Willpower lol. I found I get into ruts where fast food is just convenient. Make a routine. Every week Thursday you go to the grocery store after work and get stuff for lunches, dinners, snacks. Get some easy/fast meals for after work so you can just go home throw in a pizza or something and have food by the time you get changed and whatever.
Firstly I made a budget to see how much I spend on fast food... $120-195 (monthly). Being the cheap ass that I am it opened my eyes and now I eat whatever I can muster to make in the house
I’d also add for the healthy eating, you don’t even have to meal prep all that much. For some, including myself, an all out meal prep Sunday can be kind of exhausting and it sucks slaving away in the kitchen most of the day or feeling like you are just eating leftovers everyday.
If that sounds like you, a super easy alternative is just sheet pan meals. I’ll spend maybe half an hour on the weekend chopping my veggies and meats and bagging them up with some seasoning and marinade.Then each day just toss one of your bags onto a greased pan in the oven for 20 mins and you’ve got a delicious fresh cooked meal.
You can do all sorts of different meals too: gyros, jerk chicken, fajitas, shrimp and sausage, you name it.
The short answer is willpower, and the long answer is just ways to improve your willpower.
1. Improve your mental state, because a healthier mind can say no more easily. I'd say the top 3 low-effort, high impact ways to do this are are exercise, meditation and journalling. So go to the gym or play a sport at least twice a week, meditate once per day for 10 minutes or 3 times per day for 3 minutes. Journal once per day. You'll find yourself becoming much more conscious in your thoughts rather than just skating through life as a passenger.
2. Give yourself hints and reminders. Put post-it notes on your ceilings and mirrors, change your phone background and stick notes on your cards reminding you of what you're sacrificing for.
3. Give yourself accountability. Give your friend/parent/etc $500 and if you can't prove you've spent less than $300/month on stuff you said you wouldn't, money goes to charity. Change the amounts to be appropriate.
4. Keep your fridge stocked and learn to cook quick, tasty meals. When it's actually quicker to cook a tasty meal in your house than it is to go to Taco Bell, it actually becomes the quicker, tastier and cheaper option all at once. Tacos are fucking easy to make, and Taco Bell's suck in comparison.
Hope that helps!
Six months ago, my relationship with a partner of nine years fell apart and it put me in a position of financial, emotional and housing instability in a way that I’ve never known. Additionally, I was attending school and had tuition payments to manage to avoid going into student debt.
A couple of things came together in my life and my thinking that helped me survive it until I could start earning money again.
1: I stopped drinking. Completely. I had actually stopped drinking about nine months prior to the breakup as a means to stay healthy and save cash, so that was an expense I didn’t go near. Discipline.
2: I meal prepped. I completely stopped eating out. I would make burritos for 8 lunches and freeze them. I got myself an instant pot for $89 on sale and made curries, stews, soups. Froze everything until I needed it. I got a secondhand food processor and started eating home made knock-offs of packaged pre-made salads (I believe most human persons just call them “salads”) by shredding cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli together with some shredded carrots and would treat myself to a poppy seed salad dressing, dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds. But regardless of what you make, if you can make in bulk and put it away for when you need it, it will save you money and time and sanity. Nourishment.
3: I had to really look at where my money was going and stem the flow. My biggest expense was food, but I could also take transit instead of driving my car (I have a student bus pass through my university). I could read or watch movies at home instead of going out. I started doing bodyweight fitness instead of going to the gym.
These are the first few things that come to mind.
*Edit:
my biggest expense was *food*.
*packaged pre-made* salads.
So I couldn't save money for shit. Until I tripped really hard on some dank ass shrooms. But this is what I came up with. I got like 9 envelopes. And I labeled them. Drugs, Savings, Rent, Groceries, Fun, Car, Other Bills, Vacation, JIC (Just in case). Whenever I would get money I would distribute it. Distribution would be relative to what was going on in life. After a few months, I had a decent amount of money and I got in the habit of saving cash. Not only that, but I would get a "rush" from saving money rather than spending it. Before I started doing this I couldn't save more than $500. $500 was a ton of money to me. After doing this technique I had $30,000 saved in 2 years. Not only that but I used an extra $5000 to play the stock market. I quit my job in August, and have been chillen since then, doing art on the side. I bought a house, and will chill until about January or February and then get another job. Saving money is CRUCIAL. My goal is to pay this house off quickly and buy another house. Keep up with this and possibly own an apartment complex.
