3 Ways to Manage Money and Feel Safe Around Spending

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If you’re familiar with my work, you’ll know that telling people to go on a budget is not part of my process!

The reason is: budgets - even the use of the word itself, makes people feel constrained and trapped within a financial prison.

And (like most diets!), many budgets tend to fail as put in place unrealistic expectations and cause a pendulum swing effect, leading to overspending hangovers, and low self-worth.

Instead, I encourage people to reframe the idea of a budget. To make tweaks and changes to their saving and spending goals, which can be altered as they move along in their financial journey.

To feel good about what they are choosing to spend their money on.

To feel empowered and fully in control of how they are now able to take care of their financial past, present, and future all at the same time!

Here are 3 ways you can start to adopt these practices in your own life and get on the path to financial freedom.

1) Check Your Subscriptions

Those automated online subscriptions can be sneaky! Many are placed on auto-renewal and come out of your account without you even noticing and perhaps, not even using the service.

Examples of these can be courses, fitness or gym memberships, streaming services, and other online services. 

I’d like you to spend some time going through your bank accounts and identifying which online subscriptions you have. Then, think about that service in terms of:

• how often do you use it
• does it get you further to a personal goal?
• does it bring you joy and enhance your life?
• could you easily let it go?

We are often subscribed to so many things that even choosing to let go of one or two creates extra funds to allocate toward something far more empowering.

Something that will get you to your ultimate goal.

It’s important that you shift your mindset and habits that align with creating a life where every good or service you spend money on, use, or consume enriches your life for the better and contributes to becoming your highest self. 

And that doesn’t mean that things like Netflix have to go! If that makes you genuinely happy, keep it! 

I hope by now, you know I’m all about creating joy in your life, not removing it!

2) Get Creative

We live in a world where convenience is everything and I fully understand that sometimes, convenience - and paying for that, can fulfill a personal intention.

But it’s often allowing habit to override this and spending money as an unconscious decision. 

A personal example is that my kids love those egg bites you get at Starbucks. In fact, as a family, we love to take trips to Starbucks. It’s a nice way to create quality time with my children in a fun environment.

However, I noticed it was becoming a bit of a habit, which in turn, also makes the ritual less special.

Plus, by the time you add up the cost of those egg bites, plus drinks, that soon adds up!

So, I suggested we make our own version of the egg bites! The kids at first weren’t too on board, but once we all got in the kitchen, we had a blast putting together the ingredients and creating our own recipe. 

The experience was far more nourishing and fun for everyone than going to Starbucks again.

Plus, it saved us money.

So I’d like you to think of how you can recreate those things or experiences that have become a habit and lead to unconscious spending.

A few examples could be:

- Instead of that weekly dinner out, invite friends to dinner at your place and suggest everyone bring a dish instead.

- Make a personalized gift for someone or create an experience for them that involves less spending than buying something fancy for the sake of it.

- Thinking about whether that tempting ’50% off on all food and drink on Tuesday’ (many coffee shops and restaurants do this), is actually, moving you closer to your personal goal.

The key phrase here is spending with intention. Think about every spending choice and try to tune out the noise of what ‘offers’ and ‘deals’ are being bombarded upon you. You’ll probably notice far more where you’re spending on auto-pilot and identify where much of that money can be freed up to allocate to other areas that align with the life you are choosing to create.

3) Learn to Hold Cash

When I work with people, I often observe a scarcity mindset around money that has been imprinted deep within the subconscious from a child. 

The impact of this can often lead to spending money as soon as they have it. This is also why I encourage some people to use cash instead of credit or debit cards for their weekly spending.

The reason is that emotionally, it just lands differently when we hand over cash for a good, product, or service.

It’s incredible how spending cash triggers an emotional response, and how we’re far more conscious of our decisions! That cash will likely go much further and result in less spending than swiping on the card.

So I’d like you to try an experiment where you try the cash method yourself. In addition, see how holding a sum of money in your wallet or purse makes you feel. The amount doesn’t matter - whether it’s $5 or $50 (or whichever currency you work in), this is all about creating the energy of money abundance!

Your goal is to not spend that note and keep it in your purse/wallet as a symbol of that abundance. Not only does this raise your vibration, but it will make you feel empowered about being able to hold money and that doing so is safe. 

See how you go with these 3 ideas and please don’t forget to come and join the vibrant community of people who just like you, are on the path to a life of Real Wealth!

And as a quick reminder, you can get your copy of my new book The 4 Spiritual Laws of Money here.