If only we could live through life without spending daily, that would have been a beautiful thing to behold but how does one live through life without spending. Spending and daily most times have come to be a necessity in our day to day life.
We have to eat good food, we have to wear clothes, we have to transport ourselves from one point of the city to the other. We have to pay bills here and there. Send money to loved ones and buy good clothes to wear and the list goes on and on.
Having to take care of ourselves on a daily basis requires a lot and hence the need to mange our spending habits. If we do not manage our spending habits, bankruptcy is definitely inevitable.
There are a couple of things I do to manage my daily spending. The first is that I spend on budget. Before I do any major spending such as restocking my food stuffs or cooking, I draft out a list of the things I need and plan my budget accordingly to that list.
Over time I’ve found out that if I go to the market without a list and a budget, I end up having a lot of things catch my attention and calling me to buy them and I end up spending what I didn’t budget to spend. So with my list in hand and under strict budget, I’ve seen myself overcome the temptation of buying things on impulse.
Impulse buying is one of the ways to in-cure unnecessary expenses, so I try as much as possible to avoid buying on impulse hence I plan my buying. Another thing I do is to buy according to what I can afford.
Different products have different quality and prices. I decide to go for what’s affordable and still presentable as against buying designers and very expensive products. It’s like cutting my coat according to my material.
Another thing I do is to apportion my finances. There’s a part of my money that I remove for tithe. I remove a part for savings and then some for expenditure. That helps me to cultivate a habit of saving for rainy days. I’ve come to learn that man’s needs are insatiable and we may never come to that point where we have everything we need.
At one point or the other, we are desiring new things and the loop continues, so I discipline myself to save no matter how little. I don’t not remember any point where I’ve been reckless with my spending but I know that I plan to take myself out and buys things for myself. Sometimes I over indulge and buy one or two extras but they’ve never been detrimental to my finances. I always have a backup plan to cover up for the extras.
Financial intelligence is very important and something we must seek to have if we must do well in our finances.