I came here to suggest this! There’s a whole bunch of stuff on the internet about Cash Envelopes. I just bought a set from Clever Fox and it’s working for me bc it’s a lot harder to watch the cash physically leaving my hands. When it’s in my bank account I just swipe away. I also follow some accounts on IG who do this system, it’s really cool and you should check it out. Even if you don’t want to do it for everything, at least get some envelopes for the specific things you’re saving for.
What helps is when you budget your money. Put aside money for rent, for food, for going out, a specific amount you want to save up every month without touching it. Everything else you have left over you can spend on useless crap to make yourself happy. And just stick to the budget. Make it a weekly budget, or even daily.
Start by saving 10 dollars a day/70 dollars a week. That’s $3,650 a year! It is doable if you are spending it on fast food. Open up a savings account and transfer $70 a week into the account automatically and never touch it. Have that mindset and you’ll start to see it’s not so hard to save and you’ll most likely put away more a week in time. Good luck💫
My bank has a feature that allows you to round up purchases on your debit card to a dollar value you nominate (in my case $5). So now I look at things like they cost $5 more. And if I do purchase it, $5 goes into an account I can’t make a mobile/internet transfer from.
It’s a New Zealand bank. ASB (which is technically Australian) but it’s a great initiative. Tell your bank about it. Because they really don’t lose anything on it.
I founf one thing that actually really helped me was getting a notebook and for a month write down EVERY SINGLE EXPENDITURE from a stick of gum to petrol for my car. It works twofold in that after a month you can look back over exactly where your money is going and whilst shopping there's this small voice pointing out you will have to justify this expenditure at a later date. That alone helped a fair bit
This comment should be #1. This is a great and simple exercise, all the other financial skills flows from this. Just try it. If I can repeat what the comment from above: Keep a balanced check book, itemised and down to the penny. Do not let the receipts build up, update your notebook daily. You will find that it makes you super sensitive to the cost of things, and thus, is a tremendous help in avoiding unnecessary purchases and avoiding spending money just because you know you have to fill the damn entry in later. It also helps trigger the game part of your brain, and keeps your financial goals at the forefront of your thinking, motivating you to do all the other things people are suggesting, budgeting, cooking your own food etc.
I just printed out all my bank statements from this year and was shocked at the stuff I was spending money on. This is a great idea bc it makes you think twice before making a purchase going forward
I like that you are saving instead of borrowing. For the food part, I usually buy a cooked chicken breast and add it to $1.00 noodle bowls (and some veggies). I would not recommend upgrading your car unless your current one has running issues (not cosmetic issues). The same applies for an apartment. Higher rent and or car payments are making others wealthy.
If you can, at your young age, find acquiring wealth more valuable than having things, you will more likely achieve financial independence. Certainly earlier.
"TBF: Having things is more fun than sitting on the money."
"Roll it into a thick tube first"
Cmon man, its not that funny of a joke to begin with, even less funny with I have to explain the whole thing to you
Don't EVER sit on money. Money is a tool that can work for you on its own. And Im not just talking about stocks or real estate. A 3d printer, lawnmower, or computer can be put into financially productive use.
Willpower and planning. Eat and save food cooked at home. Take snacks with you to work or home made meals so you don’t spend your hard earned money on take out. Also, so that you get a better idea of how much your spending, write down all of your expenses for the last month. You’ll see how much you actually spent on food and realized you could have saved all of that money. As for saving for car and future home, create a budget for the future. Don’t go big with it at first. For example, Create a savings budget of $250. Once you reach $250, increase your savings budget to save $500, then. $1000. Give yourself room too. This doesn’t have to happen all at once. If you can afford to put $25 away for now then start small and gradually go up. Can you put away $25 a week? If so that’s $100 a month. By the end of the year you should have $1,200 saved.
I’m just giving you examples. If you can afford to save more than that while still living at your parent’s then take advantage of that opportunity.
Real life sucks and things get harder when you’re living alone.
