Budgets and spending plans may work, but often feel uninspiring. Real success happens when you stay connected emotionally to the outcome of what you want to create. It just makes it easier.
The following steps are designed to help you do just that:
Get Inspired – Spend some time writing about why you want to spend less.
- What are your primary reasons?
- What will you have when they come true?
- How will it feel?
- Who will you become in the process?
Set the Stage – Create a way of tracking your progress. It may be a notebook, document on the refrigerator, white board, or anything that will be in your line of vision and easy to access. You will want to include the following elements:
- Your overall intention
- Top Reason(s) why spending less is important to you
- 5+ meaningful feelings you will get to enjoy when your money dreams come true
- A spending log. (Most people include a dollar amount, date, and what was purchased)
Start Tracking – Instead of adding up what you spend and having a cap on it, you will be listing each item as a debit against your future dreams. Simply log each item as a subtraction (-5.48). Subtotal your weekly spending and at the end of the month add them up to see how you have done. This information will allow you to be more aware and refine how you are spending your money.
If you feel the desire to buy something, review your intentions, reasons, and feelings, and than decide what feels right for you.
The intention here is not to judge spending, but to see it for what it is, sometimes necessary and sometimes just taking you further away from what you want most. Be very careful not to judge yourself here. We all need to buy necessities and deserve special treats. You get to decide where you want to draw the line.
The beauty of this method is that by staying more connected to your big money dreams and what it will feel like to have them, you will be more likely to make conscious choices that help make them come true.
Your Turn: I would love to hear what you think about his idea and other ways that you stay focused on spending money on what matters most.
I like your thoughtful suggestions for inspiring ourselves to spend less. I’ve never been consistent with keeping a spending log, but I like your idea of beginning by setting the stage. I can see how being mindful about spending less will be most helpful to me.
Thanks for these tips.