Comments on: How to quit spending more money than you make – GS8

By: baconexplosion

baconexplosion — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:33:52 +0000

Learning to say no to yourself is by far the hardest thing on this list to do. In my humble oppinion personal finance is about self control. Learning how to do math is the easy part!

If you can learn to put off personal gratification, you’re off to a great start!

By: Mac Hildebrand

Mac Hildebrand — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:45:01 +0000

I really appreciate the use of Romans 13:14 to give a God-motivated purpose for getting out of debt. Titus 2:11-14 has a similar message that came to mind,
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
Not only does grace provide the proper motivation for a lifestyle that is not enslaved to debt, it in fact teaches us to not be enslaved to debt because we regard our hope in Christ as higher. Thanks for the articles posted here!

By: Jenny

Jenny — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:03:45 +0000

Spending more money than you actually have to spend is a difficult subject to be sure. For anyone, regardless of spending habits, you have to learn how to stay in control of spending only the money you A) have or B) have allowed to be spent. For us, for example, we only have so much money for groceries, gas, dinning out, and walmart. But we do have extra money that is meant for saving and we still have to watch and becareful not to spend money meant for saving. So even if you don’t have wreckless abandon with your credit cards and even if you have X dollars remaining at the end of the month – there is always a need to stay on track, on budget.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 05:06:38 +0000

I got into a lot of trouble doing this a while ago. Now, I have a set amount of spending money every week that I carry around as cash. Once my cash is gone, I can’t spend anything else until next week. If I have extra, I put it away as savings for a time when I have something extra that I want to do but can’t normally afford. I still have a credit card in case of emergency, but I don’t usually keep it on me when I go into a store or somewhere I may be tempted to spend extra. I have also found that it is much easier to say “no” when you have a plan for the extra money you are going to save. I try to always have a “travel fund” where I am saving up for some trip. Then, a portion of each check goes into that account and I can’t pull it out for anything other than a trip. Every time I have to say “no” to something I want but don’t really need, it is a little bit easier when I remember that every dollar I save is a dollar toward my next vacation. Even $10/week adds up fast.

By: Maggie@SquarePennies

Maggie@SquarePennies — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:41:17 +0000

Planning your spending with a budget is helpful. Using the envelope system makes it clear what money is there to spend. It could help those who just can’t visualize it.

By: Priscila

Priscila — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:11:13 +0000

I’m a college student and I got a credit card a couple of months ago and now I’m $700 in debt which is huge for me, because I work at Burger King and maybe on a good month make $550. I’m not using the credit card anymore. Lesson learned, but once I have my debt paid off I’m gonna keep the credit card hidden in some hard to reach area and only make one purchase a month with it to raise my credit score. Debt is just such a burden on the soul. I need to learn how to say “No”. Thanks for the article.

By: New Covenant Bible Institute

New Covenant Bible Institute — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:25:40 +0000

Thanks Bob for the tips mentioned above, those are all helpful and I will read it more often so I can be encouraged to not to spend on my means, only the enough ones and the reasonable ones.
Being responsible with handling money is a hard job but I am sure that with the help of the Lord, we can do all those things.

By: Phanio

Phanio — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 11:19:08 +0000

I think spending goes deeper. Some people spend just to have some meaning in their lives or as a way to feel self-importance. Not sure what to do about it but think your suggestions can help those who overspend.

By: The Best Money Blog

The Best Money Blog — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:49:38 +0000

The ol’ #1 rule of personal finance, spend less than you earn. Good post and practical ideas for those that feel stuck.

By: Viv

Viv — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 12:17:20 +0000

I think the suggestion about asking yourself “Do I really need this is?” is a good one. I’m trying to apply this. In terms of getting rid of all the useless, but lovely stuff I’ve bought, I tried the principle of “selling all your possessions and give to the poor”, which proved to be quite hard work as I have limited mobility and eBay fees can defeat the object. BUT this morning at church, I listened to an excellent sermon about surrendering to the Lord and giving possessions away which felt a real challenge and I felt could be quite liberating. It forced me to question why I wasn’t having a lot of success in selling stuff, which led me to realise I’m trying to redeem myself …however I have been forgiven and as a child of God should accept that forgiveness and move on…and GIVE stuff away. I spoke to the pastor afterwards, and she told me the Lord had prompted her husband to sell all his Coke pictures and give the money to missionary work – but he kept one! Some time later he was reminded that he was asked to surrender all of them so the last one went! It’s all a question of obedience to the Lord and as we free ourselves from things that we use as comfort or whatever, we are hindering our moving forward in what the Lord really wants us to do.
Thank you for this site and for allowing me to share this. Hope it helps someone else too.