HOW TO SAVE WHEN YOU ARE A NATURAL SPENDER

ARE YOU A NATURAL SPENDER?

If you budget $100 for clothing each month (I don’t do that, just an example). Do you rush out to spend the money as soon as possible when the new budget period starts? Or do you wait and decide if you really need something first?  Or maybe wait for a sale? When you budget for something that is not a necessity do you spend the money right away, or do you kind of wait it out to make sure you are putting your money to good use? Do you find that much of the fun is in making the actual purchase itself?  Rather than how much you end up enjoying what you actually purchased?

If any of these ideas make you think – yeah that’s me!  Then you might be a natural spender! There is nothing wrong with being a natural spender, but it is important to recognize this so that you can make sure you don’t go overboard. The same can be said for natural savers, you don’t want to save everything and never have any fun enjoying what you have earned!

Where do I fall? When it comes to my family/kids I tend to want to spend a little more freely. Sometimes I find it difficult to say no to certain things. But, I have made many changes with that over time – I try using making fun purchases a bigger event even for little things, then constantly getting them whatever they want. We put a little bit of money aside for those things.

NATURAL SPENDERS CAN LEARN TO CONTROL THEIR URGE TO SPEND

Don’t let the tendency of being a natural spending make you feel that you will not be able to do well financially. There is no reason to decide, I’m just a natural spender so I will never do good at personal finances or budgeting. Once you understand that your tendency is to spend, you will be able to develop more tools and strategies to control your spending

FIND THINGS THAT GIVE YOU THE SAME JOY AS SPENDING

Often you hear people say YOLO when it comes to making purchases that you really can’t afford, or that are using money that you really would like to allocate to something else. While it’s true that you only live once, there are many things that can bring joy to our lives that don’t involve spending money. If you take some time to find some lower-cost activities that you really love, you will have less time available to go out on unnecessary shopping trips or to spend time browsing an online shop.

TRACK YOUR EXPENSES

Even if you really enjoy going out and just spending your money on whatever happens to come up – you might change your mind on some of your habits if you see how much you are spending on certain items. Say for example – you are stopping by the local coffee shop for a $3 coffee every day before work.  If you go 5 days a week, that’s $15 a week or $60 a month.  Maybe it is worth it to you, and that’s fine.  But, maybe you would rather spend that $60 differently. Maybe you could make it more special by going every Friday as a treat to start the weekend, then you would be spending $12 a month instead of $60.

When you get ahold of where your money is going, whether you decide to make changes or not on your spending habits – at least you are aware so that you can make changes if needed.

GET EXCITED ABOUT FINANCIAL GOALS

In the same way that it can be exciting to make a new purchase, it can also be exciting to achieve financial goals – this might be a really big goal like early retirement, or a smaller goal like taking a long weekend road trip that you will need to save up for. Instead of spending time on amazon making a new purchase, spend that time doing research to achieve your goal. If a small trip, search for great places to visit, to eat, etc. When you have a little money that might be available to spend, set it aside and watch it accumulate so you can achieve your goal.

SET SMALL REWARDS FOR HITTING YOUR FINANCIAL GOALS

Maybe each time you a benchmark – $500, or $1,000 you do something to celebrate – maybe get a special coffee drink, order out dinner, go to a movie. Celebrations don’t have to cost a lot, it’s more something fun to acknowledge your small accomplishments.

CHALLENGE YOURSELF TO LEAVE THE STORE WITH ONLY THE ITEM YOU INTENED TO BUY

If you struggle with going into Target to pick up something for $5, and you leave each time spending $100, that’s not going to work well with keeping your expenses in check. Try challenging yourself to go in and buy exactly what you came for, and leave with only that. Believe it or not, it can actually give you a great boost to leave the store with only in your hand what you intended to purchase! The more you practice this, the less likely you will be distracted by other things available in the store.

LIMIT YOUR TRIPS TO THE STORE

The more often you run out for something, the more times you will be tempted to purchase something that you didn’t really intend to buy. If you can try to have one day to spend running errands, you will have fewer opportunities to make those extra purchases. I used to often think, had a just stayed home tonight, I wouldn’t have “needed” this extra $100 worth of stuff that we just bought at Target.

IF NECESSARY, SET ASIDE SOME CASH TO SPEND ON WHATEVER YOU WANT

If you feel like no matter how excited you are about your goals – you are still going to want to spend some money just because, then set aside an amount you can afford, without putting too much strain on hitting your goals. You can then use that money on whatever you feel like purchasing, and will not have to feel guilty about it.  Just don’t keep going once the designated amount is gone!

Thanks so much for checking in! If you would like to hear the podcast version of this topic to check out Lola’s Frugal Life Podcast! Also, be sure to check out my other blog posts on this site!

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