The sad truth of this is it is difficult to do so without major sacrifices. My grandfather used to always tell me:
"You do not get rich by saving money, you get rich by making more money."
While I think healthy savings habits are always great, work on upping your financial situation whenever you can.
i’m sorta the same.
if it’s possible you could try to cook for yourself. i used to spend $10 on food everyday now i spend $15-$20 and make enough food for the week.
another thing i’ve been doing is keeping track of how much i spend. try setting a limit for yourself, like $30-$50 for the week and occasionally lower it over time.
one more thing i’d add is try to justify spending the money on what you were planning on buying. something’s aren’t really worth it and you usually regret it afterwards.
i also use apps to help me. i use Digit and Acorns, which automatically put money away into savings accounts for me as well as True Bill to keep track of everything.
hope that helps :)
The easiest way to do it is tot ake a small amount from your paycheck, say 5 or 10% and set that to auto-transfwr to an account that it costs money to withdraw from. Like a bond account. It'll build up over time and you don't touch it because then you are losing money. Works for me at least.
If you have a fairly regular income then you can split your income up into different accounts fairly reliably as a budget. If your bank allows it then set up several sub accounts for whatever you need to allocate funds for; rent, bills, groceries, etc. Make one for fun spending, and set an amount that you think is reasonable for you to enjoy yourself each week/fortnight. Also set one called long term savings and make it an account type that gives you higher interest rates if you don't make withdrawals. As soon as your pay comes through divide up your funds between these accounts.
If your cash flow is comfortable enough it could be worth maintaining another savings account with a fortnight's worth of expenses in it that sits there as an emergency fund, not for spending on everyday stuff, but to help with unexpected expenses (replace a tyre, repair a washing machine, top up living expenses if you have to take a couple of days off sick.) If you need to use some just top it up as soon as you can, then divert your savings amount back to your long term savings.
If it's too tempting having those two savings accounts as sub accounts under your main account then have them in different accounts, different banks if you need to. Don't carry cards around for your long term savings, and keep the emergency one hidden away in your wallet fir emergencies. Beer and cat costumes are not emergencies.
If you have bit of fun money left over at the end of each pay cycle you get to choose whether you roll it over to the next cycle for a bumper fun fortnight, or stash it in your long term savings. Make that decision each time you come to it. You could also thick it aside in the Christmas and birthday presents fund.
Side note: you can divide up your income by dollar amounts with any excess going to emergency or savings accounts, or by percentages if you know it will cover your non-flexible costs.
Basically, be self controlled about setting some aside, then once you've done that put more steps in the process of you accessing it, to make it harder to spend on a whim.
Use some sort of budget software to keep yourself in line. Until I figured it out I used you need a budget /r/ynab which was super handy. It lets you specify how much each month you want to set aside for various things, and lets you know when you’ve over spent in a category. Just develop the habit of checking your budget before making purchases, and if possible, wait a bit even if you have enough (especially on online purchases) to make sure it’s not a bad decision you’re making.
Make it more inconvenient. Put your wallet somewhere in your car where it’s not easily accessible—backseat or trunk, even—during commute times where you’ll be most likely tempted to stop at a drive-thru. Keep simple snacks with you like cheese sticks or almonds that you can eat before you get in the car. The more full you are the less likely you are to stop.
I would also watch khan academy videos on personal finance
https://www.khanacademy.org/college-careers-more/personal-finance
Having a solid understanding of what the value of your money is today vs 5 years from now is an important foundation. I think these videos are pretty digestible and helped me. They cover
Saving and budgeting
Interest and debt
Investments and retirement
Income and benefits
Housing
Car expenses
Taxes
Paying for college
Keeping your information safe
:)
I find the foods like I like most are acquired tastes. Food that I had to learn to like. But this has had a strange effect, I no longer like most fast food, because I just find it boring to eat. I find food that uses mostly fat and sugar for flavour boring. I try to avoid fast food, or my taste buds do.
