? If you know when your debt free date is going to be, recalculate every time you pay off a bit extra, and see the debt free date getting that little bit nearer - it might help to motivate you.

Storm

How about using it to round down totals instead? So if you've got £10 left at the end of the month, looking at your sig...

Lightbulb moment - June 2005
Link £4367 now £3540
Barclaycard £3502 now £2710
Moorcroft £4272 now £3402
JB £4380 now £3390
A&L £16682 now £16500
TOTAL £33203 NOW £29724

£10 would take your Barclaycard down to a round hundred, or when you've got the odd £2/£3/£4 on the end of the debts you could wipe these off.

Storm

Oh, BTW - I think the adding up in your sig has gone awry - I make your total debt £29542, so you've wiped off £182 without even realising :j

lulu650

I tend to buy with debit card or credit card (pay off every month) and move money around via the internet. I'm not in debt just trying to reduce outgoings so that I can take a break from a very stressful job.

I find writing everything down and watching the odd few pounds add up really help, as opposed to physicaly seeing the money in a jar.

Helonearth

Just a quick idea about the change jar. Why not empty the small jar into the large jar. Then you still get the feeling of filling the small jar, but you also get to fill the big jar up. It's like saving twice!

lindens

Thank you for all your suggestions.
Snaggles - I have used the snowball calculator, but the date is soo far ahead that depresses me too so I don't visit it that often.
Storm - thanks for the maths:T
Helonearth - thats a good idea i might try that.
I have opened 2 savings accounts via Quidco as my savings account is online as part of my current account and I keep seeing how much is in there and wanting to spend it. I decided if I had a savings account that I can see online but only when i choose rather than daily my savings are "safer". maybe the mnoney at the end of the month can be squirrelled away in one of those.

LookingAhead

lindens....what you could try as well (along with the other super suggestions) is actually acknowledging to yourself that you think it's just a small amount of money - but then just pay it off anyway. Regardless. Just do it.

Then after a while it'll be habit and you'll look back and think "Wow I've cleared seventy quid off that!"

And think how much it (i.e a credit card bill) creeps up every time you think "It's only a tenner......" :eek:

chocolatefish

I found that when I did a proper SOA / budget, and worked to really minimise my outgoings, GBP10 suddenly stopped being a small and insignificant amount of money!! And because every penny is budgeted for and has to be accounted for within my SOA, I just don't end up with GBP10 'to spare' in the first place, which removes the temptation to spend it.

I think the bit you are struggling with is not the habit of thinking that 10 pounds in insignificant, it's your habit of spending / need to spend money to cheer yourself up that is the issue, that you equate spending money with being happy - however small the amounts you are spending. The day that you are able to get more happiness or satisfaction from seeing your debts reduce by 10 pounds than you do from buying 10 pounds worth of 'stuff' will be the day that your habit is broken.

Good luck.

lindens

Chocolatefish - i think you have hit the nail on the head there. I do shop to feel better. I do sometimes feel better when i see my debt coming down but not all the time and not enough. When that feeling overtakes the feeling of shopping i know i've won the battle. I desperately need to break the cycle of shopping to feel good.