How to spend money in a discplined way?

Question

Can some one list the steps everyone to take as a precaution against lavish spending and getting into debts...

Answer 1

More important, you need to SAVE money in a disciplined way.  Direct deposit, right out of your paychecks or automatic investment from your achecking account.

Answer 2

Personally, I do not believe in budgeting. Budgeting, in my opinion, is more of a restraint and in many cases doesn't work. What will happen if you break the budget set? Nothing, unless of course you can find someone to help you enforce the rules. What does work is thinking before buying. Never buy anything based on emotion. When purchasing major things such as a house, car etc, think to yourself, "Will this product earn me money in the long-term?". If the answer is No, your better off going without it. The way of spending money in a disciplined manner is to buy more assets than liabilities. An asset is something which earns money for you. A liability is something which takes money from you. However, don't take this too literally. Necessities such as clothing, food etc need to be bought. You can however reduce the amount spent on these Needs by not buying designer clothing, eating luxurious brands etc.

Answer 3

Budgeting your money is a discipline.  Set aside funds for housing, utilities and scheduled payments such as car and insurance.  Pay yourself an allowance and save an amount every payday.   (You can't save if you're not working).  In about a month, you'll start seeing ways to spend your money more wisely.  Just keep at it!  Then you'll feel empowered by your ability to handle your money.  Have a plan and work the plan faithfully

Answer 4

Ask yourself before you purchase anything - DO I NEED THIS? If you strongly feel you have to have it - wait a month and see if you still want it as badly.

Answer 5

This might sound overly simple but I have found it helped me a lot in the past.

I stopped carrying my credit and bank cards to the store with me.  If I was going to buy something specific or say rocery shopping I would bring my debit card obviously, but if there was a chance I'd be window shopping say at the mall, I'd leave them home or if it's not planned then I'd even try and hide them in the car.

This way, if I decided I really needed and wanted to buy something then the time it would take to go to the car or even back home to get the cards or money, this time would be a huge help in deciding if I really needed it.

It sounds simple but IMO impulse buying is a huge deficit on a yearly budget.  I hope this was of some help.

Answer 6

Financial Goal

The biggest advice I can give you is that you MUST PAY YOURSELF FIRST. YOU MUST SAVE. Saving is key, the earlier you start to save the more money you are going to have for retirement. Every paycheck you get, save about 8-10% of it. You should also create a budget in which you will organize your fixed expenses and your variable expenses. Fixed expenses are those expenses that you are obligated to pay. For example, your car payment, rent, ect. Variable expenses are those expenses that may vary every month. For example, your grocery bill, gasoline bill, ect.

A Sample Budget

Savings 7%

Housing-mortgage/rent 27%

Utilities 6%

Food 21%

Transportation 8%

Insurance 6%

Personal Debt 14%

Health 3%

Clothing 4%

Personal Care 3%

Miscellaneous 1%



You should also try to keep up with inflation. Inflation in general is a rise in prices of goods. The higher the inflation the more money everything will cost. This is a variable that would affect your budget on a monthly basis.