How to Spend Less Money -The Right Way

Wanna know how to spend less money, so you can actually start saving and ultimately reach financial freedom? These insanely good money saving strategies will help you spend less money. Check them out!

Yes, you can learn how to spend less money now! Oh, and FYI, it’s not that hard.

I’m sure you are dying to save some money or pay down debt, but your spending is out of control. If you are a spender like me, you know the struggle is real.

You probably have great intentions to save money. But every time you think you’re gonna save money, you end up transferring the money from you savings account back to your checking account, so you can spend it.

Sound familiar? If you keep doing this, you won’t ever be able to save.

I have to agree with Brian, a millionaire interviewed in the book Everyday Millionaires, says: “the main things that keep people from becoming millionaires are their spending habits and their saving/spending rations. If you save 1% and spend 99%, you aren’t going anywhere.”

That’s so true! It doesn’t matter how much you earn, it’s about what you do with it and how you spend it. If you want to win with money, you have to learn to keep it.

As someone who truly wants you to save money, I’m giving you the top tips on how to spend less money that my family and I swear by. So you can break free from that paycheck to paycheck cycle that gets you nowhere.

You are going to learn about all how to spend less money on food, on eating out, and on clothes, and much more.

After learning all about how to spend less money, you are going to be a pro at saving money.

This post is all about the best tips and tricks on how to spend less money.

Why should you spend less money?

So you can widen your gap. <Wait, what’s that?> It’s just the leftover money you have after you pay all your bills. It may be $35 or $50 or $150, or it could be zero.

The gap is just the difference between your income and your expenses. If you are doing a zero based budget, is the money left over, where you can assign it to whatever you want.

You should aim to widen your gap because you could invest that money, start an emergency fund, or payoff debt.

{CHECKOUT: HERE’S EXACTLY HOW TO DO A ZERO BASED BUDGET}

How Can I Train Myself To Spend Less Money?

I’m sure you want to learn how to spend less money and save more.

Here’s the secret: stick to a budget.

Fun fact: “93% of the millionaires we studied stick to the budgets they create. Millionaires know that building and maintaining wealth come down to how well they managed their money–and sticking to a budget is the most basic way to do that.”

So, be like a millionaire and create a budget and stick to it. That way you’ll be learning financial discipline, which is the number one thing required to build wealth and become a millionaire.

{CHECKOUT: How To Stick To A Budget In 3 Easy Steps} {CHECKOUT: A Step-By Step Guide on How To Create A Budget}

A budget gives you permission to spend. It’s just like a spending plan for your money, which is actually pretty cool. Because having a budget lets you be in total control of your money. You decide how you want to spend your money.

1. Give yourself Permission to spend:

After you create a budget, give yourself some guilt-free spending money. Make sure you create a category in your budget that says fun money.

You can easily set aside an X amount of money that you can spend for the entire month. Choose an amount that’s reasonable so you can give yourself realistic boundaries. For example, you don’t want to be miserable and decide to just budget $30 as your “fun money” for the entire month.

Try this instead, look at your past statements and see how much money you actually spend. And budget for that exact amount for the next month, without cutting anything out. And try it for a month and see how you do.

By giving you permission to spend an exact amount of guilt-free spending money, you’ll be more likely to stick to your budget.

Isn’t it awesome? To have the money ready for an upcoming expense like a Target run. It takes all the guilt, worry, and second guessing to see if you have enough funds to cover this Target shopping spree. You sorta enjoy money better.

When you give yourself permission to spend like getting your nails done and you allocate money on your budget to fund that expense, you end up enjoying your money and experience a whole lot more. Instead of worrying about how I’m gonna pay my bills after I got my nails done. Since you’ve already set room for that upcoming expense in your budget you allow yourself to spend it shamelessly.

2.Use cash

I don’t know about you, but when I use cash I feel like it’s so much harder to hand over the physical cash. Like I actually feel the transaction is more real than when I just swipe my card.

Using cash allows you to become more aware of your spending. You become more cautious about what you purchase and how much you buy.

You are more likely to spend less and save more just by switching to cash. So, become an all cash spender instead. Use cash envelopes in your budgeting routine.

How?

It’s so simple! Let’s say you’ve just created your budget and decided to spend money on clothes, food, and fun money. You decide your budget amount for clothes is $100, $400 for food, and $80 for fun money.

Instead of leaving all your money lumped together in your checking account and swiping your card when you purchase these items, you would go to your ATM and withdraw your money.

You would get cash instead and withdraw a total amount of $580. Then, you would separate the money into each category. You could use cash envelopes to do this, label them, and stuff your cash envelopes. Then, whenever you go shopping, use cash instead of your card. I bet you’ll spend less using this method and you might even have cash money leftover at the end of the month.

3. If you absolutely hate using cash, open multiple checking accounts

You can definitely spend less money by having multiple checking accounts. For example, the Budget Mom, has 6 checking accounts. The point is, there is no limit to how many checking accounts you can have.

Having multiple checking accounts will help you organize your money that way you can spend less. Make sure you open up free checking accounts with no minimum balance.

If you are trying to decide what accounts are free, check bankrate.com because they have several options that are free checking accounts.

After you create your budget and you decide your spending categories, just transfer the money into those accounts and swipe your debit card.

For example, let’s say you get your paycheck thru your main checking account and that you have budgeted $100 for “fun money,” you would then transfer that same day your allowance for “fun money” into your fun money checking account. And then use your fun money debit card for guilt-free spending for the month.

You see? By separating your money into different checking accounts, it would be easier to keep track of your spending and stay within budget.

4. Track your expenses

If you have no idea what’s coming out of your checking account, how would you know how much money you have to spend?

