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“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.” Will Smith
A lot of people go through life blind to where their money is going or what they are really spending it on. I know because I used to be one of those people.
There are so many ways we can spend our money these days. We go to the supermarket to buy food and we have hundreds of choices of food, as well as pretty much anything else we want, from clothes to TV’s. I know I have popped in for a loaf of bread and come out with a brand new outfit! 
We want to get fit, so we join a gym and sign up for a subscription, but don’t use it, but also don’t want to cancel it, as this would mean we definitely won’t get fit! The ways we can spend our money (some useful and some not so useful) are endless.
The basic job of living can be expensive in itself. Rent or mortgage, bills, food and clothes need to be paid for, let alone all the other things we might like; a new laptop, a nice holiday, or just more time to do what we want to do. Unless we are fortunate enough not to have to worry about money, to some degree or another, we all have to balance our wants with our resources.
Be clear
Are you managing your money in a way that supports you to live the life you want to live? There’s no use saying you want to go travelling for a year, if you are spending all you money at the weekend going out with your friends. Neither is right or wrong, but to achieve what we want we need to be clear about our goals and ensure our actions are consistent with them.
Have a goal
One of the most powerful things that I have found to help me save money is to have a goal. I saved to go travelling for a year in my twenties, and having a date in mind and the excitement and pull of that goal, really helped me to save a lot more than I was used to. My husband and I now have a goal to pay off our mortgage early, to free us up time-wise and allow us to do more of the things we enjoy doing. Having this goal in mind is an inspiration and spurs us on to save money.
Be creative
Managing our money wisely doesn’t mean postponing fun. Be creative. Have a DVD night with friends rather than blowing all your weeks wages on a night out. Create a nice meal at home for a quarter of the price of eating out.
Don’t be blind
A lot of people go through life blind to where their money is going. One of the things that has amazed me since getting my first mortgage is compound interest! Basically, compound interest is where interest is added to the original loan, so that from that moment on, the interest that has been added also itself earns interest. This addition of interest to the original sum is called compounding (i.e. the interest is compounded). A loan, for example, may have its interest compounded every month: in this case, a loan with £100 initial principal and 1% interest per month would have a balance of £101 at the end of the first month, £102.01 at the end of the second month, and so on.
In another words, a mortgage paid back over a normal twenty five year term, could actually cost you nearly double (for example) the price of the initial loan. However, the quicker you pay off the mortgage, the less interest you pay. Just paying £10 a week extra off your mortgage can mean massive savings down the track. Something I didn’t know at first and I know the banks don’t advertise!
Time is money
Also, think about how many hours you will have to work, to pay for whatever you are thinking about buying. I know I have been caught up in the moment shopping and just had to have that dress! But if you thought about the fact that you would have to work for 2 days to pay for it, would you still want to buy it? I know I never used to think that way, but that’s the fact. If you really want to cut down your work hours to have more free time, for example, you have to be aware of where your money’s going.
Tools
One of the tools I first used when I was saving to go travelling in my twenties was to have a little notebook and write down everything I spent in a week. It helped me save a lot more than I usually did and my husband and I have recently started using this tool again. I didn’t do it to the penny (though if you fancy doing that, that’s even better) but I’d write when I’d taken £10 out of the cash machine and a note to say roughly what for (e.g. lunch and cosmetics). The really great thing about this is you start to really see where your money goes and any patterns you might not have been aware of. Also if I fancied buying something that wasn’t aligned with my goal (say a CD which I wouldn’t want to take in my backpack) I knew I had to write it in the book, which reminded me of my goal and made me make sure I really wanted whatever I was intending on buying.
I am not suggesting you ever make yourself feel deprived, as that definitely won’t help you feel better about money. How you feel about money is very powerful. As we shift our relationship to money we will change our vibration about it, from scarcity to abundance thinking.
Make sure you do things you enjoy each week, and have some money to do some fun things too. Funnily enough though, since becoming more aware about handling my money, I am finding that I don’t need to spend as much as I once did to enjoy myself. Also there is an incredible feeling that comes from knowing I am in charge of my money and it is not in charge of me!
What tips have you got for being in charge of your money?
Recommended reading:
Websites
www.moneysavingexpert.com
Books
The Money Diet. Martin Lewis
Your money or your life. Alvin Hall
Ps – You can buy these books, but the library is even cheaper! 
Good, simple advice. If you can pay off your mortage sooner, you’ll definitely have enough for a couple of round the world trips.
Gordie Rogers´s last blog ..Help! I’m At A Lifestyle Design Crossroads.
Ha ha! That’s the plan!
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment Gordie.
I read your money or your life some months ago and I’m now keeping a log of where my money goes. Definitely a great book. Great advice!
