How to Stop Spending Money and Start Saving Money

How to stop spending money you don’t have and instead learn how to save money.

Are you an impulse buyer? A paycheck-to-paycheck type of gal? A habitual spender? Do you feel like you just can’t stop spending money?

If you feel like your money is controlling you and you want to change that once and for all, you’ve come to the right blog post!

In today’s blog post I will be sharing with you a how-to-guide on how to stop spending money. I’ll also be sharing with you 25 money-saving strategies you can implement to become more frugal.

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Figure out your why you’re spending so much money

If you feel like your spending is out of control you need to go to the root of the problem–yourself and your mindset.

Take some time to reflect on and understand why you are spending so much money. Ask yourself and write down a response to the following prompts:

  1. What does spending money provide for me?
  2. What do my purchases provide me?
  3. Do I continue to feel good after I’ve made and received the purchased item(s)?
  4. Do I need everything that I have purchased?
  5. How does my spending influence those around me–like your family and friends?
  6. How would saving money change my life?

Example responses to these prompts could be:

  1. What does spending provide for me? Control
  2. What do my purchases provide me? Comfort and feelings of excitement.
  3. Do I continue to feel good after I’ve made and received the purchased item(s)? No, I find myself needing to buy more to feel good.
  4. Do I need everything that I’ve purchased? No, I have an alternative at home that I could have used instead.
  5. How does my spending influence those around me? I have been told by my family members that they are concerned about how much I spend money.
  6. How would saving change my life? I would be able to pay off my student loans quicker.

Giving some thought to why you are spending money is the first step to transforming your spending habit into a money-saving habit. If you figure out your “why” you can alter your behavior with purpose and take action.

To stop spending money though, you need to start being more intentional with your money. And that’s where the next four steps come into play. Here’s a preview of what’s to come:

  1. Develop a saving mindset
  2. Track your spending
  3. Create a budget
  4. Pay with cash rather than a card

Develop a money saving mindset

Ultimately, there are two mindsets around money: a spending mindset and a saving mindset.

It is easy to adopt a spending mindset especially when you are starting to manage your own money.

When I got my first job in college as a babysitter I spent so much money on makeup that I became a platinum reward member at Ulta and VIB member at Sephora in the same year at 18 years old.

This happened because (1) I was obsessed with makeup at the time, (2) I never had so much money that was truly mine, and (3) I enjoyed the thrill of ordering and opening new packages.

However, my babysitting money did not stretch too far and it was difficult for me to save up for long-term goals like moving out of my parent’s house or building an emergency fund.

To truly reach my financial goals I knew I had to alter my spending mindset into a saving mindset. But how do you do that?

Start small

When are trying to learn how to save money and starting to form the habit of saving money you have to start small.

I know you are super ambitious to save a ton of money and ultimately stop spending money, but that goal of $10,000 saved by next year is only going to cause burn out.

You need to create small, easily achievable financial goals. Like stupidly easy!

For example, your first goal could be: save $25 from your first paycheck. Then your second goal could be save: $30 from your next paycheck. Sounds easy? Barely noticeable!

However, if setting aside $25 or $30 is too much, you could open up an account that allows you to round up your purchases to the next whole dollar and save the difference (e.g., you spend $1.50, your purchase is rounded to $2.00, and your bank account sets aside the difference, 50 cents, into the separate savings account).

Round up accounts make saving money for beginners more manageable and less daunting.

Forbes has a list of 5 different round-up apps that allow you to round up your purchases to the next dollar and save the difference.

I personally have used Acorns in the past and now exclusively use Qapital.

If you use my referral link to create a Qapital account, you (and me) each will get $25.

By creating smaller goals you are easing yourself into saving money and are making saving money a long-term habit rather than a short-term habit that you break after two-weeks of saving money religiously.

Make it a habit to pay yourself first

We’ll discuss this topic a bit more in a section about creating a budget, but essentially you need to make paying yourself first a priority each paycheck. But what does it mean to pay yourself first?

