Yes you can. Budget that is.

Good morning Dinks.  I know you think you can’t, but yes you can.  I know you’re thinking you live on only what you need, but no you don’t.  You’re probably thinking you couldn’t possibly make more cuts in your daily, weekly and monthly budget, but yes you can.

We’ve all been there.  It’s the part of our day where we regret spending money but convince ourselves that we needed to spend it – the spending was unavoidable.  I have that inner conversation with myself at least twice a day.  No I don’t need to buy a breakfast bagel every morning, but I like to.  After all I have to eat breakfast, right?  No I don’t need to stop and window shop at a shoe store because that just leads to going in and trying on shoes which eventually leads to buying shoes.  But at the end of the day I need to wear shoes everyday and paying half price now is better than paying full price later, right?  You get the point.

I can rationalize any purchase to make myself feel better about spending the money that shouldn’t be spent.  I should just walk directly from home to work in the morning and straight back home at the end of the day, yes that’s what a good personal finance blogger should do.

We all  probably spend money in places we shouldn’t.  Well that can stop today.  From now on every time you want to spend money but know you shouldn’t think of me.   Think of me and all the unnecessary excuses I tell myself.  Then think to yourself how ridiculous those excuses sound, put your wallet back in your pocket and just walk away.  That’s what I’m trying to do.

3 ways I’m trying to live on a budget:

Cut your spending. Yes you can.  I used to be one of those people who would take out $40 at the ATM in the morning and have nothing left by 5 pm.  Then I’d ask myself where did all my money go?  Well that was the old me.  Now I never carry cash and although sometimes it’s inconvenient I can always keep track of my spending via my debit or credit card.  I’m also very lazy so sometimes the effort it takes to use my credit or debit card is just not worth the cost of my items.

Live on less.  Yes you can.  I always said I couldn’t live on less…until I had to make cuts.  After the market crash my income from financial planning also crashed (that’s putting it nicely).  I always told myself that I wasn’t living extravagantly, until I had to look at my expenses in black and white and learn to live on less.  I had less income so it’s only natural that I had to live on less too.  I started spending less on groceries, I cut out all entertainment and I stopped eating out all together – and you know what? I survived.  We can always live on less no matter how little we think we’re living on.

Pay off your debt.  Yes you can.  I know some people think paying off debt is wasted money because you aren’t spending it on  yourself.  I used to be one of those people.  But one day I decided I didn’t want to make credit card payments anymore and the only way to stop doing that was to pay off my debt.  Trust me it may seem worthless at the time but not having to make debt payment is definitely a great way to save money.  All those funds I was using to pay off my credit cards are now used for travelling – I put them to much better use.

Kristina Tahnyak

Tahnya is a Certified Financial Planner and former Investment Advisor turned marketing and communications professional She holds a degree from Concordia University, is debt free and currently works in the field of digital marketing.