10 Biggest Spending Excuses and How to Squash Them | Living Frugally | Psychology Of Money | LearnVest – Where life gets richer.

This is a great article from LearnVest, one of my favourite blog sites.

I know that I could have and lots of my clients will identify with at least some of these! “it’s on Sale”!!

Do any particularly resonate with you? I’d love to know which ones are your favourites.

My arm is going to be in a sling for 6-8 weeks so I’ll be quiet for a while so keep up the good work and I’ll be back as soon as I can.

http://bit.ly/rdLMrQ

I have been thinking that if I was still an overspender, then these would have been just too much temptation for me.

I’m not saying that I don’t use them now, because I do. However I always make sure of two things:-

I  only use them for purchases which I would make anyway, eg for restaurants where I regularly go or where we have been wanting to go for some time. Now I can go and eat more cheaply or go with my partner and enjoy a cheaper evening out.

Secondly, I pay for them with my debit card not credit card and  account for the amount I have spent immediately on my Spending Plan. This means that the amount spent has to come out of the money I had planned to spend on eating out this month anyway.This keeps my spending  conscious and within the amount I had planned to spend anyway.

How are you using these daily deal sites? Do you keep them within your monthly spending or budget plan or do you find yourself spending more than you intended to spend just because it’s a bargain? I’d love to hear your thoughts and the way you are using them.

Here in Auckland we are challenging the  lowest ever maximum temperature of 7.8. Currently, at just after 3pm, the Met Service tells me that the temperature is 7.4 but feels like 3, with the wind chill! Now I know that that is positively balmy for some of you further south, but it’s cold for here! A great day though for indoor activities. So, if you are getting sick of reading, doing puzzles and can’t find anything on TV, maybe you could do some work on your finances.

Now I actually think that work like this needs elevating in the priorities but anytime is better than never!

Some things for you to consider:

1. By paying your bills on time you never have to pay late fees on anything. This not only saves you money but also protects your credit rating, which will be very important if you need to apply for a loan eg a mortgage. So why not use some of this time you have now to set up automatic payments or direct credits to pay your monthly bills.
2. If you’re a book reader go onto your library’s website and work out how you reserve books for the future. Then when next you are in a bookstore and really want to buy the latest John Grisham you can instead order it from the library. Now I’m not trying to put bookstores out of business nor cause serious impact on author’s sales, but if you are trying to save  money or having trouble making ends meet, this will help out. I do this all the time and seldom have to wait very long for a book at all.
3. Check out your insurance policies. Do you need more insurance? ( eg contents, life, mortgage protection, income protection) or maybe you no longer have dependents and your mortgage is close to being paid off, so do you still really need that life insurance policy? Maybe it would be better put towards health or income protection? Make an appointment with an insurance broker or your adviser to get them sorted out. (Mentioning Sorted go to www.sorted.org.nz – a great NZ financial site and explore it!)
4. Check out your wardrobe. Are there things in there that you have forgotten about? Need repairs or alteration?  If you can make your wardrobe go further you can reduce the need for new clothes or maybe with the addition of some new accessories brighten and freshen up a favourite outfit. Maybe a new blouse or shirt will just make it last another season.
5. Make three financial goals. For example: How much would you like to have saved by this time next year? Does this weather make you really serious about needing a holiday somewhere warm next winter? How much will you need and how are you going to save it? ( Holidays on credit cards are good examples of “dumb” debt – see a previous post http://wp.me/pDpjD-3z)

What are your financial goals? I’d love to hear them.

So, keep warm, and just know that if you do these things your time stuck indoors will have been well spent!

Some great ideas in this article from the San Francisco Chronicle.

MP Dunleavey (www.mpdunleavy.com), who is also a columnist for MSN Finance, talks about The G.O.O.D. (get out of debt!) secret – Save.

One of the tips she has to help you is getting a BFB to hold your hand.

What do you think? Would it help you? Do you keep your money worries to yourself?

I’d love to hear what you think or any experience you have had.

Mine has been, and continues to be, my Financial Recovery counsellor, Danielle Ray. (www.integrativefinancialcounseling.com) She has been invaluable.

PS MP’s other tips are fantastic too!

I have been struggling with some physical health issues for some months now and just before Christmas decided that I could no longer continue to work whilst dealing with such pain. After discussions with my health professionals I stopped work and claimed on my income protection insurance. Whew!! It was such a relief. At last I could concentrate on getting better and not be struggling to get more work so that I could continue to meet my financial obligations.