Oscar – freestyle mind´s last blog ..Habit #5 – The Do Habit
Heya Oscar
It’s a very good book isn’t it? Very clear and full of common sense. Like you, keeping a log of where my money goes has been really helpful.
Thanks for dropping in.
Jen
Hi Jen,
I have another recommendation. Buy Quicken. I have been using it now for about three years and it really helps me understand where my money is going. It is better than a notebook in that, if you use your bank card for everything you buy, you won’t miss anything. This is one of the best tools I know to help me at least understand where my money is going.
Excellent Post..
Best,
Bob
Bob Bessette´s last blog ..How to get your child into their "first choice" college.
Hey, Jen!
When the credit crunch came at first, Steve and I did the kind of exercise you talk about here – keeping a note of what we were spending – and then we put it all on a big spreadsheet. We were horrified!! We thought we’d been living an abundance mentality. In fact we’d been completely spendthrift. The two are not the same!!
I think your post does a really nice job of highlighting that money is a resource we can channel or squander. How we deal with it probably says something about how seriously we take ourselves?
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to pause and think about this!
Best
Christine
Christine´s last blog ..Health warning: blogging can seriously change your career
Really nice post. Having control of finances is so important, and I didn’t really realize it until somewhat recently. I was just kind of going wild for a while. I’ve gotten things under control now and I’m getting closer to my goals (glad you mentioned goals in the post). I do have some debt; car payment and things like that but I’m trying to get them paid off as fast as possible. Nice post, once again
Nate´s last blog ..what does lifestyle design mean to me?
Like a wise monk, you speak the truth Jen. Great post.
Jonny | thelifething.com´s last blog ..Structure Is Like A Strong Wind…Flow is Like A Frikin’ Hurricane So Unleash The Beast
Hey, Thanks for such a good post… Something that I would to share with you…To achieve our (me & my husband) long-term goal, we have kept few smaller goals with a time target to achieve it.. For eg : to pay off the mortgage soon, we need to save..So, we had a target to save a specific amount every month…Then, when we first paid off our monthly bills & other exp, there was not enough to save the target amount…So, we tried the other way round..We try and keep the target amount aside for savings and then manage to run the monthly expenses from the balance amount….This may sound silly but it worked for us many a times !..Thanks, again…..
Hi Bob
It’s great you have found something that works well for this too.
I’ll check that out, thanks for the recommendation.
Hi Christine
Writing what we spend down is always enlightening isn’t it! I know even now, when we are very much in control of our money, there is always something that we forget we bought, or an extra expense we didn’t expect! I like waht you said: “How we deal with it probably says something about how seriously we take ourselves?” I think that’s probably very true. Thanks again
Hiya Nate
Like you, this is a fairly new thing for me too. If I’m honest, my husband has been a really good influence on me with regards to money, as I used to be very haphazard at managing it. Ironically I used to think I was being relaxed and not worrying about it too much, whereas actually it was really very stressful!
Great that you are working towards your goals Nate – I do think they are really helpful in this area.
Hey Jonny!
ha ha! cheers! Thanks for the feedback.
Hi Gunjan
Great to meet you!
Really good advice, this is pretty much what we found works too. Fantastic you have such a great goal, look forward to hearing from you again.
Jen
Jen,
Good post!
A very good book to read about this subject is “The richest man in Babylon” by George S. Clason. I would say that the main message of the book is: “If you are not saving money, there is not difference between you and a slave”. The price of the book is seven dollars, but the message is really inspiring!
Many books that suggest you to save 10% or your income are based on this book…
All the best!
Hi Boris
Thank you. I read that book a while back, my Dad loved it and recommended it to me. I will ask to borrow it from him again, to read again. I think saving really is the key, as you say. Otherwise you’re not really moving forward financially.
Thanks again
Jen
Nice down home advice, I think the take home piece of advice here is to change your money fortunes you need to change your mindset. Coming off a bit of a tough financial period myself the one thing I learnt is to be aware of my spending, no matter how small it all adds up. Taking control of the little things can make a lot of bigger things possible in the future.
Michael´s last blog ..Free Time Free self development
We have a money blue print in our minds and it’s responsible how we make use of our money. Unless we change our behavior money, we cannot make lasting change.
Walter´s last blog ..Senseless arbitrariness
Hey Micheal
I think you’re so right, it is the little steps that add up to big things. I know for me it used to the little bits I didn’t think about on a day to day basis that would be what would take me over what I expected to spend.
Great to see you here.
Thanks for visiting and taking the time to leave a comment.
Hiya Walter
Our mind is so powerful isn’t it? I agree about us having a money blueprint. I think changing our mindset and corrersponding actions makes for big changes. Once I started saving, my mindset started shifting from not having enough to having enough to save.
Thanks Walter