Evaluate Your Life Day is coming up quickly and may leave you wondering how exactly you’re supposed to celebrate a holiday such as this. One of the easiest ways is to choose an aspect of your life that you’d like to improve on. For so many, that area of life tends to be their finances. That makes Evaluate your Life Day the perfect time to figure out ways to improve your finances. This might be easier said than done, but there are several ways you can easily do this. These ten tips can help you get on track while helping you to keep your budget on track.
1. Write Down Everything You Spend
The first step that you should take in this process is to stop and write down everything you spend. From a dollar on a drink to the gas you put in your vehicle, every expenditure should be fully documented. This will allow you to see with your own eyes where your money is going. After a week, take a look at your money logs and total up the amount you’re spending on food outside of your grocery bill, your groceries, your bills, entertainment, clothing, and frivolous spending. Then, you should take a look again after a month’s time. This will help you to understand your money better and will even allow you to make the changes you need to keep more money in your bank account.
2. Re-evaluate Your Budget
A lot of us create a budget and stick to it if it works. However, a budget should be updated to suit what we currently need in life. That is why re-evaluating the budget might be one of the best things you can do for this holiday. When it comes to your budget, you should take into consideration things like inflation when you price items like groceries and basic necessities. You will also find that there are plenty of entertainment subscriptions you may not need as much now that things are open again and you may not even be working from home anymore. After re-evaluating your budget, come up with a new one and check on the budget every few months to ensure that it is still honestly working for you and your family.
3. Deep Dive Into Your Spending Habits
If you have disposable income on your hands and tend to just purchase whatever on a whim, then you might want to take a deep dive into your spending habits. Your spending journal will come in handy with this aspect of your life evaluation too, so make sure to use it. For this, you should concentrate on how you’re spending money, especially in ways that aren’t important. You should also look into how you’re saving money. If you’re spending hundreds on things that bring no value to your life, then you might want to make a commitment to put at least half of that into your savings. This will allow you to get what you need in your life while actually helping to improve your financial situation immensely.
4. Learn New Ways to Save
Let’s face it, saving is not as easy as we would like it to be. When given the choice to spend or save, most people would rather enjoy the instant gratification of savings. Luckily, there are ways to save that actually trick your mind, which can make it so much easier. For instance, you can create a coin jar that you put money into whenever you engage in a bad habit. May it be a swear jar or a jar that you put money into any time you skip the gym, this technique will boost your savings while also allowing you to break bad habits that you’re engaging in.
5. Lock Up the Credit Card
Your credit can be your worst enemy when it comes to spending. Instead of keeping your credit card in your wallet where you can make impulse purchases, you should put it up. One of the best places to store it is in your safe, which makes it inconvenient to grab. You should also remove the card from any place you may have stored the number on your computer or phone. This will completely remove the temptation to use it. After following this procedure for a month or two, you may find it a lot easier to just say no to things you may have otherwise purchased. This will allow you to use your car for other things.
6. Use the Reward Method
If you don’t want to part ways with spending money on new things, then you don’t have to. However, this doesn’t mean you should purchase items whenever you feel like it. Instead, you should consider using a reward system to purchase new items. For instance, if you do something like finish a big work project or maintain your diet for a significant amount of time, then you can purchase yourself a little something special to help boost your happiness. This will save you a lot of money because you know if you do well in something you’ll be able to enjoy a reward soon after.
7. Go Over Frivolous Spending
There are a lot of frivolous things that we like to spend money on. Some of them that we’re aware of such as going out to eat or purchasing too many clothes. However, there are a few things that might slide under the radar. For instance, you might consider canceling some of your subscription services. You can easily download an app to help you keep track of these, but it isn’t hard to just go over your bank statement to figure out what you’re spending money on either. By cutting out things you don’t use or shouldn’t take part in too often, you’ll be able to keep a lot more money in the bank.
8. Change Diet
The way we eat can actually cost us a small fortune if we’re not careful. One of the easiest ways to cut back on spending is to change our diet. If you’re going out to eat often, then you might cut back on doing this as it is unhealthy and costly. Apart from that, the foods you buy in stores can set you back too. You can easily change your diet to include more scratch-made meals. You can also choose to purchase frozen vegetables, so you don’t have to worry about waste. There are lots of frugal eating tips on the internet, so make sure to browse around to make sure everything works for you.
9. Consider Making a Hobby Lucrative
If you’re feeling like your finances aren’t where you’d like them to be, then you may be better off finding a little extra cash flow to enjoy. One way to do this is to take a hobby and make it lucrative. Chances are, you probably have a hobby that can earn you a little extra money. If you don’t, then there is always time to learn something new to help you enjoy your free time a little more while also allowing you to earn some. Everything from offering music or language lessons can help you earn, as can selling arts and crafts. With any luck, you may even have a side hustle that can earn you big over the upcoming years.
10. Make a Financial Plan
One of the best things you can do for your entire financial situation is to create a financial plan. This can be extremely intimidating, which might cause you to feel overwhelmed by the entire thing. You can hire someone to help if you want to spend money. However, there are a lot of great tutorials online to help you out with the entire process. Once you have your financial plan all mapped out, make sure to stick with it. It might be hard at first, but you’ll find after some time has passed that it will make you feel more confident with your money.
If you’re ready to maximize the benefits of Evaluate Your Life Day, then this is a great way to start. These ten tips will help you with the financial aspect of your life, so you can improve your self-confidence and make yourself proud of the financial work you have done without sinking money into your financial planning experience.
