My spending is out of control. Please help me stop

[CATHYKEE]

Can anyone help me get my spending under control? As soon as I get paid, I blow it. The more I make, the more I spend.

Please help me.

Thank you,

Cathy

[Tarrien]

I ended up learning my lesson when my computer died on me. I had to save up for a few months to make up for it.

I usually notice I need to buy something when I go out so I’ll try to find the cheapest thing possible if I didn’t need anything.

[rtebalt]

First question: Do you have a budget?

[faxonfive]

Ever thought about a CD??

[wilbe95]

Before we can really offer you help we need a little more information.
Are you able to pay your bills currently? Do you owe money? Do you have a budget set up?

Are you asking for help with your general budgeting or for saving money?
Thanks

[bcoffey68359]

I have the same problem – I am learning self control -also I am now caring a notebook That I write down every penny I spend .Even those pops and candy bars from the fast stop .Also I have started to make a budget -It is hard to stick to -even harder to tell your kids no , but that is the only way I am going to be able to off my cedit card debt. Hope this helps .Bobbi -NE

[Niddi]

Don’t know what your situation is but the ladies are right, you do need a budget and people here are more than willing to give you some guidelines on that.
If you are bringing home more money than you need for your living expenses (budget) you might be able to arrange for an automatic deposit from your paycheck into a savings plan. If you don’t have it in your hands you won’t spend it so freely. You need to give yourself a weekly allowance and not go over that and not touch the money you’re putting up.( It helps if you have a long range goal that you’re saving for)
Also don’t charge anything, that only digs a deeper hole.

You can change your spending habits “if you really want to” and you have found a wonderful site for information, and some great people who are willing to help. it’s up to you, you’ve already taken the first step by admitting you have a problem.

[rtebalt]

OK, I’ll share a great tip – this has helped many people with their budgets – but you have to have a budget first. First you figure out how much money should go to everything: tithe, rent, car pmt, gas, electricity, groceries, eating out money, toiletries, pets, etc. (There are many budget sites that can help you with this.) Then, for as many areas as you can (ie- groceries, toiletries, pets, allowance, eating out money, entertainment) you withdraw that money out of the bank after you get paid & put each amount into its own specially marked envelope. This will help you to stay on budget.

For example, lets say you budget $30 every paycheck for “Entertainment” (you know, going to a movie, putt-putt, renting a movie, etc.) Once you have spent that $30, then you don’t have any more entertainment money until next paycheck. I know this sounds a little simplistic, but it REALLY helps. Then, after you are secure in your budget & routinely doing it correctly, you could stop with drawing the money & keep records if you like.

This really helped Hubbie & me. Its hard at first. Especially getting onto a budget. I remember, there were times when I had to take money out of our “grocery” envelope to help pay bills or buy gas for the car, but after just a little while it began to run so smoothly!

Using the envelope system will help to keep you from over-spending. (Its far too easy – at least for me – to just spend without thinking when I’m not using the envelopes. The envelopes will also help you learn how to “work within your budget.”

I remember one time Hubbie & I saw a beautiful picture at Target that we wanted to buy for our living room. It cost about $65 – way more than we wanted to take out of savings. So, we took what was left of our allowance – about $35, my haircut money – $10 (I didn’t need a haircut anytime soon), $15 from groceries (leftover money that we had), & $5 from our toiletries (also leftover money).

Voila! $65! That really helped us learn to be responsible with our money.

We didn’t just spend out of savings without thinking about it.

[brchbell]

#1 Don’t go into Wal-mart! They constantly rearrange the store to make it so you’ll buy! Write down every little thing you buy each day.

That was my big eye opener! I could see the waste in black and white right in front of me! I had no clue I was blowing so much money!

My kids are great at helping me stay in budget, now that we have one! I never leave the house without my list! My new rule: If it’s not on the list we do not buy it no matter what!

I only shop once a month so I do put $20 in an envelope for an unexpected expense. A few month’s ago I went to the store and they had marked T-bone steaks to $1.79 a pound! I got 7 of them for my family but only because I had my $20 in my envelope.

I’ve gotten good at hoarding that $20 for something special. You really have to be aware of where you are blowing the money. Then you can get yourself under control.

Good luck!

[tsgal]

I agree with everyone here, it’s something you have to budget. I don’t shop at Wal Mart much myself. I try to stay away from there, I always spend more than I was planning to spend.

I always make a list, and I allow myself a certain amount to spend. My calculator is always in my hand. If I see that I’m going to go over my budget, I well either put something back that can wait, or look to see a cheaper way of getting it.

You’ll just have to teach yourself to spend on a budget, and not to buy on an impulse. I also learned the hard way, sometimes it’s the best way to learn. So glad that you are looking for help with your budget.

There area alot of great people on here that are ready to help you.

[MJC1976]

Tell miss priss no!! Just kidding i know she needs help. Stop going to walgreens will help.

It did for me. No cash back offers. Dollar tree has helped a bunch for cheap items the kids use alot, shampoo, toothpaste, baggies for luches and extra school supplies.