When you pay yourself first, you set aside money each paycheck into a separate savings account as a “cushion” BEFORE you pay your other expenses like rent, groceries, entertainment, etc.

This “cushion” is your rainy day or emergency fund that allows you to stay financially afloat if an unexpected or unplanned event occurs. Your “cushion” could also be an investment account like your ROTH IRA.

However, if you do not have an emergency fund already, that should be your #1 priority before you start saving for retirement or paying off student loan debt.

Learning to or making it a habit to pay yourself first is part of having a saving mindset. When you pay yourself first, you make saving money a priority and you are telling yourself that you value your financial and future security.

Track your spending

One of the best ways to stop saving money is to have a visual of exactly how much you are spending.

There are many apps nowadays that allow you to track your spending like Mint (free) or You Need A Budget (34-day free trial available then $84/year), but I personally like doing it in an Excel spreadsheet (you can do it in Google Sheets as well).

When I track my spending, I am not doing anything particularly fancy. I’m just simply making sure I am not overspending.

How to create an expense tracker in Excel or Google Sheets

Video Tutorial

If you like watching videos over reading a bunch of text check out my video tutorial down below on how to create your own expense tracker in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.

Step 1: Start with what you have

I start my Excel spreadsheet with how much money I currently have in my checking account. Let’s say I have $1000 in my checking account.

An excel spreadsheet for a blank expense tracker.

Step 2: Write down expenses

I first write down expenses currently pending from my credit card because these do not happen instantly like when you pay with a debit card.

When you purchase something with a debit card, the money is immediately taken out of your checking account.

In your expense tracker, you’ll also want to include purchases you made with your debit card too. Included your debit and credit card purchases will allow you to have an accurate picture of how much money you have left.

Also, went putting the values in the spreadsheet cells, I make sure to add a “-” (minus sign) before the transaction to notate that these are expenses (money coming out of my checking account) and not income (money going into my checking account).

In Excel, when you add a minus sign before a dollar amount it turns the text red automatically. Google Sheets does NOT make the text red with a minus sign in front of a dollar amount.

In this example, my expenses are gas ($30), rent ($450), and Netflix ($15.99).

A Excel spreadsheet for an expense tracker.

Step 3: Track changes

Next, I create a third column that will track changes in my checking account as the money is going in and out. I do this for EACH expense or income just so I know how a single expense or income will affect the amount in my checking account.

To have Excel or Google Sheets make automatic calculations for you, in the third column you will type in “= (insert cell here) + (insert other cell here)” in the cell and type in or click on which cells you want to add up.

For clarification, you are adding the amounts up because you already made expenses subtract money in step 2.

Step 4: Make predictions on future expenses/income

I try my best to always have a running estimation or guess of how much is in my bank account before I have even spent money on an expense.

Some expenses or income are more predictable than others like monthly subscription services and paychecks (if salaried). Regardless if I know the exact value of an upcoming purchase or paycheck, I’d always rather make guess than not have it be reflected in my spreadsheet at all.

Any expense or income that I am predicting to occur will be a different color than expenses or income that have already occurred. Expenses or income that have already happened or pending I will leave as black text. In this example, predicted expenses or income are in orange text.

Step 5: Sum it all up

You can easily sum up your totals by adding the “= sum( )” into the cell at the bottom of your spreadsheet.

Using formulas in your spreadsheet makes it super easy to keep your spreadsheet is up to date because Excel or Google Sheets will automatically make the calculations for you as you add more expenses and income.

In this example, the sums are highlighted in yellow. Notice how the sum of column 1 and the last cell in column 3 are the same. I always make sure columns 1 and 3 have the same amount as an accuracy checker.

Step 6: Keeping up with your spreadsheet

The hardest part of using an Excel spreadsheet or Google Sheets to track your expenses is that you need to be constantly updating it. Budgeting apps, like Mint or You Need a Budget automatically do it for you. But I like having control over how my money is organized, so it worth the extra time and effort.