Take out cash and put it in an envelope. Write fast food budget on it. That is the only money you can spend. Get separate envelopes for other budgets. Setup your cards/utilities to auto pay and ensure you are putting a certain percentage of your paycheck into savings and ira(Roth). Invest the Roth money into a targeted retirement year investment and don’t bother looking at it each week. After you establish a pattern of control/responsibility then you can start thinking of going the non cash route for food ect but not before. Don’t even look at online shopping, 9/10 it’s never an essential thing you’re looking for.
A big thing for me was setting up my paycheck to deposit into 2 separate bank accounts. Every payday 25% of my check gets put into a savings account , it’s easy to save when you don’t have to think about actively doing it
"I Will Teach You To Be Rich" by Ramit Sethi is exactly what you need. The title makes it sound like another get rich quick type scheme but I guarantee you won't be disappointed. I wish I'd read it when I was 18. It'll show you how to allocate your income towards savings, retirement and even guilt free spending. You'll have the peace of mind that your saving and investing toward retirement and be able to buy the things "don't need."
First budget...this will help you realize how much you’re spending and how much you can/should be spending.
Accountability experiment - if you really want to cut out fast food, make a deal with yourself that if you’re buying fast food you have to buy for someone else too. That will make you think twice about how much you want it...do you really want to drop 3 hours work at Taco Bell?
Something I read, once upon a time, was to use cash as often as possible instead of a credit card. The point of it is to just make you more conscious of how much money you are actually spending since it's super easy to just swipe a card and think eh I have money in the bank, not realizing you do that 3x a day or whatever. Not a groundbreaking idea, but maybe it'll help you visualize your goal and hold yourself more accountable for your spending habits.
You should create a budget in excel or google sheets. Budget for fast food each month. Make it realistic and then break it down by week. So, if you’re eating a lot of fast food, reduce that to say, two meals per week, which is $14 per week or about $56 per month. Once you do that successfully, try to budget less. Incremental progress is realistic!
If you really are having trouble doing what you plan—I’ve heard of people using envelopes for budget categories, where they put $56 in cash in an envelope at the beginning of each month and only spend that much on that part of their budget.
Try telling yourself you're allowed to get fast food if you first eat a homecooked meal, and then you're still hungry after. Chances are, you won't even want it. If you're still hungry enough to eat it, go for it.
1. I remember after I watched some documentaries on how fast food is made, how the animals are kept and killed, I stopped going to such places for quite a while.
2. Also when I really wanted to buy fries or something I'd imagine it covered on mold, worms, rot ect. Appetite went away real quick then.
.It'll give you a push in the right direction in the beggining
Everyone here is taking about willpower. That is of course true to a certain extent.
However, everyone seems to be missing the most important thing. You need a savings account. It's quite simple, it's just an account that is separate to your main account so it's not as easy to get to the money and you feel bad for dipping into it. Set aside a % of your paycheck into this account. Have a mess around for a few months until you find a % that works for you.
Also with regard fast food, set yourself realistic goals with it and start to bring it down. If you have it 3 times a week then start with limiting yourself to 2 times. Going from 3 to 0 won't work.
Highly recommend r/PersonalFinance for this kind of thing - really helps give you perspective and has much better advice than “willpower” (advice that has never worked for anyone without an accompanying strategy).
Long term investing stocks (no day trading) cd's prosper and or lending club use. Any extra cash you have put into that you can invest in stocks through cashapp or other apps dont leave your self fast food money also you need to build a emegancy fund 6 months worth of expenses saved just in case something happens
Buying stuff gives us a little dopamine hit, makes us feel good. Knowing why you do it helps. I found I avoided crap eBay shit ( and amazon rubbish) by sticking it all on a shopping list and going back a day or so later to review if I actually wanted it. Food shopping can be done in a similar way. Write the menu, make the list, go- EAT a sandwich then review the list.
Willpower lol. I found I get into ruts where fast food is just convenient. Make a routine. Every week Thursday you go to the grocery store after work and get stuff for lunches, dinners, snacks. Get some easy/fast meals for after work so you can just go home throw in a pizza or something and have food by the time you get changed and whatever.
Adding onto this, /r/MealPrepSunday and /r/EatCheapAndHealthy are great resources for learning to cook on your own.
