Don't Go to the Mall - Avoid Temptation

by Wayne
(Irving, TX)

I used to be a person whose motto was: “a dollar earned is a dollar spent”.

Somehow, no matter what I did, I always ended up broke by the end of the month. Every time I went over the budget, my parents would balance my account.

My recent graduation (and the arrival of the worldwide financial crisis) made me think more about my spending habits.

Currently I have no overdraft and own a savings account with a small, but growing, sum of money deposited there.

These are the ways of managing a budget that worked for me:

Creating an Excel spreadsheet where I note ALL my expenses and make predictions about my expenditure in the coming month - making a weekly menu plan;

I no longer buy unnecessary stuff - not wandering aimlessly around malls, supermarkets, or bookstores;

I used to do this quite a lot, of course you almost always end up buying items you did not planned to buy when you do this. If you don’t wish to spend money, don’t get it! Of course, sometimes I miss going to a shop and buying anything I want.

In order to stay sane I have some small “do-what-you-want-with-it” portion of my budget that I can spend without the feeling of remorse.