When I say that we've tried to work his plan to "financial freedom." Mostly we have tried to adapt it to our lifestyle and haven't necessarily made a lot of sacrifices. As I listen to him, he just lays it on the line, children act on their desires, ie spend until their money is gone. Adults make a plan and stick to it, ie make a budget, and budget every penny you plan to spend, and don't over spend. Long in short, I want to be an adult.
Why is this so difficult? The though process that I have been trying to talk myself out of recently is that now that I am an adult, I am "entitled" to have nice things, and I have worked hard to have them. But what Dave points out, and what I am seeing in my spending trends is that cycle will never bring you peace, just continual debt to someone else.
We have been working on our debt snowball for just over two years, and have paid off a significant portion of our debt. With each step, it feels so good to not have that payment looming over us each month, we are within about a year to year and a half of being debt free excluding our house. What just completely baffles my mind however is how you can feel so good, and know how good it feels to be one step closer to freedom one month as you pay a debt off, and then 1-2 months later feel hopeless again. I see the light at the end of the tunnel I really do, but like a I said it has been difficult for me to get a handle on my spending. Last month Garry & I decided to give us both a cash allotment for the month, and I can't even say the number because I am embarassed at how much I had been spending each month before. Now, we were still out of money at the end of the month, but we didn't have to dip into our savings, we made it to the end of the month in our plan, and I put a little extra toward our snowball.
I did discover though how much easier it is to stick to my allotment of money if I just don't go to the store, do you ever go in there and just find things you CAN'T live without, even though you didn't even know they existed before you entered the store............I have that issue!
So what are your money saving tips, any ways that you trick yourself into thinking you're not going without?
3 comments:
We, too, have been using the old DAVE method. He's great.
I'm with you...I just simply don't go to the store. Then I don't feel the "need" for anything. It's awesome!
I always tell myself, I didn't have much as a kid and I turned out "just fine." (ha ha ha...you could say that, right?)
I LOVE dave!!! He is awesome and makes so much sense!
About 7 years ago, money way so tight for us, we decided to keep track of where all our money was going. Here were our rules:
After paying tithing and bills, any extra got alloted to envelopes. I had grocery money, gas money, dining and entertainment money well you get the idea. I would then leave my check card, and check book at home and when going to the stores, use only the cash in the envelope. Costco was cash only(not checks) for a long time...I get into trouble in costco! I was surpised how much I underspent, on everything. I didn't want to be embarressed when I went to pay if I didn't have enough money, so I always underspent. It worked! I also found my self staying home more and baking/cooking more as well. Good luck, Andrea, you can do it. Dave always says, you have to live like noone else today, so you can live like no one else later! I love that quote!
I want to be an adult too! I swear every time I go into Target I have to tell myself "GET ONLY WHAT YOU NEED" because I can drop $50 in a heartbeat on really random things. I am in charge of the bills in our house and I always find myself SHOCKED at how much stupid spending we do. I wish we could be more disciplined and never go out to eat...cause then we'd have loads of money ( : I wish I had a really great tip to share....but my only secret is to try not to go to the store at all unless I really need something.
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