I make it a habit to update my spreadsheet each morning, right after I’ve returned home with a purchase, and/or after I receive an email with how much my next paycheck will be. It takes less than 5 minutes to make changes and I always feel more confident and in control afterward!

What’s the point of tracking my spending?

First of all, tracking your expenses can be a great way to notice trends in your spending habits. The more consistent you are with tracking the more trends you will start to notice in your spending.

Once you recognize a trend, such as overspending on dining out, you can, for example, create a strategy or plan to reduce how much you go out to eat.

Second, tracking your spending can also prevent you from being surprised by overdraft fees. If you are being honest with your tracking and making predictions on upcoming expenses, you can determine, with data, if it is reasonable to make a purchase or if you should hold off until your next paycheck comes in.

Third, tracking your money can help you create a budget that fits your lifestyle and spending habits. We’ll talk about creating a budget next!

Create a budget

Creating a budget is essential if you want to stop spending money.

But first what is a budget? A budget is a written out plan of how you will spend your income.

You can create a budget that fits your lifestyle and/or your paycheck schedule. For example, if you get paid bi-weekly you can create a bi-weekly budget. Or if you like budgeting your money more long term and you have a predictable income you can create a monthly budget.

Regardless of how you budget your money, you need to make your budget easy to maintain, understand, and commit to.

How to create a budget from scratch

Creating a budget is easy and does not take a lot of time! But you need some information to create a budget that fits all aspects of your life.

Luckily you have been tracking your expenses and can easily pull information about your expenses like:

  • Rent/mortgage
  • Utilities (gas, electricity, water, garbage, internet, phone service, etc.)
  • Subscription services (Netflix, Hulu, car wash services, etc.)
  • Groceries/food
  • Car gas
  • Insurance

When creating a budget it is important that you prioritize paying yourself first and then budgeting for essentials, things that you NEED in order to survive, like rent/mortgage, utilities, food, gas for your car, debt payment, insurance, and your phone.

After you budget your essentials you can then budget for more fun things like new clothes, subscription services, and dining out or entertainment.

Let’s say that your monthly income (after tax) is $4000 and you are creating a budget for the month.

  • Step 1: Prioritize paying yourself and allocate that money into a separate savings account like your emergency fund or retirement account.
  • Step 2: Budget the essential expenses–the expenses that fulfill your basic needs.
  • Step 3: Add in expenses that are NOT necessary for you to live like subscription services.
  • Step 4: If you notice you are going over your budget, make changes to your life as necessary like canceling your Netflix subscription or reducing how often you grab Starbucks on your way to work.

As you can see in the example, this budget is not going to work! The expenses are over the budget by $259.98, so adjustments will need to be made. If possible, reduce or eliminate the non-essential expenses before adjusting how much you are paying yourself.

If you cut out Starbucks altogether your budget is $175.98 over your income. If you reduce your new clothes from $200 to $100 you’re now $75.98 over. Finally, reducing your dine out expenses to a once a month treat (you’ll budget for $24) will allow you to stay exactly within your budget.

You can also look into reducing the cost of your essential expenses. For example, your grocery bill can be reduced by using rebates or coupons or purchasing generic brands rather than name-brand products (i.e., Publix brand allergy medication vs Benadryl).

Personally, I like using the Fetch App which allows me to earn points every single time I scan in a receipt from the grocery store or gas station.

Whenever you scan a receipt, you can earn a minimum of 25 pts, but if you buy items listed under “special offers” you can earn even more points.

Once you earn up to a certain amount of points you can redeem your points for gift cards to Amazon, Adidas, Barnes & Nobel, Bed Bath & Beyond, Zappos, and more. Personally, I like saving up my points for an Amazon Gift Card!

If you are interested in downloading and trying out Fetch you can use my referral code to earn $2 in points.

Use cash over credit cards

Another way you can stop spending money is to use physical money–we’re talking hard cold cash–instead of your credit card. Why?

Because it is harder to give up something you can physically see being reduced versus a credit card that you just swipe through a machine and don’t see the reduction in your bank account until a few days later.

