How much do you make and how much are you spending each month?
Are you spending beyond your means?
Because if you are spending beyond your means, then how will you save money?
It might be a painful process especially if you are someone who likes to avoid things and hate confrontation.
You have to confront and be realistic with yourself.
It is actually quite a simple process. For a month, look at your bank statements, take note of how much you are spending on reoccurring or fixed monthly expenses and random buys. Afterwards, subtract it from how much you make that month.
Fixed monthly expenses are things that no matter what happens, you have to pay every single month (things you typically need to survive).
These could be:
- Rent
- Mortgage
- Gas
- Electricity
- Water
- Insurance
- Groceries
- Car payments
- Medicine
Random buys or variable expenses are basically things that you buy each month that are not consistent and/or are not necessarily needed.
These could be:
- New clothes
- New shoes
- Fancy dinners
- Travel
- Concert tickets
- Car inspection fees
- New plants
- Mani and pedis
- Boba runs
- Unforeseen emergencies
Sit down and have a heart to heart with with yourself and whoever you share expenses with and take a hard look at your own spending. Figure out your fixed and variable expenses and make valuable decisions about your current financial situation.
Ignoring your finances doesn’t make them go away. They will keep getting worse overtime. The longer you postpone, the bigger the problem you will have in the future.
This is the step that most people ignore, which is why people turn to credit cards or taking out loans to fund things that they want to do now.
It is an easy fix, but why would you want to fix a problem with an even bigger problem?
15 Comments
Right on! I told my hubby from the start I’d rather live in a shack and be able to travel the world, then have a fancy house or expensive cars. Priorities, priorities!
All of this. Yes!!
I loved this post! Awesome, specific advice! I did an audit of my subscriptions when saving for travel… most people don’t realize how much they can easily add up to! Listening to the announcement on spotify instead of having premium is well worth saving that money for a plane ticket.
Thank you! Not going to lie, I do have spotify premium. I cannot stand the ads haha.
Love these ideas!! Especially in light of all this craziness, now’s a good time to start planning!
i couldn’t agree more! this is a well thought of and written post delivering advice and a bit of tough love in just the right amount of dosages! In the end, it is all about priorities, and sacrifice! thank you for sharing this
Thank you so much. It means a lot. I love the way you put it: “tough love in the right dosage!” I tend to be too blunt sometimes, but someone’s gotta tell the truth haha.
What a well written post and the tips here are basic common sense which have been told in a very practical manner. I really loved the one about visualization – thats kick ass awesome. More power to your travel goals and will power Gian 🙂
Great post! You have some awesome tips here! It definitely helps to think about why you want to travel and why it’s important to you before you start making sacrifices to save.
Great post, these tips are so helpful! Being honest to myself about where all my money goes has really helped me avoid unnecessary spendings and help me save more for travelling 🙂
I am loving all of these tips! Saving money is hard, but when you have a reason to save money (like a trip) it makes it worth it!!
Reevaluating priorities is definitely a big one for me. I’d much rather travel than do a lot of things so if it means I have to eat at home more, spend less on little luxuries and cut down a subscription or two I’m all for it
Great post, this is indeed how we also save money for travel. Thinking about everything do I need it and what do I want more.
I love this detailed post, especially about finding your “why” for travel. I recently wrote about how to save money for travel too so it’s really fun to get someone else’s perspective!
Thanks so much!!