Establishing Healthy Spending Habits
The following tips will help you to cultivate good spending habits:
- Create a budget and stick to it.
- Think about purchases before you buy (even small purchases like a daily coffee drink add up).
- Be a smart shopper… look for sales, discounts and coupons, but remember purchasing something you don't need just because it's on sale doesn't save money. It actually costs you money.
- Do not subscribe to receive notifications of flash sales for retail. It's hard to resist these enticing offers.
Developing and maintaining healthy spending habits can greatly impact your financial future. Overspending can lead to a lack of available funds when the unexpected occurs. Developing a spending plan helps you to understand what monetary resources are available to you as well as your expected expenses. When developing a spending plan, it is important to understand your needs versus your wants. Needs are the things necessary for your survival such as: rent or mortgage; utilities; food; transportation to and from school and/or work. Wants are those things that make you more comfortable such as cable television, new clothing, or entertaining yourself. When creating a spending plan, your needs should be your priority. Once you have covered all of the necessities, you may be able to include a few of your wants in your spending plan.