Seriously, get organized and start tracking what you’re spending every day. That way you can know what your balance is at all times in your account and see if you’re sticking to your budgeted amounts.

Tracking your expenses is like looking at yourself in the mirror and fixing anything that’s wrong with your hair or if you’ve got food stuck in your teeth.

The same goes with tracking your expenses every day, you would look into your checking account and see what you need to fix, tweak, and adjust in your budget.

Let’s say you over spent on eating out. You had budgeted $150 on eating out, but you look at your bank account and realize you’ve spend $165. Well, you would decrease another budget amount from another categories. You would decrease your clothes budget by $15.

Do you get it?

You have to constantly keep track of your expenses, every day. That’s the secret on how to spend less money. You just have to be aware of what’s going on in your bank account. You have to be intentional with every purchase and make sure you’re staying within your budget.

How Can I spend Less in a month?

• Stop being lazy and create a budget (laziness keeps you broke)
• Cut up credit cards
• Avoid debt like a plague
• Don’t try to keep up with your family and friends
• Get rid of FOMO (fear of missing out)
• Practice contentment
• Be willing to get uncomfortable
• Cut out eating out to like once a week
• Try using cash for areas in your budget where you seem to overspend like eating out and pay with cash instead

How to Spend Less Money on Food

Create a budget for groceries and another for eating out

You have to decide how much money you will spend on groceries and eating out. You’ll also want to decide how many times a week will you eat out.

Basically, you need to plan out and give yourself a spending limit for groceries and another for eating out. Separate both budget categories and use cash. That way you’ll be more likely to not go over budget at the grocery store or while you’re eating out.

Once you decide your realistic monthly grocery budget, it’s time to plan out your meals.

Don’t go to the grocery store without a plan

Ok, if you want to spend less money on groceries, you need to have a plan. You need to know ahead of time the meals you’ll be fixing and the ingredients you’ll need to buy.

Before you grocery shop, take an inventory of your freezer and your pantry. Try to plan meals around food items you already have. That way you’ll spend less money on food at the grocery store.

Don’t let your husband do the grocery shopping

I don’t know about you, but when my husband goes to the grocery store without a plan, he buys everything he sees and spends WAY more money than I would.

He totally blows up the grocery budget, so he’s no longer in charge of the grocery shopping. Unless he goes with a grocery list and cash on hand, that way he’s more likely to stick to the list and can’t really go over budget.

Adopt a millionaire mindset

Did you know that the “typical millionaire spends $200 or less per month on restaurants? They put a modest restaurant budget down on paper, and they they stick to it,” said Chris Hogan.

I was so shocked to find out how simply millionaires live, when I read the book Everyday Millionaires by Chris Hogan. I read that most millionaires don’t ever go to the grocery store without a grocery list.

So, you’ve got to be like a millionaire and take control of your grocery budget. Be intentional and be willing to be different than anyone else and cook your own meals. Take your lunch to work every day. That’s what most millionaires do, they hardly eat out but once a week.

How to Spend Less Money on Eating Out

First, by budgeting a modest amount on eating out and then sticking to it!

Try using cash envelopes for eating out. So you can have WAY more control over your eating out budget.

I bet you that you’ll spend less money on eating out if you are using just cash. You’ll have to look at your cash envelope and see if there’s enough money in it. And you’ll be more conscious about what food you’ll order and where to eat out at. Somehow you become more intentional about your spending when you use cash.

I’m positive that you’ll spend less money on eating out if you have a well stocked fridge with groceries. But, if you haven’t gone grocery shopping for days and your pantry and fridge are empty, I’ll bet you that you’ll end up eating out.

So, try having easy go to recipes that you can whip up fast. And, stock your freezer with a couple frozen meals. That way when you come home and you don’t want to cook, you can just pop something in the microwave.

Trust me, if you have a fridge full of groceries, easy go to recipes, and frozen meals, you won’t need to eat out.

How to Spend Less Money on Clothes

By using cash envelopes.

Once you create a budget, you can allocate some of your spending money for clothes. Decide a modest amount. Take out the cash.

By using cash instead of swiping a card, you force yourself to stick to your budget. That way you’ll be spending less money on clothes.

How Do I Stop Unnecessary Spending?

By having a why.

You have to dig deep and determine why is it that you feel the need to spend money. You have to understand your triggers?

Give yourself some reasonable boundaries. For example, I’m not allowed to spend money online on Amazon or anywhere else after 5pm. Or you can take a screenshot and wait 72 hours before you decide to purchase it. I bet you after that many hours, you probably forgot about that thing you wanted to buy, lol.

You also stop unnecessary spending, by having clear financial goals. If you don’t have any goals, you are just aimlessly going thru life, without going anywhere.

Once you hone down and figure out where you want to go financially and set out a plan, I bet nothing will stop you from getting there. Not even Amazon will stop you from getting where you want to be. You’ll be so laser focused that you’ll ignore all those sales emails and commercials.

Adopt millionaire behaviors

“You’ve got to let go of the stupid things that are stealing your potential–things like debt, inattention, and wandering aimlessly through life. Instead, you’ve got to take on millionaire behaviors–like living on less than you make, budgeting, and making active, intentional decision about who you want to be and how you want to live”, said Chris Hogan in his book Everyday Millionaire.”

You’ve got this! The fact that you are reading this blog tells me you are ready to spend less and save more. And you’ve already done the first step which is recognizing that something has to change.

You are not just wandering aimlessly through life, you are making intentional decisions to improve your life everyday. And that’s amazing because not everyone has the courage to change. If you want more inspiration sign up to join my email list, so you can get the much needed encouragement to pursue financial independence.

Alright, that’s it for tips on how to spend less money

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