5 Bad Money Habits To Break To Save More

5 Bad Money Habits To Break To Save More

Today I want to share with you nine bad money habits and decisions that you're probably making right now that are keeping you from being able to save and reach your financial goals. 

These small bad habits that we have might not seem that consequential when taken in isolation when we just look at one of them. But when we consider all of our habits kind of in some total, we're able to realize how much they really are causing a drain on our bank accounts and our ability to save.

So today we're going to talk about, but not only what those bad habits that you might be making without even thinking about it. Let's identify what those habits are. And then we're going to talk about how we can shift our perspective and shift our habits into something that's more positive, more healthy and that's going to help us reach our financial and savings goals. Let's go ahead and talk about that first bad habit. 

Saving at the End of Month

I know a lot of people and have been there myself, who kind of wait until the end of the month to start saving. Now, the problem with this is that if you're only saving what's leftover at the end of each month, chances are you're not making that savings goal a priority.

What you're likely to find is that if you shift saving from the end of the month to the beginning of the month, or whenever you get paid, you're going to be able to save a lot more each month, simply because you are choosing to save first and live off of what is left over, which result in you naturally being more conscious and aware of how you're spending your money and where it's going, as opposed to just kind of making savings an afterthought.

So instead of choosing only to save at the end of the month make savings a priority. And as soon as you get paid or at the beginning of each month, put money aside into savings and make it a priority before yours. 

Buying Coffee Every Day

And this is once again a habit that many people get into without ever really intending to start buying coffee super regularly but it just kind of happens. And this is something that will find with a lot of these habits, oftentimes, these drains in our money. These bad habits that we just kind of end up in really are the result of just not being intentional with how we're spending our money. I thought that we were intentionally trying to go out and acquire a bad habit. Life just kind of happens. And before we know it, we're stuck in a bad money habit that's keeping us from being able to say.

When looking at our spending habits, it's really important to consider what does this habit means not only in the short term that three to six dollars that I'm spending on this cup of coffee? But what does this look like when this habit is multiplied long-term over a longer period of time. Because these bad habits that we have really do add up and hinder our ability to save.

So instead of going out and buying a cup of coffee each day, the easy and healthy habit that you can switch to is to simply make it for yourself at home. No, it might not be as sexy as going down the street to the local coffee shop to buy the drink. But chances are it's going to taste just as good. And it definitely is going to save you money and help you work towards those financial goals a lot faster.

Grocery Store With No Plan

The problem with this is that grocery stores are designed to make you spend as much money on impulse purchases as possible. The displays, the samples even where the things you're trying to buy are positioned in the store. These are all things that are trying to entice you to buy more. When we go grocery shopping without a plan, it's all too easy for us to say, oh, that looks good, that looks good. Let me just add this one item to my cart. And then when we come home, we might have forgotten a few things that we were supposed to buy. And but a lot of things that we didn't mean to buy.

So going grocery shopping without a plan really is a recipe for overspending. But a great way to be able to counteract that is simply to just create a list of what you need before you leave for the grocery store. The key here is just to go into your grocery shopping trip with a list and a plan of what you need to buy and then stick to that list so that you can avoid overspending.

Impulsive Online Shopping

It is all too easy in the digital age that we live into scrolling on our favorite retailer's app or website and just adding item after item to our carts and bringing those items into our lives because online shopping is just too easy sometimes. And this is honestly one of the hardest bad habits to overcome.

But there are a few things that you can do to work towards creating a healthy habit around spending and shopping online. Whether it's a social media app, a clothing retailer's website, whatever it is, I want you to delete that app to unbook and close out of that window. And then I want you to take this one step further. If you're frequently getting emails from different companies that you have a tendency to spend a lot of money from online unsubscribe from their email notifications, unfollow them on Instagram.

Do whatever you need to do so that it's kind of out of sight and out of mind. By limiting your exposure to online shopping opportunities and using a more mindful and intentional approach to the way that you engage online, you're naturally going to be able to slowly work past that habit of impulsive online buying and be able to avoid some of that mindless browsing that often directly correlates to us buying things that we later regret.

Making Late Payments

There are a lot of penalties and fees associated with making late payments. And I'm going to quickly set aside the idea that sometimes we just don't have the money to be able to pay for something that's another issue completely. When it becomes a bad habit is when we're just out of negligence and not paying attention, allowing late fees to accumulate. And this is most often due to a lack of planning or organization on our parts.

There are a lot of easy things that you can do to avoid those late fees and penalties. First up and probably the easiest is to simply put your bills on autopay. It just takes a little bit of planning and a little bit of intentionality. But it truly is a good habit that's going to help you now and for years into the future.

So those are the five bad money habits that you're going to want to break so you can save more money and reach your financial goals. I am curious though if you have any bad spending habits that you've been able to overcome what was that bad habit? And what did you do to break it to overcome it? I want to hear your success stories. So comment down below and let me know.

Thank you guys so much. I hope you guys enjoyed this one, and I'll see you in the next one.