Sep 16, 2022 / Money Tips

7 Ways to Overcome Overspending

As inflation and interest rates rise and the market continues to show signs of slowing down, saving money has been on nearly everyone’s mind. If you’ve gotten into some suboptimal savings and spending habits over the past few years, you’re not alone. You’re also wise to recognize overspending when you see it. Try these strategies to curtail your consumerism, save more of what you make, and overcome overspending.

1. Reduce, Reheat, and Eat

Most families spend nearly $1,000 on groceries every month. That’s in addition to all the money spent eating out for lunches and dinners when convenience overcomes cost savings (it happens to everyone). To overcome overspending on food, try to limit your trips to the grocery store and challenge yourself to eat out only on the weekends. Leftovers and homemade meals are an easy way for anyone to overcome overspending.

2. Cut Sneaky Subscription Costs

With so much of your life online, it’s easy to lose track of all your subscriptions. You’ve got your video streaming services, your cable bills, your smartphone subscriptions, your online shopping services—the list goes on and on. Take a quick inventory of your subscriptions services by reviewing your smartphone, and your credit card and bank statements. Make sure you’re not paying for subscriptions you no longer use and see how many subscriptions you can afford to live without.

3. Decrease Debt Costs

Still paying for decisions to spend money, months or even years later? Debt payments account for big part of every monthly budget. They’re one of the most common reasons people fail to save money. Consider a less costly way to pay off high interest debt, such as a balance transfer to a lower interest rate credit card or by consolidating debt with a home equity line of credit.

4. Stop Shop and Troll

Love shopping? Love trolling for good deals? Here’s the solution: stop. Easier said than done, right? Still, the logic is sound: if you don’t shop, you don’t spend. Limit your trips to places you know you’ll spend money. While you’re at it, reduce the time you spend shopping online. Challenge yourself to unsubscribe from retail marketing emails and remove shopping apps from your phone. The less time you spend at these stores, online or in person, the less temptation you’ll have to spend.

5. Find a Community to Overcome Overspending

Overspending can be a real addiction. There’s no denying the dopamine rush that you get from buying something new. It’s not always easy to break the cycle of shop, spend, repeat. There are, however, helpful resources to overcome overspending, including online articles, videos, and books from recovering shopaholics of every type.

6. Save Money Automatically

Open a separate savings or money market account, where you can earn interest and avoid the temptation to spend. Ask your employer to help you set up automatic deposits from every paycheck to these accounts. When the decision to save instead of spend is already made for you, overcoming overspending becomes easy.

7. Send Your Savings Away for a While

It’s easy to spend money when it’s just hanging around your checking account. Instead, send your money away for a while in a term deposit account, where it will work for you to earn even more money. It’s a great way to simultaneously overcome the urge to overspend and earn some extra savings in the process.