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5 Simple Ways to Avoid Overspending

Published

10 months ago

February 1, 2024

One of the problems I battled with right from my teenage years – the time I started working and making some money was how to spend money. This simple act as simple as it is made me lose so much money that my loss became uncountable (that I couldn’t even count)and because of this I had to stop going out meaning I avoided parties, visits anything that makes me feel I’m going empty my wallet.

I thought this was going to work but not too long I discovered it did not bring a lasting solution – there are other rules or techniques to apply. The other day I went window-shopping with my friends. They wanted to check for some products at the shopping malls to know if they are now available – at least that’s what they told me and before I knew it I already bought some clothes.

I let my impulse control me and I suffered for it (seriously) in the long run. You’ll understand this if you’ve bought clothes or shoes or any item and you got home realizing you never need them. Huge changes came however, it began when I started taking a few disciplinary steps and actions and this made me realize only the disciplined can really stop the habit of overspending.

The world is ruled by laws and principles so it was obvious it’s only disciplined that can really succeed in anything (they put their mind into) and this is also true because one of the foundational principles of wealth is discipline. So you see it’s all based on discipline but asides from this I want to share 5 tips you can use to keep your money in your purse.

5 Simple Ways to Avoid Overspending

1. Make a List of what you really need & strictly follow it

You see, one of the reasons why we overspend is because we don’t know what we really need. By saying this I mean what is really important to us. Most of the people are yet to really differentiate between their wants and needs despite the fact that they treated this as a topic back in school.

We see a nice pair of shorts and suddenly we say we need it. We see a beautiful puppy for sale and (because we have always dreamt of having a dog as a pet) we say we need it. We basically need everything and due to this we never have any form of savings. No! This shouldn’t be.

And to break this jinx we need to always make a list of what we really need to buy before our salary comes. I make my own list monthly. You can make yours the same way or make it quarterly. Just follow anything that works for you and really follow it to the letter.

2. Only visit malls When you really need to

I mentioned this earlier that this has always been my weak point – going to malls for window-shopping and I have stopped it. Because I’ve noticed that each time I go, I always seem to come home with goods I don’t need. If this is your problem too you need to stop. This or any other acts that make you spend unnecessary money.

Core Tip: Visit boutiques or malls only when you really need to (buy their products).

3. Change your league of friends

This might look like a big deal but you need to consider it. Your league of friends could be the reason you overspend. Also talked about this earlier… Going out with the boys is not bad but who are the guys you go with? Are they men who don’t a see big deal in spending all their money in one night?

Or are they men who are extremely sensitive about their money and how they spend it. You need to also consider all this and if necessary change your friends if it has to come to that.

4. Stop spending based on Emotions

I used to do this too until I discovered it and stopped. Then, I would spend money because I’m sad just to make me happy not knowing that this could only buy me temporary happiness. I could buy myself shoes because I failed my exams then or even by a game because I loosed a huge sum of money and this would naturally make me happy for some days and then later I will go back to being sad.

It took me a long time to realize that buying a gift for myself each time I’m sad will never make me happy but just give me temporary happiness. If you’ve been like this; you’ll need to stop too especially if you’re really serious about breaking unnecessary spending in your life.

5. Cut out yearly or outrageous bills

For some years now, I noticed I spend too much yearly and it’s not that I’m not disciplined enough. You might have noticed too somehow. You’re sensitive in your spending but still, you still have huge money leaving your account. …So I had to do something to find out what was really wrong.

I started with tracking after my monthly expenses and when I saw that that was cleared, I moved to quarterly expenses and this was when I discovered I was spending too much money on the apartment I stayed in. Diverting huge sums to both house rent and utility bills…

So I did something about it. I got a cheaper apartment (about 30%) with the same benefits and I realized that this reflected positively in my accounts. This might be the same for you so I will advise you to monitor your spending too not just weekly or monthly but quarterly or yearly. This is to make sure everything is OK from all angles.

Conclusion

Be disciplined. It takes only a disciplined man to overcome overspending – as I said earlier. This article will go a long way for you if you can just be disciplined about it. So try these tips above and please get back to me to let me know if it really worked or not and do not forget sharing is caring.

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