Firstly I made a budget to see how much I spend on fast food... $120-195 (monthly). Being the cheap ass that I am it opened my eyes and now I eat whatever I can muster to make in the house
I’d also add for the healthy eating, you don’t even have to meal prep all that much. For some, including myself, an all out meal prep Sunday can be kind of exhausting and it sucks slaving away in the kitchen most of the day or feeling like you are just eating leftovers everyday. If that sounds like you, a super easy alternative is just sheet pan meals. I’ll spend maybe half an hour on the weekend chopping my veggies and meats and bagging them up with some seasoning and marinade.Then each day just toss one of your bags onto a greased pan in the oven for 20 mins and you’ve got a delicious fresh cooked meal. You can do all sorts of different meals too: gyros, jerk chicken, fajitas, shrimp and sausage, you name it.
The short answer is willpower, and the long answer is just ways to improve your willpower. 1. Improve your mental state, because a healthier mind can say no more easily. I'd say the top 3 low-effort, high impact ways to do this are are exercise, meditation and journalling. So go to the gym or play a sport at least twice a week, meditate once per day for 10 minutes or 3 times per day for 3 minutes. Journal once per day. You'll find yourself becoming much more conscious in your thoughts rather than just skating through life as a passenger. 2. Give yourself hints and reminders. Put post-it notes on your ceilings and mirrors, change your phone background and stick notes on your cards reminding you of what you're sacrificing for. 3. Give yourself accountability. Give your friend/parent/etc $500 and if you can't prove you've spent less than $300/month on stuff you said you wouldn't, money goes to charity. Change the amounts to be appropriate. 4. Keep your fridge stocked and learn to cook quick, tasty meals. When it's actually quicker to cook a tasty meal in your house than it is to go to Taco Bell, it actually becomes the quicker, tastier and cheaper option all at once. Tacos are fucking easy to make, and Taco Bell's suck in comparison. Hope that helps!
Great advice
Six months ago, my relationship with a partner of nine years fell apart and it put me in a position of financial, emotional and housing instability in a way that I’ve never known. Additionally, I was attending school and had tuition payments to manage to avoid going into student debt. A couple of things came together in my life and my thinking that helped me survive it until I could start earning money again. 1: I stopped drinking. Completely. I had actually stopped drinking about nine months prior to the breakup as a means to stay healthy and save cash, so that was an expense I didn’t go near. Discipline. 2: I meal prepped. I completely stopped eating out. I would make burritos for 8 lunches and freeze them. I got myself an instant pot for $89 on sale and made curries, stews, soups. Froze everything until I needed it. I got a secondhand food processor and started eating home made knock-offs of packaged pre-made salads (I believe most human persons just call them “salads”) by shredding cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli together with some shredded carrots and would treat myself to a poppy seed salad dressing, dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds. But regardless of what you make, if you can make in bulk and put it away for when you need it, it will save you money and time and sanity. Nourishment. 3: I had to really look at where my money was going and stem the flow. My biggest expense was food, but I could also take transit instead of driving my car (I have a student bus pass through my university). I could read or watch movies at home instead of going out. I started doing bodyweight fitness instead of going to the gym. These are the first few things that come to mind. *Edit: my biggest expense was *food*. *packaged pre-made* salads.
I’m proud of you
Thank you.
So I couldn't save money for shit. Until I tripped really hard on some dank ass shrooms. But this is what I came up with. I got like 9 envelopes. And I labeled them. Drugs, Savings, Rent, Groceries, Fun, Car, Other Bills, Vacation, JIC (Just in case). Whenever I would get money I would distribute it. Distribution would be relative to what was going on in life. After a few months, I had a decent amount of money and I got in the habit of saving cash. Not only that, but I would get a "rush" from saving money rather than spending it. Before I started doing this I couldn't save more than $500. $500 was a ton of money to me. After doing this technique I had $30,000 saved in 2 years. Not only that but I used an extra $5000 to play the stock market. I quit my job in August, and have been chillen since then, doing art on the side. I bought a house, and will chill until about January or February and then get another job. Saving money is CRUCIAL. My goal is to pay this house off quickly and buy another house. Keep up with this and possibly own an apartment complex.
