Are you looking for help on how to save more money? As much as I like to brag about saving lots of money, buying property, going on trips, and financial dominance, I must admit that I’m not the best at saving money. I can be pretty horrible at it actually. Despite writing about personal finance every single day for over four years now, I’m still making plenty of mistakes and I’m not here to deny them today.
I also have the ability to laugh at my failures (no comment) and to be transparent about what I do wrong. This is why I really wanted to highlight my problem areas with my spending that I’m slowly working on.
How can you suck big time at saving money?
Going out far too often.
I enjoy going out. A coffee date, lunch with friends, club on a Wednesday night, or any other excuse to not be at home. I don’t know why. I just can’t help it. I can’t sit at home. I like to be around people and I need constant action. The only time I’m able to read is when I’m on the bus or before bed.
I’ve just really become social the last few years. From 18 to 22, I studied full-time and worked my butt off to save money. I rarely went out. Now I enjoy going out all of the time. Far too much. I spend more money on going out than I should.
How am I fixing this spending problem? I usually don’t drink alcohol. To be honest, I don’t get nervous when I go out. I would rather drink at home with friends while singing some karaoke. I’ve been saving tons of money by going out sober or pre-drinking. I also declared March no alcohol month. So that should really help me save some money here.
Eating out too much.
While it’s easy to save money on food, it’s not always the easiest option. Food is the most common expense. We all need to eat, a few times per day. I’ve covered the idea of saving money on your groceries any times. With that being said, I can be a huge hypocrite when it comes to eating out.
I just love to eat. No other reason for my huge spending here. Chicken burrito? Why not? Pizza with friends? Yes, please.
What am I doing about this? I hate to make excuses, but after I workout I get so hungry. I’ll eat a meal at home and then grab food when I go out. I’ve publicly tracked the amount of money that I spend on food. I’ve also gotten into the habit of cooking more often. My main issue now involves the timing of my meals. I’ve been trying the Warrior Diet to help with this. Essentially, you save your eating to a four-hour window in the evening.
Being totally impatient.
I asked God for patience, but I told him to hurry. Sorry for the corny joke lol!
I’m not sure how I’ve held myself back from buying an iPad or the newest iPhone. I usually see something that I like and go after it (in all areas of life).
My lack of patience has impacted me in other ways as well. Instead of waiting to get better at something, I’ve paid for lessons. I’ve paid for lessons in almost every new sport that I’ve tried (golf, kickboxing, etc.).
What am I doing about this spending issue? If you want to save more money, you simply need to put more money away. I pay myself/put more money into a savings account that I should. I put my money away. I lock it up. I don’t have access to it. I leave enough money for bills and to eat/go out. I don’t leave any extra money aside for buying technology.
Can you overcome these obstacles?
Yes you can! The other day I wrote about how you can afford anything in your 20s.
You have to be conscious of where your money goes. I first learned this when reading the I Will Teach You to be Rich Book. From that point forward, I’ve been paying myself first, increasing my income, and not stressing as much about the foolish ways that I spend my money. My first priority is to always put money away first whenever I get paid. Then I pay my expenses. What’s left is used for having fun.
The other reality is that I get motivated in weird ways. Going on trips, eating well, and the motivation to go out all of the time is what forces me to work harder with my online projects and everything else that I do. We all have our own source of motivation. This could be internal forces or external ones. Whatever motivates you, the trick is to leverage this to get more done and make more money.
If you want to figure out how to save more money, you first have to accept your problem areas. Then you can slowly work on these areas, while you increase your income and use a little creativity to put your money away. The good news is that any spending problem can be tackled.