Every single time you get paid, take out the amount of money you need for all of your expenses in cash. Then every single time you make a purchase use the cash. I bet you’ll be less impulsive at the grocery store knowing you’ll have another $20 taken out of your wallet.

You can also use the envelope budget system. Essentially you will have an envelope to keep your cash in for each budget category. For example, you will have an envelope with cash allocated for your grocery store run, an envelope for dining out, and an envelope for your car’s gas.

25 money saving tips

If you are looking to stop spending money and start saving money check out these 25 money-saving tips!

Tip #1: Make your own coffee or tea at home

Getting a daily Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts coffee adds up really fast over time. Cliff’s Pebble states that the average cost of a tall Starbucks drink is $3.34. If you get a DAILY tall Starbucks drink that’s almost $1220/year.

Making your own coffee (or tea) at home can save you a ton of money in the long-run. You make a one-time purchase for a coffee maker–my boyfriend and I love our Keurig–and then you just need to make the occasional purchase of coffee beans or k-cups.

If you are anything like me and like variety and trying out new coffees I would highly recommend getting a k-cup sample box. This sampler box (my boyfriend and I absolutely loved the Cinnabon Classic Cinnamon Roll ones!) comes with 40 k-cups in 20 different varieties, which makes each cup of coffee 59 cents!

59 cents a day is $215.35/year. That’s almost 6 times LESS than a daily Starbucks.

I also like the Trader Joe’s medium roast k-cups, but if you don’t have a Trader Joe’s near you, you can get 5 boxes, each has 12 k-cups, off of Amazon. It’s a little pricier at 80 cents a k-cup, $292/year, but that’s still nothing compared to the cost of a daily Starbucks.

Tip #2: Open up a savings account that automatically rounds up

You’ll hear me rave all the time on my blog about how much I LOVE round-up features with bank accounts. Rounding up your purchases to the next dollar adds up over time and can help you create that saving mindset we talked about earlier.

Personally, I use Qapital which allows you to create rules for different financial goals you have. One of the rules you can set up is the round-up rule, which is automatically trigged each time you make a purchase.

From the round-up feature on Qapital, I have saved over $80 since June 29, 2020 (and I pulled this information on July 25, 2020). And all I had to do was set up the round-up rule for one of my savings goals and then let it do its thing!

If you want to get started with saving money with Qapital you can use my referral code to get $25 for free! I’ll get $25 as well when you sign up with my referral code.

Tip #3: Start a no-spend challenge

Starting a no spend challenge may be the kicker you need to stop spending money and start saving money.

A no-spend challenge is exactly what it sounds like: you don’t spend any money for a certain number of days.

You can tailor a no-spend challenge to your tolerance level. For example, if you are new at saving money you can try a weekend only no-spend challenge.

But, if you REALLY want to challenge yourself, try a no-spend month challenge. This blogger at Living The Debt Free Life did a 6-month no-spend challenge!

Tip #4: Meal prep

Meal prepping is great because (1) you save money and (2) you get food.

You can easily make taco bowls with meat or chicken, taco seasoning, canned corn and beans, and some cheese or roast some veggies and chicken in the oven with salt and pepper to taste.

Meal prepping can also save you time in the morning when you trying to get out the door for work or come home late one night and need something healthy and easy to prepare.

You can also meal prep breakfast and snacks too!

Here are some great meal prepping recipes you can try at home:

Tip #5: Learn how to cut your own hair

Depending on what year you’re reading this blog post in, you may have already experienced an at-home haircut by your mom (or your own twin sister in my case).

Learning to cut your own hair can save you a lot of money! If you get your haircut every 3 months that’s about $180/year ($45 was the average cost of a women’s haircut in 2016).

Tip #6: Learn how to paint your own nails

Going to the nail salon is a really nice treat yourself occasion, but getting your nails done every month or every two weeks to maintain your acrylic nails can be super costly.

