Want to control my spending, but can't!

ShelfStacker_3

Right, this seems as logical a place as any to do this

Basically, I have a huuuuge problem with my spending. It appears to expand to fill any bank account balance or credit limit afforded to it. I have tried setting myself a rigid budget and failed spectacularly at it; tried using a little pocketbook to track and control my spending and didn't adhere to it and have attempted to use willpower but again, failed hard at it.

Most of my spending appears to be on little small items from the supermarket I work at; almost always food, and almost always gone half an hour after purchase. It's insane. Thankfully I don't have a fantastic enough credit rating to get cards with huge credit limits, otherwise I'd be in heaps of trouble!

So has anyone got any ideas for sorting out my spending? It doesn't affect me in terms of financial hardship, and causes me no real problems, but it gets me a lot of flak from people and I feel a little bit stupid spending all this cash each month and having nothing to show for it! Any tips appreciated.

the-computer-saint

If its food you're buying... why not buy yourself £10 worth of food for work for the week. I get myself some salad and bread etc for making sarnies for work which saves me spending money a the local sarnie shop. So instead of spending £2 - £3 a day at the sarnie shop (At least) I'll spend about £10 a week on food.

I some times have a sarnie from the shop on a Friday just as a treat to myself. This way is good as if you have money in your pocket, say on monday you take £10 out you'll find other things to spend that money on and then on Tuesday you'll run low and then Wednesday you'll take another 10 out then another 10...

Or one thing you could do is open a 30 day access bank account, so you put money in this account and you're not going to wait a month at the checkout for the payment to go through.

bert&ernie

how about a different job - outside of retail with less temptation to spend?

Sue-UU

Hi SS,

One quick one and the best I'd imagine comes to mind immediately

DON'T take money to work under any circumstances!

Any shopping you need to do you can got another time for, but don't do it whilst you're at work! If you're snacking a lot at work then are you putting on weight? If so, then the day you stop taking money to work, weigh yourself on the same day then you can work at both problems from then on and one might help the other and vice versa.

Good luck and keep strong!

Sue

bert&ernie

Shelfstacker, to elaborate on my previous post - you appear to be very underemployed. Your posts on this forum suggest that you are an intelligent person with a wide sphere of interests.

I'm guessing from your username and some previous posts that you are employed to do a fairly menial job in a supermarket. I would also guess that you are quite bored by this work?

I'm not normally into cod psychology, but I would like to hypothesise that your overspending is directly related to your work - both in its cause (boredom) and the fact that it provides plentiful opportunity to spend.

I suppose I'm saying that you should look to diagnose and treat the underlying problem, rather than the symptoms.

Sue-UU

Amazing advice that just about sums it all up in a nutshell!

Well done bert&ernie, it's so good to have people who can read between the lines as well as you have here.

Sue

TashaC

I know just how you feel! I constantly find my self without any money and decided that this needs to stop!

Firstly as Sue U-U said dont take any money with you, what you haven't got you can't spend! I've decided to set a goal for myself, I bought a new car last year and have decided that I'm going to try and pay it up next year. Maybe you could try the same... At least that way you can see what you've spent your money on.

epsilondraconis

bert&ernie wrote: »

Shelfstacker, to elaborate on my previous post - you appear to be very underemployed. Your posts on this forum suggest that you are an intelligent person with a wide sphere of interests.

I'm guessing from your username and some previous posts that you are employed to do a fairly menial job in a supermarket. I would also guess that you are quite bored by this work?

I'm not normally into cod psychology, but I would like to hypothesise that your overspending is directly related to your work - both in its cause (boredom) and the fact that it provides plentiful opportunity to spend.

I suppose I'm saying that you should look to diagnose and treat the underlying problem, rather than the symptoms.

Hmmm, I'm inclined to agree with bert&ernie on this one.

Perhaps you should look at other employment if your current position won't allow you to reach your full potential. From your posts within the MSE forum it seems that you are happy to engage in discussions across a range of topics and your comments / English are always of a high standard (not that I'm in a position to judge).

Maybe its time to push yourself a bit and get out of the boredom / comfort zone you are in. I'm sure more of a focus on your work opportunities will keep your mind occupied and thus keep you from spending and have nothing to show for it.

I hope you get things sorted - maybe this is just the incentive you need?!?!;)