How to quit spending more money than you make

So, you spend more than you make – you are not alone

This is a tough one. Spending more money than you earn is common practice in the U.S., and increasingly in other countries around the world. Credit card companies have simplified the process so much that it requires quite a bit of discipline to live only on the money you make. This is a difficult task, but it is the first step (and most crucial) for most people to financial freedom. Just like there are more than one way to “skin a cat” or to quit smoking, there are multiple ways to spend what (or less than) you earn. Listed below are the steps that I took to make it happen for me.

1. Believe that you can. This is so important, because it is this belief that is going to carry you when you feel like quitting. Find people who have gone from overspending to living within their means and get encouraged by their stories. I am not sure what made me decide that I needed to change, but I had read enough stories of people changing their financial picture that I truly believed that I COULD DO IT. If you do not yet believe that it is possible, keep reading and listening to success stories until you believe that you can do it. When you get discouraged and feel like quitting, go over the stories again and encourage yourself. The motivation gained from other people’s successes are going to be one of your main keys to succeeding, because if you do not BELIEVE that you can do it, you are NOT going to make it.
2. Eliminate the temptation to spend. I don’t really have an opinion about cutting up credit cards, because to me it is kind of like throwing away a smoker’s pack of cigarettes. It is pretty easy to go buy another pack of cigarettes and it is almost just as easy to get another credit card. Obviously, the key here is to have a burning desire to want to curb your spending. It is not a bad idea at all to cut up the credit cards. I think I did cut up my credit card (luckily, I was too foolish to know that you could have more than one credit card at a time). Romans 13:14 says to,”make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” I did this by not going to the mall and not going out to eat. These were my two big areas where I spent/wasted the most money. Especially with the case of the mall, I could eliminate most of my temptation just by not being there.
3. Find other areas to minimize expenses. If you haven’t realized it yet, you will eventually realize that expenses rise to meet income. I started looking for other areas in my life that I could cut back on and really found quite a few:

• I shopped around for car insurance, if you have never shopped around for it, you will likely be able to save quite a bit.
• I stopped wasting money on groceries. Basically, I thought about my purchases more and made sure that I ate what I bought, rather than buying too much and having to throw away the spoiled food.
• I examined my phone bill and discovered that a cheaper plan would work just as well for me.
• I started monitoring my electricity usage. Turning off lights when I left a room, not leaving the TV on all day, etc. I never got a dollar figure on this one, but I am sure it helped.
• I started asking myself every time I wanted to purchase something, “do I really need that?”

By following these simple, yet difficult steps I went from spending about 125% of what I made to 85%. If you are over 100%, make that your first goal: not getting into anymore debt, then your next goal should be to eliminate your debt and move to well below 100%.