Back in 2018 my sister and I got our nails done every two weeks. Or at least we tried to…

Each time I got my nails done, I would get acrylic gel nails. And while they were beautiful and made me feel put together, it was $60 every two weeks and I couldn’t financially maintain the habit.

You certainly do not have to go to the nail salon to feel put together. It is way more cost effective to buy your own nail polish, top coat, and manicure set from Amazon than it is to go out and have someone else do it.

I personally love nail polish from Sally Hansen’s Miracle Gel collection (try the color Slate R Girl) and Insta-Dri collection (try the color Expresso or Against the Grey-In) and the Seche Vite dry fast topcoat.

For nail maintenance, Tweezerman has great high-quality nail clippers and Makartt has really good nail files that you can get a 10 pack of for $9.99.

Tip #7: Find local, free movie showings

Some local parks or recreational centers will host free movie nights for members of the community. You just may need to do a bit of Googling or Facebook searching to find them.

If you know of a park or recreational center close to you, see if they have a website that lists upcoming events.

Tip #8: Get a library card

If you are looking for another method of getting free entertainment, stop by your local public library for a library card. With a library card, you will have access to a ton of free books, movies, and even access to the internet.

You can also create an account with Open Library and gain access to over 3 million digital books for free.

Tip #9: Go to a local park

Your gym membership is costly, especially if you don’t even make time to go to the gym that you pay for in the first place!

If you find yourself not regularly going to the gym, cancel your gym membership immediately, and head to your local park.

Many parks nowadays have great walking/running trails and even outdoor gyms with equipment to do upper body, lower body, and even core workouts.

And you definitely can get a super good workout in without all the expensive equipment and enjoy the great outdoors too!

Alternatively, if we aren’t a fan of working out outdoors you can always get a workout done in the comfort of your home with YouTube videos!

There are ton of fitness gurus on YouTube who are sharing workouts and helping you achieve your fitness goals from the comfort of your own home. My personal recommendations are Chloe Ting and MadFit.

Tip #10: Use a rebate app to save on everyday purchases and earn rewards along the way

Earlier in this blog post, we discussed how you could use the Fetch mobile app to earn points towards gift cards every time you scan a receipt into the app.

Besides Fetch, there are also plenty of other websites/apps that will help you save on groceries and receive money back or earn rewards such as Rakuten or Ibotta.

With Rakuten, you can receive rebates, cashback, and discounts from hundreds of stores that you regularly shop at like Sephora, Nike, Lululemon, Adidas, Aerie, Athleta, and more!

Ibotta is another cash back mobile app that allows you to earn cashback when you submit your receipt to them. They also have a Chrome browser extension that allows you to earn cashback from your online purchases. You can sign up for Ibotta with my referral code KHKFPQR and get $20!

Tip #11: Learn how to make copycat meals of your favorite restaurant food

Cooking at home can help you save a lot of money and develop healthier eating habits. When you cook at home you know what exactly is going into your food and, as mentioned earlier, you can meal prep your food and stretch out your dollar a little bit more by doing that.

If you are tired of cooking spaghetti every night or having chicken and veggies you can spice up your home cooked meals by learning how to make copycat meats of your favorite restaurant food!

Pinterest has a ton of delicious copycat recipes from your favorite restaurants like Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse, McDonald’s, Cracker Barrel, Chilies, and Chick-Fil-A.

Here are some yummy examples:

Tip #12: Take inventory of what you have

An easy way to stop spending money is to take inventory of what you already have at your house or apartment.

You can easily create a spreadsheet that lists all your household items that you commonly replenish–like milk, toilet paper, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo and conditioner, paper towels, hand soap, cleaning supplies, etc.–to help you keep a tally of how much you have left.

You can update your inventory list every single week or have it on a whiteboard which will make it easy to change the number of “inventory” you have at home.

Being able to create a shopping list knowing for the fact you are ACTUALLY running low on dish soap and toilet paper will save you so much money in the long run!

Tip #13: Opt for at-home self-care days

I think everyone deserves a good self-care day, but it can also be quite expensive depending on what your self-care involves. To save some money, try having an at home self-care day or night.

