You CANNOT do this…
I was listening to an audiobook on my way to pick up my son. The author said that his personal trainer tells him, “You cannot out exercise a bad diet.” And I had an epiphany. “You cannot outwork bad spending habits.” And my mind took hold of this thought…
You CANNOT outwork bad spending habits…
I want to talk directly to you about this genius quote I created. I want you to be able to understand why I say this.
If you have bad spending habits with a smaller amount of money, they will continue with a larger amount. You cannot add more work or create more money to stop impulsive spending. More money may prevent you from adding debt, but eventually, you will get tired and need rest. When that rest hits, the extra funds do, too, and sadly, the bad habits will not have been changed. You cannot outwork bad spending habits.
How do I know this? My husband and I tried to outwork our bad spending habits. It just led to debt when the additional income had stopped. So, what changes your spending habits? Being intentional with your money.
How do we become intentional? We ask the right questions. For example, why am I spending money? How do I feel when I spend the money? The answers to those two simple questions give us insight into why we are spending the funds that we are. You could take it a step further and record who is with you. (I know if my husband grocery shops with me, a pack of cookies goes in the cart.)
These insights can lead to valuable information. Are we spending money to fill a void? Because we didn’t plan effectively. Because we haven’t practiced self-control. Because we think we work hard and deserve it. Knowing these things makes it easier to change the bad habits. I wish it were something I had done when I was on a mission to stop overspending.
I ask my clients to keep a spending journal if they struggle with impulse shopping and overspending in general. We review this information together. We look for crucial triggers that lead to spending. We talk about other ways to handle those triggers to stop the spending.
Dave Ramsey says financial management is 20% knowledge and 80% behavioral. I tend to agree. If we can find the reasons why we are spending and find ways to handle those whys better, we can change our behavior. Or we can keep spending and hustling and never change.
But no matter what you do, you cannot outwork your bad spending habits.
Download the complete Spending Journal instructions here.
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