I'm sure this happens to people a lot better than myself. You're doing well, putting away a lot of money, making your lunch, keeping the air conditioner temperature a little higher, rolling down the window on your commute, resisting highly-packaged foods.
Recently I've been a little bad with regard to my spending. I've been eating out a lot more than usual. Probably 6-8 meals per week for the past couple of weeks. The spending is nothing to worry about yet, but it's unusual for me. More like letting your guard down instead of going to the dark side. It's probably a combination of busyness and wilting in the summer temperatures, but it's good to kill the monsters when they're small, because once they're bigger they'll stay longer.
Getting back on track with wise spending habits is no different than anything else that requires discipline — weight loss, investment, Bible study, whatever:
- Catching yourself in the bad habit
- Not carrying out the bad habit
- Replacing the action with a good habit
- Setting yourself up to avoid the bad habit
The last point can be a big help. If I have healthy foods around it makes it easier to put together my lunch so that I'm not eating out. I'm not rushing out the door without your lunch. Better yet, I can make it the night before so that it's ready in the morning even if I'm in a hurry.
That, or I can allow myself a certain amount of money per week for eating out. The way I'd do this is to pay cash for those meals out. I use a credit card for just about everything I can (and pay the bill in full each month) but even if I'm not ordering a lot of extras, it's still an extra step to go back to figure out what I spent on eating out in a week. If I use cash, it's easy — when the money's gone, I'm done!
Do you have any spending habits that have crept back in? How would you fix them?
I also have a problem with eating out. A crockpot helps me, when I remember to use it. I make the meal in the morning, ignore it all day, and it's ready to be served later, when I am getting seriously starving.
I love eating out as well.
But my real weakness is lipstick. I love MAC lipsticks. Very bad habit.
If you're using a credit card for daily purchases and paying the bill in full each month, make sure you're taking advantage of some type of credit card reward program! Since you won't incur any interest if your bill is paid in full, you should be taking advantage of rewards like cash back, free travel, gift cards and more.
I used to work away a lot and eating out was part of the job as you were staying in B&B's and Hotels each night. Since finishing this job I find it really difficult to break the habit until someone suggested to me to take food to work with you and leave your wallet in the house. Have been doing it for 3 months now and have to say I am saving a lot of money and feeling healthier for it.