When someone goes on a diet, they stick to the plan and lose some weight. They come off the diet, go back to old habits and gain the weight back.  This is a familiar story for many people and the same can be said about managing money. People get into debt, develop a plan to get out, using budgets and professional help. The debt gets paid down, the budget gets forgotten and before you know it, your credit card is back at it’s limit.

Falling back into old habits is common, as they are imprinted in our minds. Unless we change our mindset, we can find ourself in this vicious cycle, whether it’s with food or money.

But how can we start to think differently about how we spend our money, to stop us falling back into our old habits?

Here are 5 things you should start to do right now, that will help change your mindset and form better spending habits.

Needs versus Wants:

When you are about to spend money take a moment to consider whether the purchase is a need or a want. We need food to eat, but eating at a fancy restaurant is not necessarily the way to fulfill that need. When we see that fabulous pair of shoes, we don’t need them, we want them. Be honest with yourself and challenge the purchase. At the very least this is going to show you how much of your money is being spent on wants. I’m not saying we should only ever spend money on our needs, we of course want to be able spend money on things we want, but if you are trying to get out of debt and stay that way, you need to recognize just how many wants you can really afford and stick to it.

If you don’t absolutely love it, don’t buy it:

We work hard to earn our money, so why spend it on something that is just “ok” or “will do”.  Whether it’s a new dress, a new sofa, or a new house. If it isn’t exactly what you want, if you don’t feel like it’s the perfect fit, if you do not absolutely love it, don’t settle, don’t buy it. The chances are you will regret it. Our money deserves to be spent only on things that truly make us happy. Why throw it away on anything else?

Wait 24 hours before making purchases:

When we are at home, bored, flicking through channels or especially during this Pandemic Lockdown, we tend to hit that add to cart button all to easily. But regardless whether it’s online or in a store, when you are looking to buy things that are not immediate needs, especially if it’s a large ticket item, wait 24 hours. When we wait we give ourself time to re-evaluate, make sure it’s right, make sure we love it. If in 24 hours, we really still want to make the purchase, then we can go ahead.  You will be surprised by how many times you decide not to!

Don’t be sucked into special offers.

When we see 50% off, buy one get one free, it’s like a switch is flipped in our minds and we must buy because it’s a great deal!  Just because something has an offer on it, it does not mean you have to buy it now. I found this worked for me the most when grocery shopping. I would see “Buy 2 for $5” and I would immediately buy 2. But when I changed my mindset, I reconsidered. How much money was I actually saving, usually it was less than $1. Do I really need 2? Will I use 2? Or will one go out of date, or spoil before I even use it? Do I really want to spend the extra money now, or just get the one and not worry about the $1 saving? When you allow more thought, you will decide if it really is the deal for you right now. These offers can be very distracting when walking around the grocery store and can cause us to buy many items that were not even on our list, just because there was a deal. A great way to stick to a list and not get sucked into  the deals is to shop online. Since I switched to doing it this way, my grocery bill reduced by 25%. I had a list, I stuck to it and never bought anything I didn’t need. I not only saved money but my time too.

Get excited about not spending – rather than spending!

It sounds boring, I know. But hang in there. When you start to see money accumulating in your bank account, your debt reducing, it will feel good. Knowing we have enough in our bank account in case of an emergency, to pay for our kid’s education, to pay for a vacation, without having to borrow should be something we get excited about. Find things to do that will replace the non-essential spending that you do. Instead of spending our Saturdays at the mall, or eating out 3-4 times a week, switch it up. A picnic, using food from home, still gets us out, but at a much lower cost.  Discover a new past-time, reading, yoga, walking in nature. Meet friends at a coffee shop rather than the mall. The big game? Host at home with a pot-luck rather than at the bar. We need to dis-associate fun with spending money. There is plenty of fun to be had without spending anything!

If you can start to implement even a couple of these suggestions, you will start to change how you think about money. Money should not control your life or define who you are. The human race was in existence long before money was. We need much less than we think to live a happy and fullfilled life.