(6 minute read)
Have you ever looked at your bank account after a weekend and said to yourself, “how did I spend so much money?!” Sometimes spending can feel like an out of control train that you can’t seem to get a handle on. Despite our best efforts, sometimes we still need to outsmart our own spending. Lucky you, asking yourself these 4 questions will help you take back control of your pocketbook and get your spending under control.
- Am I stressed?
Stress can do a number on us in more ways than one. It messes with our sleep, screws up our diet, and often shows up in our spending, usually in OVERspending. Stress causes us to tap into our comfort habits, which usually obliterates our motivation. If you’re stressed, you might find yourself coping with it by mindlessly shopping, especially with how much we are online today, buying things you don’t need, and impulse shopping (like QVC shopping at 2 am).
Because stress can wreak havoc on our bodies and our pocketbook, it’s essential to come up with stress-busting techniques to help curb all the ways that stress can impact our habits and motivations. A great way to start to combat stress is when you feel it coming on, take a deep breath. Often when we are stressed, we tighten our muscles, clench our jaw, and take shallow breaths. Pausing for a moment to breathe can reduce all the physiological reactions to stress, helping to bring down our physical, mental, and emotional stress responses that can spiral us out of control.
Another great way to help combat stress-spending is to institute a 48-hour rule. If you see something, you think you want to buy, put it in your online cart but wait 48 hours to buy it. This will give you time for any acute stress you might be feeling to hopefully pass and think clearly about if you need the item (and if it fits in your budget) to make a more informed decision.
- Have I been super strict about my spending recently?
Often when starting a new plan or forging a new path, we can try to be super strict about executing it. You commonly see this in a diet when people restrict themselves to too little calories and end up binging a week later, totally blowing their diet. The same can happen when budgeting. Suppose you are too restrictive in specific categories. In that case, you can often end up overspending and ultimately blowing your budget because you are reacting to it being too strict with your spending.
If you find yourself wanting to overspend or already overspent in a category, ask yourself these two questions: 1) did you underestimate how much you needed in that category? And 2) if you “need” to overspend in the category, can you move money around from another category so you can make your budget balance out?
I’ll be honest with you; I probably overspend in a category at least a couple of times a year, so know that you’re not alone if you do too. You can’t ALWAYS estimate every category on every budget every month perfectly; that’s just not real life. The opportunity this creates, however, is a chance to learn from the overspend. Maybe you need to reevaluate the category because something in your life changed. I know for many, their grocery bills increased when the quarantine hit because so many more people were eating so many more meals at home than ever before. I’ve said this before, and I’ll repeat it, a budget is not a “set it and forget it” document. It is a living, breathing thing you need to check in with and evolve with your life continually.
- Am I already adjusting one of my routines?
Right along with “Am I stressed” comes a close second with “Am I already adjusting one of my routines?” Think about the amount of sleep you’ve been getting, how much water you have been drinking, and if you’ve been having one cup of coffee in the morning or downing a gallon. If you are actively trying to adjust one (or more) of your daily routines, it can be tough to stay on track and motivated with a new habit on top of that.
Trying to keep up with your saving and budgeting can become incredibly hard because your energy is simply zapped by the time you get to think about money every day. This is why a budget is SO important. It is a document you build every month (and check in with regularly) that allows you to put spending and tracking your finances on autopilot on the days you are overworked, and you just can’t drum up enough motivation to stay on track.
That’s not to say you can’t be making small improvements in various places in your life or already be working towards a big, new goal, and still keep to your budget. But the critical thing to recognize is that you built your budget with the smarts in mind that your motivation was going to fail you at some point during the month. You were going to order take out instead of cook yourself a meal, and all of a sudden, it was going to be Friday, and you realize you hadn’t tracked your expenses all week. Your budget is there to help you through these moments and be the light at the end of the tunnel, showing you the way.
So if you are already adjusting a life routine and you find it challenging to muster up any more motivation to track your spending and keep up with your expenses, consider downloading an app that will connect to your bank account and credit cards to do this for you. It’s just one more thing you can “automate” so that you keep your spending on track and your eyes on the real goal.
- Am I a creature of habit?
Perhaps you are a social person and just can’t turn down that daily coffee run with some co-workers. It’s not about the money you are spending at Starbucks that gets you excited; it’s about the social element of joy that it brings you. Or maybe you always want to go out to eat when you have something to celebrate, and lately, there have been many things to enjoy!
So instead of feeling guilty for the person you are and wanting to enjoy life’s pleasures, account for them. The best way to combat “overspending” is to make room for the expense upfront. Something you don’t have time for when you are building a budget and paying off debt is lying to yourself. If you enjoy take out, Netflix, and a weekly manicure, then by golly, make sure to budget for those. Can’t afford those? Then you have to have a long hard talk with yourself about what matters more to you, being out of debt, or living a life you can’t afford. Ultimately we are all made up of a collection of our habits. But recognizing which ones might be triggers for us that lead up to overspend will be key in helping us stay on budget.
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On your budgeting journey to paying off debt and building wealth, you may find yourself overspending in a given month or multiple months. But if you pause to ask yourself these 4 questions when you do – Am I stressed? Have I been super strict about my spending? Am I already adjusting one of my routines? Am I a creature of habit? – you can outsmart your spending and take back control of your pocketbook every time.
As always I hope you are happy and healthy!
Xoxo,
Amy
