I first heard about spending freezes from one of my favorite channels on youtube, "FunCheapOrFree." This freeze happens when you pick one week each month to not spend any money at all. This means no eating out or shopping of any kind. No Starbucks trips or fast food for an entire week! It's challenging, but you'll be glad you did it. This for me is a good way to force myself to eat the food I have at home that has been sitting there untouched. If you are really tight on money, try stretching out your grocery trips an extra week. An easier way of doing this is using a website I found that lets you log what foods you actually have, and the site will generate all of the recipes you can make with your ingredients. (So cool right?) Click below to visit Super Cook to log the food that's already in your pantry and get instructions on how to make a meal out of it. You'll be surprised at what you can make at home without running to the store.
https://www.supercook.com/#/recipes
The best way to stick to this freeze is to plan your meals before you realize you're hungry. If you wait until you're starving to get some food, you're more likely to find yourself in a drive-thru. Bring your breakfast, lunch, and snacks with you to work or class to ignore the urge to stop somewhere.
While you're spending this time at home, hopefully not spending money, you can also work on making money. My blog post on how to effectively sell your used clothes can be found here:
https://www.makingmoneywithmattie.com/post/how-to-sell-your-used-clothes-and-get-every-penny?fbclid=IwAR3wH64uwVsaS0314kzb8s5alhUVrKFemKnsDQ4SwXWVWuFk_V1kc6XOBdc
Try to challenge yourself to this spending "freeze" one week (or longer if you can) each month for a year and see how much you can save. Put it towards your next vacation instead of blowing it during your spending weeks. I'm super guilty of treating myself every chance I get, and this allows me to control that urge to spend.
xoxo, Mattie
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