Wouldn’t you love to be able to purchase all the things you need, want, and desire without having to worry about how you were going to pay for it? I know I do and I’ve been implementing a few things that has helped me to live within my means while allowing me to purchase the things I need, want and desire. Now I’m not living like the Jones’, trust me however I am learning to live within my means! And it’s proven to be paying off BIG time!!!
To live within your means is simply buying things that you can afford and that it doesn’t require you to take out a loan. You don’t want to rob Peter to pay Paul for anything. There are many things that we tend to buy on credit knowing good and well we don’t have the funds for it. When I received my first credit card, I was excited. I would use it for food, gas and entertainment. Now check this out, I didn’t have a job so how was I going to pay it back. Well for me, I knew that I would get an overage check back from my university and I used that to pay off the entire card. I did this every school semester, this is how I got by in college. Now there are some of us who won’t do this. We will purchase items on credit and are okay with paying the bare minimum each month or not at all. What you don’t realize is that you end up paying more in the long run because of the interest that’s added on each month. The best way to use credit wisely is to pay the balance in full each month or CASH FLOW everything.
Here are 3 tips to help you live within your means.
1. Create a list of all your expenses and income. This gives you a visual of all your expenses and streams of income.
2. Track your spending for 30 days so you can see how much you’re spending on certain items. You must know how much is coming in and going out of your accounts. This helps see what you are spending your money on.
3. Create a monthly budget and stick to it. Be sure to allocate funds for everything to include all of your expenses in addition to getting your hair, toes and nails done. If you have more going out than you have coming in, then you need to make some adjustments to your monthly budget.
There is no time like the present to start living within your means so that you can decrease your worrying and live an #abundant life!