[mdowdy]

First make a decision on if you really want to do this. you can do all the budgeting and things to save but it will not work if you have not definitely decided you are going to stop blowing all your money. Once you have decided you really want to do this, then you set up a budget (this will be in steps first keeping records of where every cent you spend goes) this includes a 10 cent sucker.

This will help you see where you need to cut your spending. After keeping track of this for a couple of months sit down and see where you can cut. If you are having problems paying your bills, cut out everything that is not a necessity.

The way I determine a necessity is I ask myself, do I need this to survive? If the answer is no I don’t need it to survive then I ask myself is it important for my household(i.e. telephone in case of emergency etc).

If it is important for my household I keep it and check to see if there are features etc that can be cut, asking myself the same questions to determine if keeping that feature is worth it. If I dont absolutely have to have it, it goes. Once you get your spending and bills straight you can then afford to have some of the extras, always making sure if you add them it does not put you over what you can afford.

I married my now x when I was in highschool. I had no sense of financial responsibility and really neither did he. We eventually had to hand over our bills and paychecks to my father-in-law to manage our money so we did not overspend.

Have you ever had to go to your father-in-law to find out how much money you had for groceries? This is not a good feeling. Especially the times he handed me 20.00 to feed a family of five (I am not exaggerating).

I look back on that now and wonder how in the world I did it, but somehow I did. When we split up was the first opportunity I had to really manage my own money. I told myself I would never get into that situation again.

There was one time after that my now boyfriend(we have lived together for over 6 years) and I were homeless with nothing but not because we couldn’t manage our money but because there was no money to manage. We are now able to keep a family of three going and living reasonably comfortable on 18000 a year. You can do this if you want to, but if you can’t get control of your spending it may take someone else to do it for you.

[ShellVera777]

I don’t have anything above what everyone says, but I went through this and learned my lesson the hard way. the first step is for you to make a commitment to stopping. the second is to cancel and cut up all credit cards.

the third is to move to all cash. take a certain amount out. when it is gone it is gone.

but until you have a budget, you won’t know how much is okay. if you have ms office excel, download the household budget file from the website. it is really eye opening.

~shell

[mdowdy]

@ShellVera777 100682 wrote:

I don’t have anything above what everyone says, but I went through this and learned my lesson the hard way. the first step is for you to make a commitment to stopping. the second is to cancel and cut up all credit cards.

the third is to move to all cash. take a certain amount out. when it is gone it is gone.

but until you have a budget, you won’t know how much is okay. if you have ms office excel, download the household budget file from the website. it is really eye opening.

~shell

ran a search and cant find it do you remember what section or where it was. im wondering if this cant help me figure out where to cut if need be. thanks

[HSLINKS]

Make a list/chart at the beginning of the month of expenses .. I set one up with 15 columns.

date| bill | amount|1| 2| 3| 4| 5| 6| 7| 8| 9| 10| 11| 12|

As the bills come in you can figure out when they will be due (approx).

note: i called and got just about everyone on payment plan – so its the same each month

planner/calendar:
walk outside and check the cars, when are the inspection stickers up, the tags? write this on the last day or the prev month (calendar) and on the first day of the month its due (calendar).

do you pay insurance, taxes, or something else once a year or maybe twice a year and have a big bill? put it on the calendar the month it’s due and also put it on the calendar at the beginning of each month a porportion of the bill as a reminder.. save $— towards car ins in june ..

btw you can prepay house taxes etc even if its small amounts

personally i love donna young’s month on a page with space for writing .. if you print out a years worth you can toss in the car stuff, right away. i am going to use the bill area to keep a running total for food and put it into the master bill chart (see above) at end of month.

here’s her 1/2 page for day runners:
Household – Half-Sized Planners Ruled

Here’s her full page for notebooks:
Household – Full-Sized Planners – Month on a Page

take a look:
what have you been buying?

clothes:
pull out your clothes, how much are you wearing? did you remember you had x,yz? rearrange the closet so you get more wear from exsisting clothes vs buying more.
can you yardsale some?

food:
make a menu plan .. this saves money & time. you don’t have to come home and say what’s for dinner.

since its on the plan you can pull out the frozen stuff the night before. use your crockpot – this is great for days that are insane – meals done.

restaurants & eating out (including fast food, coffees, and candy bars):
keep track of what you are spending – you will never ever recover this money. you can’t yardsale what you spent at the restaurant.

go in the kitchen and dig out the thermos for coffee, and the insulated mugs. make up coffee the night before if you are a zombie in am – use a glass measuring cup (large one) to nuke the coffee in the morning. a thermos (pre heat with hot water) of hot tea or coffee will stay hot most the day, for the stay at homes this means no nuking it during the day (time and a little off the electric bill) at work it means you have fresh coffee all day, not from the coffee pot that hasn’t been washed since the last time you did it.

make up a giant pitcher of icetea (i heat up water, pour over 10 teabags in glass container *its a 4 C measure about 3 cups worth, when cool dump in pitcher, heat up another batch of water dump into the same tea bags). Travel with giant insulated cup, this saves $2.03 everytime I drink from it.