Over the years I have often complained about the cost of my income protection insurance and wondered at it’s value.  I had been well then of course. Now I just cannot tell you how it has eased my mind and my life. If I hadn’t had that regular money coming in I would not have been able to afford much of the physio, massage etc that I’ve had. Maybe not even all of the medication. I’d long been over my limits of my health insurance. More on that later.

I believe that without it, my recovery, which is still ongoing, would have been severely compromised. Most of all I would have had to rely on a sickness benefit, which, whilst better than nothing, wouldn’t have covered much. I know that I would have been constantly worrying about money and how I was going to pay my bills. I would have gone through much of my savings.

So what do I advise my clients. Firstly, I recommend they see an insurance broker or some other well qualified professional. However, in general terms I tell them the following:-

• life insurance is for those who have dependents. ie if you were to die today (perish the thought) how would your partner and family manage?
• Income protection is for those who rely on their health to generate an income. This particularly means the self employed.
• Health Insurance is for those who want to have some say on the timing of elective surgery eg joint replacements, cataract surgery
• House and contents is advisable. The Christchurch earthquakes have given many of us a salutary lesson.

I only make suggestions as I am not a professional insurance advisor but these recommendations are based on my own personal experience and that of my clients.

I do not make any suggestions on business or professional insurance.

Many people have unnecessary insurances and we have all heard the stories of those who do not have any!

Get some professional advice on your insurance needs. Do you have enough insurance? Do you think you have too much? I’d appreciate your comments.

I’m never going to complain about the costs of my Income Protection insurance again. I might complain actually, but I’ll keep on paying it; I know how valuable it is!

Over the years, I’ve gotten in touch with my own spending triggers. Knowing them has helped me avoid being triggered in the first place and better able to analyze my own overspending when it does happen. Thinking about triggers also helps us not beat ourselves up so bad. Everyone overspends sometimes. But if you can then think about WHY you spent the way you did, you’re less likely to fall into that trap again. Yes, you can actually use overspending as a personal growth experience!

Here are four kinds of triggers:

Emotional State Trigger: Many of us overspend if we are emotionally triggered. It can be similar with eating. If we just had an awful fight with our husband, we may turn to food to make us feel better or we may spend money to feel better. Sometimes we spend when we are depressed. We feel like buying something to lift our spirits. Sometimes we spend when we are lonely. What about you? In what emotional state are you most likely to overspend? If you name it, you can come up with some alternatives before that feeling hits you. Besides ice cream and the mall, what else would make you feel better?

Situational Trigger: Sometimes it doesn’t matter what emotional state we’re in. We know that when we go shopping with our friend Ellen, we tend to overspend. Or we may notice that whenever we are kid-free, we head to the mall to relax. Some situations just lend themselves to overspending. For me, when I had an entire day to myself with no plans, I could easily overspend. Once I identified this, I was able to stop spending simply because I had no plans! (This was also likely related to my divorce. I suddenly had some weekends without my son and I felt a bit “adrift”. This just goes to show you that many situational triggers have an emotional component to them as well.)

Location Trigger: Some places trigger me, no matter how I’m feeling. Certain places just seem designed to suck money out of my wallet. For me, it is the center isle of Costco, where all those “you never know what will be there/ great values” lurk. I’ve had countless clients report the same thing- the dangers of that alluring isle. I also get triggered at Bed, Bath and Beyond. I walk in there and I just want to spend money. If you are trying to be careful with your spending, it may be best to stay away from certain locations, unless you’ve got a solid plan for how you want to spend your money.

Bio Trigger: People tend to spend more when they are hungry. So if you are hungry, don’t go shopping! Eat first, plain and simple. I’m not saying that you don’t want to go out to lunch when you go out shopping. But if you hit the mall or your errands on an empty stomach, you tend to overspend without thinking through your plan. You get a bit “fuzzy” and power through your shopping, throwing money at things instead of stopping to take care of yourself first.

So what about you? What your triggers? For each of these four areas, can you come up with a personal example? The more you think about this, the less likely you are to blindly overspend.

We all have our triggers. Name yours.

I’ve written about this before but here’s an article I’ve just read on finances and relationships. It discusses not only hiding purchases, but also hiding debt from partners.

Our upbringing has a huge impact on how we view and manage money. Our partners may well have been raised very differently; consequently they also have different views on what’s OK to spend money on or not.

Communicate, communicate and communicate and if you still can’t sort it out – get professional help.