The Budget Mom

Real Women. Real Life. Real Finance

A life you love on a budget you can afford.

Here on TBM®, I provide you with simple, easy-to-follow solutions to help you budget your money, pay off debt, save more, and crush your financial goals. But more than that, I give you the tools to start doing the things that matter most to you, on a budget that actually works!

START SAVING Challenge Day #4: Be A Smart Spender


Start Saving Challenge

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Are you new to the START SAVING Challenge? Learn about it HERE & sign-up.

This post is part of the START SAVING Challenge. Make sure to read previous posts.
Day#3: Open A Savings Account

START SAVING Challenge: Day #4

Today's easy saving task:

  • Determine what you want VS what you love.

Congratulations! You have made it to Day #4 of the START SAVING Challenge! If you really want to be successful you have to change the way you think about spending money. When I started to learn about saving my money, this was by far the hardest challenge for me. Back then my spending mindset was – “I want everything!” I would want a new pair of shoes and tell myself “I need them for work.” I ended up making excuses why I NEEDED something, rather than just admitting I WANTED them.

There are always 3 questions you should ask yourself before you make a purchase:

  1. Do I WANT it?
  2. DO I NEED it?
  3. DO I LOVE it?

These are all 3 very different things. Your NEEDS are things that are essential to your survival: shelter, food, & clothing. Your LOVES are things that you are truly passionate about. These are usually purchases that you don't mind paying a little more for and tend to be higher in price. You are much more willing to give up something else for your LOVE purchases. For example: I really LOVE blogging and have a true passion for it. I am willing to spend more on software for my blog and give up my coffee budget to get it. My coffee budget is something I WANT, but I am willing to give it up so I can purchase something I LOVE. For me, this adds so much more value to my life than a morning cup of coffee.

The purpose of this task is to establish your LOVES from your WANTS. You want to have a life filled with joy and purpose, and in order to do that let's focus more on what you LOVE rather than all of your wants. It's totally fine if you still spend money on your occasional WANTS (I still get a coffee in the morning every now and then), but you want to make sure you spend smarter and have clear priorities. By spending less on your wants you will have more money to spend on the things you truly LOVE that bring measurable value to your life (we will talk about this more later in the challenge).

Here are some questions or things I want you to do starting today before you make a purchase:

  • Wait 3 days. I am a huge fan of the 3 day rule. This rule completely changed my spending so I wanted to share it with you. The next time you are about to make a bigger purchase I want you to wait 3 days before buying it. What I have found is that if I waited 3 days to make a purchase, on the third day the desire to “have it” wasn't as strong and it was easier for me to say “No, I really don't NEED that.”
  • Watch for impulse buys. So many of my purchases before I started saving money were purchased because I was bored or just wanted to have fun. It's easy to be fooled by temptation and it's so easy to purchase things without considering the consequences of the buy.

DAY #3 RECAP

  1. Once you think about what you really LOVE vs what you WANT, write them down and share them with me in the comments below & with your accountability tribe.
  2. Make sure to ask your partner about what their LOVES are & why.
  3. Try to limit your LOVE items to 3 things or less.

Determining what you LOVE paired with the new things you are going to start doing before you make purchase will really help you when you decide to spend.

NEXT STEPS:

  • If you are having a hard time determining what your LOVES are, think about it like this. If I handed you 1 million dollars today, what are the first 3 things you would imagine yourself doing or buying. These are your financial LOVES.

Make sure to share your new knowledge with your friends. Use the sharing buttons to spread the wealth.

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@thebudgetmom”]Today I am figuring out what my true financial LOVES are. #StartSavingChallenge[/tweetthis]

You totally got this! Think about what you really love VS what you want, write down a max of 3 things you love, and share your progress with your accountability tribe. Make sure to share your progress in the private TBM Family group and with me in the comments below! Ask your accountability tribe what their loves are and why? My financial loves are retirement, my blog, and a beautiful home. I want to make sure I can have a life I truly enjoy when I retire, I really want to establish my blog so maybe one day me or my husband can stay home with my 4 year-old son, and I want a beautiful home to share awesome memories with my family. Now your turn!

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FIND ME HERE:

FACEBOOK: @thebudgetmom
TWITTER: @the_budget_mom
INSTAGRAM: @thebudgetmom
FORUM: TBM Family

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NEW COURSE!

If you have been part of my previous Savings Challenges, we shook things up for 2020. Let’s resolve to have 2020 vision when it comes to seeing how we can become better savers. This year we have 24 savings challenges, two each month. These are designed to be fun. Saving should be fun because you make things easier for yourself. My course will guide you on a year of savings so you will be better off when 2020 comes to a close. Sign up for the Savings Challenge course to kickstart your savings.

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