For longer than I’m comfortable admitting, I’ve been pretty avoidant with my money. I have made sure to pay the major bills in my life, however I have been WAY WAY WAY to quick to make impulsive purchases (coffee, door dash, an amazon buy) which have been adding up fast.
Over the past few months I’ve been tracking every dollar I’ve been spending use a google sheet. I have divided the sheet up into the categories I spend in; bills, food, pets, spending, etc. Actually seeing these numbers has been humbling.
I’m tired of feeling like my money controls me. I control my money. And here is how I’m doing it. If you’re looking for a post with fancy ideas and tables/charts this won’t be the one. I’m keeping this as basic as I possibility can. Here are the steps I’m taking to take control of my money.
Step 1: Shifting my emotions about money
Like pretty much everyone, I have carried specific beliefs about money and how I interact with it. I’ve always believed that I’m bad with money, that people who have money are “snobby”, and that money is the root of all evil. I know I hold more subconscious beliefs about money but these are the ones that drive my behavior the most. All of these believes certainly drive spending habit. If I don’t believe I can handle my money of course I’m going to feel justified spending it. If I believe people who have money are snobby, of course I’m going to want to get rid of money as fast as I get it. And if I believe that money is evil, I’m of course not going to want it around me.
The honest truth about money is this. Money is simply an energy exchange. I’m exchanging my money to someone who’s got a product or service I may not know how to or want to create, so I’m exchanging money for it. An example. I could defiantly get my own chickens and all of the supplies to have my own fresh eggs. I could do that. However I don’t really want to do this, so I’m willing to exchange my energy elsewhere (maybe I’m teaching the farmers child) to exchange to buy their eggs. It’s really just all a cycle.
Money is not evil. Not everyone that has money is snobby.
Step 2: Tracking
I’m tracking every single dollar I spend using a google sheet. I am going to start being more intentional with this part by taking 10 minutes at the end of the day to log all spending. Lately I have been doing it all at the end of the month which isn’t as accurate and tends to feel overwhelming.
Step 3: Cash Budget
Cash budgeting. I am going to be using cash for the following purchases; food, home, pets, gifts, spending, and there’s another category I can’t think of right now. On the day of each pay I’m going to be going to the bank and taking out the money to pay each category. I’ve only been doing this for the last 6 days and I have to be honest I feel the difference. I wanted to buy something off Amazon the other day but actually stopped and thought, “I only have XYZ amount of my spending money left, is this item really worth it?” After having this thought I decided to leave the item in the cart and wait. With money being a physical thing for me to have to handle it makes money feel more real to me.
Step 4: Automating Bills
For me the only way I can successfully do step 3 is to make sure I have steps 1 and 2 running smoothly. For a long time I was really nervous about making my bills automated because I thought, “what if there isn’t any money in there when they go to pull for that bill?” But actually having some what of a handle of where my money is going has helped me feel more okay with automatic deductions.
Moving forward
I am really invested in doing this because I’m sick of being part of the system. The system that is designed to keep us all in debt. I don’t want to play anymore.
I plan on write posts here and there regarding my progress, so stay turned.