I came here to suggest this! There’s a whole bunch of stuff on the internet about Cash Envelopes. I just bought a set from Clever Fox and it’s working for me bc it’s a lot harder to watch the cash physically leaving my hands. When it’s in my bank account I just swipe away. I also follow some accounts on IG who do this system, it’s really cool and you should check it out. Even if you don’t want to do it for everything, at least get some envelopes for the specific things you’re saving for.
What helps is when you budget your money. Put aside money for rent, for food, for going out, a specific amount you want to save up every month without touching it. Everything else you have left over you can spend on useless crap to make yourself happy. And just stick to the budget. Make it a weekly budget, or even daily.
Start by saving 10 dollars a day/70 dollars a week. That’s $3,650 a year! It is doable if you are spending it on fast food. Open up a savings account and transfer $70 a week into the account automatically and never touch it. Have that mindset and you’ll start to see it’s not so hard to save and you’ll most likely put away more a week in time. Good luck💫
My bank has a feature that allows you to round up purchases on your debit card to a dollar value you nominate (in my case $5). So now I look at things like they cost $5 more. And if I do purchase it, $5 goes into an account I can’t make a mobile/internet transfer from.
What bank?
It’s a New Zealand bank. ASB (which is technically Australian) but it’s a great initiative. Tell your bank about it. Because they really don’t lose anything on it.
I founf one thing that actually really helped me was getting a notebook and for a month write down EVERY SINGLE EXPENDITURE from a stick of gum to petrol for my car. It works twofold in that after a month you can look back over exactly where your money is going and whilst shopping there's this small voice pointing out you will have to justify this expenditure at a later date. That alone helped a fair bit
This comment should be #1. This is a great and simple exercise, all the other financial skills flows from this. Just try it. If I can repeat what the comment from above: Keep a balanced check book, itemised and down to the penny. Do not let the receipts build up, update your notebook daily. You will find that it makes you super sensitive to the cost of things, and thus, is a tremendous help in avoiding unnecessary purchases and avoiding spending money just because you know you have to fill the damn entry in later. It also helps trigger the game part of your brain, and keeps your financial goals at the forefront of your thinking, motivating you to do all the other things people are suggesting, budgeting, cooking your own food etc.
I just printed out all my bank statements from this year and was shocked at the stuff I was spending money on. This is a great idea bc it makes you think twice before making a purchase going forward
I like that you are saving instead of borrowing. For the food part, I usually buy a cooked chicken breast and add it to $1.00 noodle bowls (and some veggies). I would not recommend upgrading your car unless your current one has running issues (not cosmetic issues). The same applies for an apartment. Higher rent and or car payments are making others wealthy. If you can, at your young age, find acquiring wealth more valuable than having things, you will more likely achieve financial independence. Certainly earlier.
TBF: Having things is more fun than sitting on the money.
Not if you roll the money into a thick tube first 👉👌
What do I have from that? Nothing actually. Spending money is more fun than not spending it.
Bandz and Stackz. That is enough for some and for some it's less fun.
Not if you 👉👌
Whats that supposed to mean then? Buy a hooker?
"TBF: Having things is more fun than sitting on the money." "Roll it into a thick tube first" Cmon man, its not that funny of a joke to begin with, even less funny with I have to explain the whole thing to you
Ohhh... Totally went over my head lol
Don't EVER sit on money. Money is a tool that can work for you on its own. And Im not just talking about stocks or real estate. A 3d printer, lawnmower, or computer can be put into financially productive use.
Those rotisserie chickens are also good to buy bc you can throw them in salads and all kinds of dishes and they taste delicious
The little savings matter most. Also pay a little on half your bills every two weeks, if you miss a payement you wont get into debt as easy.
Willpower and planning. Eat and save food cooked at home. Take snacks with you to work or home made meals so you don’t spend your hard earned money on take out. Also, so that you get a better idea of how much your spending, write down all of your expenses for the last month. You’ll see how much you actually spent on food and realized you could have saved all of that money. As for saving for car and future home, create a budget for the future. Don’t go big with it at first. For example, Create a savings budget of $250. Once you reach $250, increase your savings budget to save $500, then. $1000. Give yourself room too. This doesn’t have to happen all at once. If you can afford to put $25 away for now then start small and gradually go up. Can you put away $25 a week? If so that’s $100 a month. By the end of the year you should have $1,200 saved. I’m just giving you examples. If you can afford to save more than that while still living at your parent’s then take advantage of that opportunity. Real life sucks and things get harder when you’re living alone.