You can still feel pampered and rejuvenated by doing a facial at home, taking a hot shower or bath, and getting cozy on the couch with your favorite book and cup of coffee or herbal tea.

If you want to elevate your at home self-care look into getting products like bath bombs, an essential oil diffuser, or a cozy bathrobe and slippers.

Tip #14: Install a website blocking tool to prevent you from visiting sites you purchase from

If you are an avid shopped who needs to be stopped you can install a browser extension that “blocks” you from accessing certain sites. For example, if you shop way too much on Amazon, you can set up your extension to block you from Amazon.

These website blocker browser extensions make it difficult for you to reverse the block by making you do some ridiculous task like typing a paragraph perfectly.

The highest-rated website blocker browser extension on Google Chrome is Block Site – Website Blocker for Chrome. This extension has over 1 million users and a 4.5-star rating.

Tip #15: Hide or lock away your credit cards

If you just simply need to stop spending money perhaps the best way is to put your credit card in a time out.

If you have a safe, lock away your credit cards in there and only have a family member or significant other be able to give them back to you. Alternatively, you could physically freeze your credit card in a block of ice in your freezer.

You could also hide your credit cards in a location you rarely visit like your attic, underneath your bed, or even in your Christmas decoration box.

Tip #16: Go onto Facebook or the NextDoor app to see if people are giving away things for free

People are always moving or declutter and sometimes they don’t actually care if they giving away their items for free. They just simply want those items out of their lives.

If you are looking to save some cash on new clothes or appliances try going to Facebook Marketplace or downloading the Next Door app and see if there are people local to you giving away things.

Tip #17: Utilize blogs to get freebies

Bloggers are notorious for giving away freebies. Why? Because their job is to provide value while also growing a following that will potentially buy one of their paid products.

But before a blogger has loyal followers they have to give away things–like checklists, mini eBooks, resource lists, etc.–to build trust and a relationship with their audience. With that being said, you can find a ton of freebies by going to blogs. And in exchange, all you have to do is provide your email address.

Here are some cool freebies bloggers are giving away *usually* in exchange for your email address:

Tip #18: Switch to digital planning

Paper planners are a great way to organize your life from every angle, but they can get pretty pricey and what if you accidentally leave your planner at home or it gets water spilled on it?

You can save money and prevent your whole life plan for the next year from getting ruined by water damage by switching to a digital planner. With a digital planner, you can take your planner anywhere and your events/contacts/time blocking/etc. are able to be synced over the internet too.

Personally, I like using Google Calendar and Google Keep (they’re free!) to organize my life. If you have an iPad you can also find really beautiful Good Notes planner templates on Pinterest or Etsy for a more customized digital planner experience.

Tip #19: Unsubscribe from store emails

One of the most tempting things is sale emails from your favorite store or online boutique. And they just LOVE pulling you in with “last chance sale” or “biggest sale of the year.” Even though we all know that those sales are coming back in a few weeks, if not, a few months.

These email tactics are an impulse buyer’s worst enemy and can lead you to spend unnecessary amounts of money on items you probably don’t need.

One simple way (that you can literally do right now) to combat these emails from stores is to unsubscribe from them. It does take a few minutes to go through all your emails and hit the unsubscribe button at the bottom of the email, but your wallet will thank you.

Also, if you have a Gmail account they have a function that allows you to unsubscribe from emails using the “Report Spam” button. When you click on that button it will ask you if you want to “Report Spam and Unsubscribe” or “Report Spam.”

Tip #20: Don’t go grocery shopping on an empty stomach

Shopping at the grocery store on an empty stomach is just asking for trouble. When you are hungry you’ll want to buy EVERYTHING and ANYTHING that you see is yummy. And you’ll probably make yourself feel better by telling yourself, “oh I’m just grabbing a quick lunch.”

Pro-grocery shopping tip: don’t go shopping on an empty stomach. You’re way more likely to stick to your actual grocery list and remain focused while shopping. Also, studies have shown that going grocery shopping on an empty stomach may cause you to buy more high-calorie foods!

