10 ways to control your finances

Surely many times a day do you spend your money on things you do not really need. Bottle of Coke from a vending machine, coffee cup made of expensive fashionable coffee, lunch with colleagues, the new mobile game... The list goes on. In any case, you are spending a couple of hundred (or thousand) rubles for every little thing and immediately forgets about it.

The reason for this behavior - the lack of financial self-control. Again and again you make small spending without thinking about the long term. But here is what threatens the lack of self-control:

• You do not get closer to achieving greater financial goals;
• you have to borrow money;
• you do not know how much money you will have in a day or a month;
• you constantly short of money.

Of course, to give up their traditional way of life is not easy. Create a long-term plan is more difficult than simply overspend, and indulge in small pleasures. But if you want to live in prosperity and not worry about their own future, you need the ability to control themselves and their spending. Therefore, we'll show you how to gain self-control in matters related to money.

1. Stop making excuses

Every time you come up with an excuse, why spend your money on useless purchase, you are preventing yourself begin to engage in financial planning.

When you buy something unnecessary today, you are depriving yourself of something important in the future.

Maybe it really is just a breeze. Perhaps you really really want to buy it. Maybe buy you need to make to impress someone.

But if you want to live securely, stop justifying their impulsive purchases. Just understand that when you buy any nonsense, you take a step back on the path to your financial well-being.

2. Before each purchase, ask yourself: "Do I live without this stuff?"

To control your financial life, it is necessary to get a useful habit to evaluate every purchase. And it is not about the cost.

Do you really need this thing? Can you do without it? And is there a cheaper analogue? Ask yourself these questions every time you are about to make a purchase.

Financial self-control - the ability to say "no" to things that previously you would not hesitate to say "yes."

Ask yourself: "Do I live without this stuff?". If you answer "yes", then not buy anything you need, it is better to postpone the money on more important things. If you answer "no", then ask yourself the following question: "Is there a cheaper analog of?".

So you learn to evaluate and accept the consequences of each of its decisions and actions.

3. Use cash only, no credit cards

Usually credit cards are available with a very large limit, and this is no accident: with a hand holding a person becomes more difficult to control your spending.

When you hold no real, paper money, buying is easy to ignore the fact that you can actually afford. In this situation, you only care about one thing: the main thing that was enough. In addition, the card without a limit is much easier to get into trouble like unaffordable bills or big debts.

The solution is simple: use only cash. If you find that you do not have enough cash to survive until the next month, think about what to save. The following month, spend money smarter.

Financial self - it's like riding a bike. Learn to control yourself on the cash, this is your old bike that is not a pity. And only when you feel confident in yourself, you can proceed to the heaped-speed bikes - use credit and debit cards.

4. Go to places where you like to spend money without a card and a small amount of cash

For most people, there are places where they are unlikely to be able to resist the temptation, and are more likely to spend a lot of money to the desired, even without considering the consequences. A cafe. Book Shop. electronics store. Clothing store. Everyone has their own weakness.

Probably, you would expect the board will never go to such places. But it does not teach you self-control, but only the avoidance of problems.

We offer much more reasonable recommendation. From time to time to attend such an enticing place, but first determine how much you are willing to spend within reason.

Leave the card at home, will need just a little bit of cash. If you have not decided exactly what you will buy, the first time go without any money and take a look. Then go to a specific amount that you need to pay for the coveted purchase.

This process, especially povtoronny many times, taught to resist the temptation. A resistance to the temptation - this is the basis of self-control.

5. Focus on participation rather than on purchases

Often busy people buy things just to keep in touch with their hobby or passion.

For example, a person is passionate about reading, but life was such that on deep reading almost is never enough time. But he continues to buy books that I would like to read (and hopes that will read them later on). It is a psychological trap: as a substitute for the purchase of execution.

Go do something and do not buy substitutes. If the problem is in the lack of free time, start with a revision of its schedule.

Participation in any interesting fact for you - it is an incredibly effective way to get rid of the obsessive desire to spend more and more money on things that substitute for actual participation. First read all of the books accumulated stack, and only then buy new.

6. Choose the right form of communication

We all go out to meet other people who spend time away from home and take part in any social activity. Most of these meetings are held in clubs, restaurants, shops and other places that will have to spend a lot of money.

For example, you go with friends for dinner, then go to the movies, and then decide to look more into the bar. And in your wallet is not enough a couple of thousand rubles.

Beware of this format of communication. To have a good time with your friends, do not necessarily spend a lot of money. For example, it is possible to gather at someone's home. Or in any other place where a waste of money - not defining the occupation, but part of the experience: play football in a nearby park or go on a picnic.

Perhaps some of your friends abandon this pastime. Well, it's a great test to determine which of your friends is more interested to go out and spend money and who wants to chat with you.

7. Closely monitor your spending and to periodically revise them

The biggest challenge in tracking expenses is that usually people do not have a place to gather data on all spending and see where all the money goes.

The solution is simple: keep track of your expenses and write down where you spend every penny. For convenience, you can break all the expenses into categories: food, entertainment, clothing, household chemicals, transport, major purchases, utility bills and so on.

You can use one of the applications for control of personal finances. For these purposes will approach a normal notebook, and a spreadsheet on a laptop. No matter which tool you choose, the goal remains the same: to record spending every day, sort them into categories and analyzed to see which categories you overspend.

Such a review of expenditure is almost always open to man. How should I think about the categories of costs that struck you most. Are these purchases have been so important to you? Most likely no. From any costs or specific monthly purchases, you can completely give up? At least a little of exactly find it.

8. Automatically transfer the money into a savings account

There is one famous old rule - in the first place to pay yourself. This means that the first thing you need to repay debts and save for the future, and only then to decide how to spend the remaining amount.

The easiest way to follow this rule - to automate the process. Once the salary received at stake, 10% immediately transferred to your savings account. If your bank has such a service, make sure that bills for utilities, loans, too, could pay immediately.

The more operations you can do on the machine, the better.

9. Ask for help of close friends and relatives

A trusted circle of friends and family members can be very useful when it comes to personality changes, which include the acquisition of fiscal self-control.

At the very least, they can give you very useful tips that are appropriate to your situation and to your existing qualities. They know you. They know almost everything about your business, and sometimes even better informed than you.

In addition, always fine, if there is a person who cares about you, it is supporting at a difficult time. Just talk to someone when the changes begin to occur in your life. It's great motivation.

Also, your friends and family can be a wonderful role models. Perhaps you have a friend who has achieved the same financial goals that you want to achieve. Use it as a tutor to go down the same path. Learn from their experiences.

10. Do not give up when something does not work

You can make a mistake once or twice when planning their expenses. You can buy something without thinking. Can you make a purchase, which later will regret. You may think that self-control - this is not about you and not have to even begin.

Do not worry. Financial progress - a story about the fact that two steps forward have to have at least one back.

The goal is to strive to be better than you were before. If you make a mistake, do not dwell on it. Instead, look at the reasons of their behavior and try to avoid this in the future.