Tips like these helped us pay off $127K in debt. You can read our story in Slaying the Debt Dragon: How One Family Conquered Their Money Monster and Found an Inspired Happily Ever After.
Here’s my little Happy New Year gift to you. Each day in January, I’ll bring you a simple, concrete and easy to put in place tip to fuel your efforts to Save Money, Pay Off Debt, and Be Awesome this year. Looking for a quick plan? Well this might not to be the right place for you. Most things down well take time. But that doesn’t mean you can’t begin to implement systems in your life that will help you achieve your goals. I’ve said it many, many times before. Paying off debt isn’t complex. It’s just not easy. You have to punch the clock daily and do the hard work. Here’s another way to make that happen.
Day 10: Set Limits
Much of personal finance has so very little to do with actual finance and so much to do with personal behavior. I can’t tell you the number of times that Money Saving Lords and Ladies have said to me, “But I’m just not that good with money.” It might be better said, “I’m not so good with setting limits.”
When you really drill it down, budgeting and handling money in your home is very simple equation. Money coming in – money going out = zero or a positive number. In order to balance this equation or to have the right side more greater than the left side, you must set spending limits in your life.
Of course, you’ll need to know how much you are bringing home as well as how much you are spending to begin the process. But you’ll also need to begin setting limits in your mind, based on what you make on how much you can afford to spend on categories or items. For me, this means that I rarely if ever pay more than $15 for a pair of pants and rarely more than $10 for a top. No matter how adorable, if I can’t pull off the outfit for less than those numbers, I’m not going to purchase it (the King of Free spends even less).
We also have limits set in our marriage for how much we spend, beyond a budgeted regular expense. Realize that we are amped up on saving money and making the most of every dime, but we don’t spend more than $10 without talking to each other first. This simple limit helps both of us pause before we make a purchase we might regret or not need. Sidebar: it is very rare that one of us actually shuts down a transaction. It’s not about exercising control over one another, it’s about clearly communicating about what is being spent.
Whether it’s an amount for groceries or shoes or even a car, you need to know how much you can spend before you begin to spend. Having a firm number in your head will keep you from overspending and help you #KickDebtIntheTeeth in 2014.
Miss the first six days of Kicking Debt in the teeth? Have no fear! Read:
- 31 Ways to Kick Debt in The Teeth: Believe
- 31 Ways to Kick Debt in The Teeth: Stop It
- 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Sell, Baby, Sell
- 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Use Cash
- 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Plan Meals
- 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Mind Over Budget
- 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Read a Book
- 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Quit Eating at Restaurants
- 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: Dream On
Want to be sure you don’t miss a single one of the 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth? Be sure to subscribe to my daily newsletter! Look for the bar that looks like this in the upper righthand corner.
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I’m so looking forward to sharing this month of challenge and inspiration with you. Together, we can show debt who’s boss and give it a swift kick in the teeth this January and throughout the year in 2014. Away we go!
My book is now available: Slaying the Debt Dragon: How One Family Conquered Their Money Monster and Found an Inspired Happily Ever After. You can also check out Inspiration to Pay Off Debt: 30 Days of Encouragement from the Queen of Free
This post contains an affiliate link. That means when you get a great deal or maybe even something for free, you also help our family pay off our mortgage early. And for that, we royally thank you!
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