Use your left overs for lunches. Pull out the plastic containers and pack for lunch. Not only is it cheaper but probably healthier than bought.

stuff?:
stay away from stores – they hire people to design them so you will impulse buy.

learn want vs need;
its the hardest thing to learn. learn to wait. write down on mini notebook the thing you saw you have to have – store, item and cost. wait in fact wait at least a week, now do you really need it or want it?

if it’s truely a need then check around is it something you can rent? borrow? make?

no? then check around locally (phone) & online for the cheapest price check.

we have the tv playing daily telling us we need xyz.
we have a rough day and tell ourselves, i deserve this candybar, new shirt etc etc.
our favorite shirt gets a mark, so i should get another one ’cause they are on sale – no no look in the closet pull out one you have. wait

ufo – unfinished objects /projects:
we all have them sitting around. pull it out stick it next to your chair and work on it at night. once its done it can be a gift or whatever.

but something is done – this is good for the moral.

put it on the schedule – break it down into small parts etc if needed.

my big ufo is the front hall
its been 30 years since its been done and have had over 5 kids
I had to write down all the things it needed (start at ceiling and work down) ..
What had to be bought? Put that on your weekly sheet in the goal section.

What has to be done physically first? For me its stripping old wall paper, patching dents, holes, kilz any water staines (do you have the supplies for this? if not put on the weekly goal and do what you can without).

Checking off the items on the list is a good feeling, making sure you get that warm cozy “I feel good” from this vs spending money on other items is even better.

Are there alternatives? can you stencil instead of buying wall paper? I have some lovely bead board that ‘could’ go in the hall and reallylook great, But I really want beadboard for the kitchen cabinets (which is my mega big goal) so i will save the boards i have and use for the kitchen.

remember all projects can go over (money and timewise) schedule in some extra cash. i my case i will probably redo the upper walls in hall stairwell with new drywall vs trying to patch the horsehair plaster *that will be at least 5 sheets I need to plan for

GOALS:
Write down a goal – what do you want? If it’s something that can be broken down into small pieces then write them down.

A new car, a house, redo the bedroom, etc etc?

Loose weight? Yep this can be a twofer (2 for 1)

My goal is to loose weight = having the menu planner helps this, getting a schedule means I tend to exercise more regular, cleaning house I put on the pedometer and watch the numbers go up as I move around cleaning and clearing. Clearing the house of excess really brings home what has been spent and didn’t need to be

My big goal is to eventually get a new kitchen. this is a biggie because i want to move the exsisting one. i have to do repairs in the area to get this done etc etc.

so part of my goal is to get the repairs done – which means getting a can of paint, or d/w mud etc etc vs buying a new dust collector or candybar.

tips

leave the check book at home, only take cash .. try to carry as little as possible

do not enter any big box stores.

put away the cc ..

keep a goal sheet as part of your daily routine .. i have one i have on my computer i call my master zone plan it has my daily routine, goals, zones, cleaning projects, daily todo section .. i made it up to fit on legal paper portrait style ..

since i never print it i leave it on my desktop and work from it. (saves paper as i check off the same thing every day etc). you are welcome to copy it if you want it..

i think i can send it as an attachement to people.

hslinks@gmail.com

ria

[lcove2000]

Get “The Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey at your local library. It helped me a lot and is continuing to help me. Good luck!

[kkiriazis]

I have to agree with everyone and lcove you are right Dave Ramsey’s book is great. It helped us a lot too. Our spending has been a bit out of control over the past year too and now we are going back to basics.

What it really boils down to is knowing that you need to meet your needs (rent, food,etc) and stay away from the wants in life. If you get your basic needs met you can always save for the wants.

[CATHYKEE]

Thank you everyone. I need to set up a budget so I can really track where every penny goes. Does anyone use mint.com?

[QueenSissi]

Great tips! I also use the envelope technique – that is I take money out of the bank and divide it for bills (that are paid at the shop), gas, food, magazines and I know (after having studied my budget) that it is all we can afford so I have to make it stretch. I also have a piggy bank for extra savings that I use in times of trouble.

[semmel88]

you really bring up some things i should work on. I have enough money for bills but I blow to much on the side and wonder why there is nothing left to save.

[semmel88]

at least iam doing one off them i keeping the credit cards at home.

[HSLINKS]

Have your employer do a direct deposit into a holiday savings plan (you can use for anything).. If there is enough at end of year, put into a cd

sign up for us savings bonds – they can be redeemed much later

do you owe on cc? start paying them off

invest in yourself: hows your education? put yourself back to school, even if it’s just night school.

how about car? make extra payments, this will get it off your bills and then take that money and put away for the next car. you could have a really decent downpayment

house – do you own?
are you still able to use it for deductions? if not, make this months payment, 1/2 way through the next month make an extra 1/2 payment .. do this for a while.

Can you increase the mid month payment? This gets it off the bill list & since it has no more deductions paying it off early doesn’t hurt

Ria

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