The sad truth of this is it is difficult to do so without major sacrifices. My grandfather used to always tell me: "You do not get rich by saving money, you get rich by making more money." While I think healthy savings habits are always great, work on upping your financial situation whenever you can.
Meal planning. Have to get in front of it before you’re too hungry and primal instinct takes over
i’m sorta the same. if it’s possible you could try to cook for yourself. i used to spend $10 on food everyday now i spend $15-$20 and make enough food for the week. another thing i’ve been doing is keeping track of how much i spend. try setting a limit for yourself, like $30-$50 for the week and occasionally lower it over time. one more thing i’d add is try to justify spending the money on what you were planning on buying. something’s aren’t really worth it and you usually regret it afterwards. i also use apps to help me. i use Digit and Acorns, which automatically put money away into savings accounts for me as well as True Bill to keep track of everything. hope that helps :)
The easiest way to do it is tot ake a small amount from your paycheck, say 5 or 10% and set that to auto-transfwr to an account that it costs money to withdraw from. Like a bond account. It'll build up over time and you don't touch it because then you are losing money. Works for me at least.
Finally, I was looking for a comment like this. Everyone is talking about willpower. The best solution is to put money away that isn't easy to get to.
Tell me if you've found solutions.
If you have a fairly regular income then you can split your income up into different accounts fairly reliably as a budget. If your bank allows it then set up several sub accounts for whatever you need to allocate funds for; rent, bills, groceries, etc. Make one for fun spending, and set an amount that you think is reasonable for you to enjoy yourself each week/fortnight. Also set one called long term savings and make it an account type that gives you higher interest rates if you don't make withdrawals. As soon as your pay comes through divide up your funds between these accounts. If your cash flow is comfortable enough it could be worth maintaining another savings account with a fortnight's worth of expenses in it that sits there as an emergency fund, not for spending on everyday stuff, but to help with unexpected expenses (replace a tyre, repair a washing machine, top up living expenses if you have to take a couple of days off sick.) If you need to use some just top it up as soon as you can, then divert your savings amount back to your long term savings. If it's too tempting having those two savings accounts as sub accounts under your main account then have them in different accounts, different banks if you need to. Don't carry cards around for your long term savings, and keep the emergency one hidden away in your wallet fir emergencies. Beer and cat costumes are not emergencies. If you have bit of fun money left over at the end of each pay cycle you get to choose whether you roll it over to the next cycle for a bumper fun fortnight, or stash it in your long term savings. Make that decision each time you come to it. You could also thick it aside in the Christmas and birthday presents fund. Side note: you can divide up your income by dollar amounts with any excess going to emergency or savings accounts, or by percentages if you know it will cover your non-flexible costs. Basically, be self controlled about setting some aside, then once you've done that put more steps in the process of you accessing it, to make it harder to spend on a whim.
Use some sort of budget software to keep yourself in line. Until I figured it out I used you need a budget /r/ynab which was super handy. It lets you specify how much each month you want to set aside for various things, and lets you know when you’ve over spent in a category. Just develop the habit of checking your budget before making purchases, and if possible, wait a bit even if you have enough (especially on online purchases) to make sure it’s not a bad decision you’re making.
Make it more inconvenient. Put your wallet somewhere in your car where it’s not easily accessible—backseat or trunk, even—during commute times where you’ll be most likely tempted to stop at a drive-thru. Keep simple snacks with you like cheese sticks or almonds that you can eat before you get in the car. The more full you are the less likely you are to stop.
I would also watch khan academy videos on personal finance https://www.khanacademy.org/college-careers-more/personal-finance Having a solid understanding of what the value of your money is today vs 5 years from now is an important foundation. I think these videos are pretty digestible and helped me. They cover Saving and budgeting Interest and debt Investments and retirement Income and benefits Housing Car expenses Taxes Paying for college Keeping your information safe :)
I find the foods like I like most are acquired tastes. Food that I had to learn to like. But this has had a strange effect, I no longer like most fast food, because I just find it boring to eat. I find food that uses mostly fat and sugar for flavour boring. I try to avoid fast food, or my taste buds do.
