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How To Not Spend Money

Is that money burning a hole in your wallet? Spend every dollar you make? Always broke? Can’t seem to save up for anything? Or maybe you find yourself earning thousands more than you did before, but there is not a dime more in your savings account. Then it’s time to plug up that leak in your wallet with our 9 water-tight tips on how to not spend money.

  1. Auto save. This is a super simple and extremely effective method of saving money by not having the money to spend to begin with. Every month, without fail, money makes its way into an interest bearing or investment account. If your paycheck is direct-deposited into your checking account, many banks allow for a monthly auto transfer of funds from your checking account into a savings or money market account. Don’t touch it, it’s off limits. Or, if you’re willing to tolerate some financial risk, set up an automatic investment plan with a mutual fund. If these options aren’t available, then do this manually, be very religious about this and make it the first check you write each month.
  2. Needs/Wants. Make a conscious decision before every purchase, and be honest with yourself, determine if it is a true need or merely a want. Once you start doing this, you’ll be amazed at how much money you blow on “wants.”
  3. Value. Of those “wants” purchases, try to get as much value out of them. Do you really get a $100 value from an expensive meal? One hundred dollars can buy quite a bit at the grocery store. How about a $2,000 65-inch, 3-D, LED brand name flat screen TV? Wouldn’t a smaller, off-brand, LCD suffice for only $500? I wouldn’t shop off-brand for everything, but with customer reviews on nearly every website, it should be easy to spot troublesome brands.
  4. Hours Worked. Another way to put a “want” into a value perspective is to calculate how many hours of working at your job it would take to “earn” the purchase. For example, say you want to buy a $1500 necklace. If your weekly take-home pay for 40 hours of work is $600, then your take-home hourly rate is $15/hour ($600/40). So this means it would take 100 hours of work to “earn” enough for your necklace.
  5. Say NO. Kids want $20 for a movie or $50 bucks for gas to cruise around town every weekend? Maybe it’s time for them to get the talk, no, not that talk, but the uncomfortable needs versus wants conversation. Tell them Mom and Dad are on a financial diet and they are going to have to stay in this weekend and watch a movie on Netflix.
  6. Stay Home. If your kids are home watching Netflix, they’ll soon be bored, and annoying you since Netflix has crappy movies. You’ll want to call the babysitter so you can go out, but say No to yourself and stay home. Going out, even if you don’t buy anything, still costs money. It burns fuel, causes wear and tear on your car, and once you’re at the store you’ll feel like you have to justify your trip by having to buy something. Resist the temptation and stay home.
  7. High-Rollers. We have a couple of friends that have a lot of money. One inherited their money, the other owns their own business. Every time we go out with them, we know it’s gonna cost us, because they like to go to the posh restaurants, order the fancy drinks and attend the pricey attractions. Even going with the cheapest option at these places is still more expensive than we would normally want to spend. Obey your own commandments on how to not spend money, and say no, stay home, and invite them over for dinner and drinks instead.
  8. No Cash. Carry only a limited amount of cash. I don’t know about you, but for me, it seems like whenever I have a wad of 20’s in my wallet I’m a little more free with the purchases. So with no cash, it’s less likely that you’ll make the smaller impulse purchases.
  9. Cut ‘Em Up. If you have a serious spending problem and still can’t figure out how to not spend money after all these awesome tips, then maybe you need to cut up your credit cards and burn your ATM card. This seems a bit drastic, buy you may need to set up as many obstacles between you and your money as possible and set and keep some tough spending goals. Like don’t buy one more “want” until all the credit cards are completely paid off. After they are paid off, now would be a good time to set up the “auto-save” tip from above.

Our 9 how not to spend money tips will surely fatten your wallet so you don’t fall prey to the: more-you-make-the-more-you-spend, never-have-enough-money trap.

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