One of the fastest ways to find yourself without any money is not to have a long-term plan with it. Plan for your finances, how much will go into savings and how much can be used as fun money, and most importantly, stick to this plan firmly.
It is a hard habit to break but a very important one. A good trick is to sleep on a decision overnight and see if you still want it in the morning. Usually, this can give you time to realize that you don’t really need that.
Have a spending account and a bill paying account, and transfer some money over each week into the spending account; it’ll make it easier to not accidentally spend bill money and to keep your spending under tighter control if you only get a week’s spending money at a time.
‘Out of sight, out of mind’ can most definitely not be your friend in terms of finances, but in this case, it might be. Set up direct debits so that bills and deposits into your savings are automatically made. Then you’ll never need to worry about it and have a nice little nest egg in no time.
Credit cards are a slippery slope if you aren’t really careful managing them. You can get yourself into a lot of trouble very quickly with their crazy high-interest rates if the balance is not paid off in time. If you don’t have to use a credit card (that you can’t pay the full balance off every month), don’t do it!
It can be challenging, especially if you’re saying no to good friends, but learn discipline. If you can’t afford that night out, restaurant dinner, or social event, then learn to say no to the people asking.
People say that you’re paying for the name in brand name products, and often, they can be right. Experiment with different brand products and see which ones are worth paying extra for, and which ones you’re throwing money on unnecessarily.