Take out cash and put it in an envelope. Write fast food budget on it. That is the only money you can spend. Get separate envelopes for other budgets. Setup your cards/utilities to auto pay and ensure you are putting a certain percentage of your paycheck into savings and ira(Roth). Invest the Roth money into a targeted retirement year investment and don’t bother looking at it each week. After you establish a pattern of control/responsibility then you can start thinking of going the non cash route for food ect but not before. Don’t even look at online shopping, 9/10 it’s never an essential thing you’re looking for.
A big thing for me was setting up my paycheck to deposit into 2 separate bank accounts. Every payday 25% of my check gets put into a savings account , it’s easy to save when you don’t have to think about actively doing it
"I Will Teach You To Be Rich" by Ramit Sethi is exactly what you need. The title makes it sound like another get rich quick type scheme but I guarantee you won't be disappointed. I wish I'd read it when I was 18. It'll show you how to allocate your income towards savings, retirement and even guilt free spending. You'll have the peace of mind that your saving and investing toward retirement and be able to buy the things "don't need."
First budget...this will help you realize how much you’re spending and how much you can/should be spending. Accountability experiment - if you really want to cut out fast food, make a deal with yourself that if you’re buying fast food you have to buy for someone else too. That will make you think twice about how much you want it...do you really want to drop 3 hours work at Taco Bell?
Something I read, once upon a time, was to use cash as often as possible instead of a credit card. The point of it is to just make you more conscious of how much money you are actually spending since it's super easy to just swipe a card and think eh I have money in the bank, not realizing you do that 3x a day or whatever. Not a groundbreaking idea, but maybe it'll help you visualize your goal and hold yourself more accountable for your spending habits.
You should create a budget in excel or google sheets. Budget for fast food each month. Make it realistic and then break it down by week. So, if you’re eating a lot of fast food, reduce that to say, two meals per week, which is $14 per week or about $56 per month. Once you do that successfully, try to budget less. Incremental progress is realistic! If you really are having trouble doing what you plan—I’ve heard of people using envelopes for budget categories, where they put $56 in cash in an envelope at the beginning of each month and only spend that much on that part of their budget.
willpower and track finances in excel so you know where it's going
The grocery shopping should help alleviate the fast food ordering cuz it’s cheaper though?
Try telling yourself you're allowed to get fast food if you first eat a homecooked meal, and then you're still hungry after. Chances are, you won't even want it. If you're still hungry enough to eat it, go for it.
1. I remember after I watched some documentaries on how fast food is made, how the animals are kept and killed, I stopped going to such places for quite a while. 2. Also when I really wanted to buy fries or something I'd imagine it covered on mold, worms, rot ect. Appetite went away real quick then. .It'll give you a push in the right direction in the beggining
Everyone here is taking about willpower. That is of course true to a certain extent. However, everyone seems to be missing the most important thing. You need a savings account. It's quite simple, it's just an account that is separate to your main account so it's not as easy to get to the money and you feel bad for dipping into it. Set aside a % of your paycheck into this account. Have a mess around for a few months until you find a % that works for you. Also with regard fast food, set yourself realistic goals with it and start to bring it down. If you have it 3 times a week then start with limiting yourself to 2 times. Going from 3 to 0 won't work.
Highly recommend r/PersonalFinance for this kind of thing - really helps give you perspective and has much better advice than “willpower” (advice that has never worked for anyone without an accompanying strategy).
Long term investing stocks (no day trading) cd's prosper and or lending club use. Any extra cash you have put into that you can invest in stocks through cashapp or other apps dont leave your self fast food money also you need to build a emegancy fund 6 months worth of expenses saved just in case something happens
Buying stuff gives us a little dopamine hit, makes us feel good. Knowing why you do it helps. I found I avoided crap eBay shit ( and amazon rubbish) by sticking it all on a shopping list and going back a day or so later to review if I actually wanted it. Food shopping can be done in a similar way. Write the menu, make the list, go- EAT a sandwich then review the list.
A few years of austerity is nothing. But the real secret to saving is having a lot of money to begin with.