Tip #21: Track your calories

Who doesn’t love eating? Food is amazing, but it is pricey. And often, you don’t realize how much you are consuming day-to-day. All the food you are eating does add up over time and can cost you not only money but weight gain too.

One way to become more self-aware of your eating habits is to simply track your calories. You can download a calorie counting app, my personal favorite is My Fitness Pal (it’s free), and start logging your meals.

You don’t have to calorie count with the intention of losing or gaining weight. Let your calorie counting app to be a tool to help you become more aware of how much you are consuming.

You may be surprised how much you are actually consuming and start reducing your food intake, and as a result, reducing how much you spend on groceries.

Tip #22: Volunteer

If you are looking to make friends, gain experience, learn new skills, or get out into your own community without spending much money try volunteering. Volunteering is also incredibly rewarding and can make a huge difference in other people’s lives and communities.

Additionally, you can find volunteer opportunities that fit your lifestyle and future goals. For example, if you want to become a teacher, volunteer to mentor kids in your community, or coach a local soccer team. Or if you love animals, volunteer to spend time with animals at a local animal shelter.

If you are looking for volunteer opportunities, do a quick Google search for volunteer opportunities near you, see if there are any listings in your local newspaper, search on VolunteerMarch.org, or make a post on Facebook about seeking out volunteer opportunities.

Tip #23: Monetize your talents, hobbies, or knowledge to earn money

Some people don’t realize how valuable their current knowledge or skills are. However, your talents, hobbies, and knowledge can be monetized and turned into your own side hustle or even full-time job one day.

For instance, if you are a math genius, and enjoy helping others understand math, become a math tutor. Or if you enjoy making crafts, why not try to start an Etsy store? Maybe you are savvy with HTML/CSS, why not start making websites for other people and selling website templates?

Tip #24: Audit your social media

Just like your email inbox, the social media platforms you are on and who you follow on them can hinder your ability to save money and instead make you want to just spend money.

The influencers you follow, while most of the time are inspiring and helpful, can also be a danger to your wallet. Influencers, at the end of the day, are trying to make money off of you because it is their job. Getting you to buy their product or products from affiliate links is their end goal, even if they don’t explicitly tell you. I mean, no one wants to work for free right?

If you are finding yourself “adding to cart” each time your favorite influencer recommends a product she just can’t live without–stop–and maybe mute her for awhile or unfollow her altogether.

In the grand scheme of things, you do not need even half of what influencers are promoting. And even if you do, you probably can find a cheaper alternative that works just as well.

Take 10 minutes one day and do a social media audit. Be honest with yourself and mute or unfollow any influencer that triggers your desire to spend money or makes you feel inadequate for not having “X” item. Trust me, you’ll feel a weight lifted off your shoulders and your wallet will be super happy!

Tip #25: Create a budget

The final tip I’ll be sharing with you to help you stop spending money is to create a budget. Creating a budget can be a huge money saving game changer. With a budget, you are able to be more intentional about your money and know when you actually have wiggle room in your finances to splurge or treat yourself with.

And if you combine a budget and an expense tracker, you have an award-winning money-saving strategy that just takes a little bit of time each week or month to keep up-to-date.

If you need a refresher on how to create an expense tracker or budget, do a “CTRL+F” on this blog post page and search for “How to create an expense tracker in Excel or Google Sheets” and “How to create a budget from scratch.”

Concluding thoughts on how to stop spending money (and start saving money)

Your money can be your best friend or your worst enemy. And it can be a challenge to change your toxic spending habits into healthy ones. But I know you are fully capable of making the change!

In this blog post we discussed how to stop spending money by developing a money-saving game plan to help you:

  • Figure out why you spend so much money
  • Change your mindset–saving > spending
  • Create an expense tracker
  • Create a budget
  • Utilize cash > credit cards

And then we discussed 25 different money saving strategies you can try out to help you save more money!

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Thanks for reading these how to stop spending money tips.

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