Three Simple Ways to Kick Bad Financial Habits

shopping

One of my favorite things to do in the morning when I drink my coffee on the couch enjoying the quiet house while my kids are still asleep is peruse Pinterest on my phone. I love the home décor ideas, the fun crafts I will never could do with my kids, and even the upbeat, happy, motivational quotes I come across. Nothing really seems to get the day going on a positive note quite so much as my First 5 verse of the day as well as some positive Pinterest quotes. It’s especially helpful to me when I’m trying to make some positive life changes. As an incredible Type-A personality with some serious perfectionist issues, I’ve been trying to calm down, relax and go with the flow a bit more. However, I find that my old habits die very, very hard.

The same goes for financial changes. One of the things I hear most often from people making positive financial change in their life is that they cannot seem to let go of their bad habits long-term. Sure, it’s easy for a few days; maybe it’s even easy for a few weeks. However, those bad habits creep up on you when you’re least expecting it, and it can be a bummer. That’s why we have a few pieces of advice for you to help you kick the bad financial habits and get used to the good.

Going Shopping

It sounds a little bit like bad financial advice, but we do have a good point here. Make it a habit to pick a day each year to sit down and shop for new services. Shop for your new cable, your new internet and all the above (when it’s time to renew is a good idea). This is a great way to see if there are additional savings anywhere, and to help you continue to step outside your comfort zone.

Ignoring Your Emergency Fund

Do you have an emergency fund with at least $1,000 in it? If so, good. If not, get one. If you do have one and you’re ignoring it, stop. You might think that you have enough in it, but you can never have enough. Go ahead and commit to adding an additional $25 per week or something of that nature to your emergency fund and watch it grow and grow. It’ll be worth it.

Splurging on Date Night

If there is one really bad financial habit my husband and I have, it’s the date night splurge. We figure we have four kids, a babysitter and a few hours out, so we might as well make the most of it. We will order a bottle of wine, an appetizer, dessert; it doesn’t sound so bad. However, if we aren’t ready to go home yet, we’ll then head somewhere else and order another glass of wine, or some cocktails with friends. Essentially, by the end of the night we’ve spent hundreds more than we meant to spend. A good way to kick this habit is to create a new one; don’t go on a date night unless you have a savings coupon for a restaurant from a place such as Groupon or LivingSocial. That’ll help you save.

Photo by Getty Images

Comments

Leave a Reply

Loading…

0