Most people spend every dime they make, often before they make it. They spend it on movie tickets they don’t need, food they could’ve cooked, and knick-knacks they can’t afford — swiping the credit card and digging themselves deeper into debt with every purchase.
Savings can never grow when your spending constantly chips at the mountain.
You’re ready for a change, especially with the new year coming. You don’t want that headache anymore. You want to feel free from the mental stress of your debt.
How can you be free or save anything if you keep spending on things you don’t need?
Saving money means learning to say no. Saying no will keep your money straight because you know what you want. It doesn’t mean you’ll never be able to spend again; it means you’re willing to hold out until it’s the right thing to do.
Reducing debt means prioritizing your payments on it. When your friends want to go out to eat, you must treat your battle with debt as most important. Focus on the coming months, and your goal at their end. Once you’ve made a significant impact on your debt, it’ll be okay to say yes occasionally.
Set yourself up for success so that you can go out again… so that you can feel free.
Spending Freeze 2013 is your commitment to making this coming year your best financial year yet; it’s your first step toward sustainable freedom. Does that mean you’ll go out and spend on whatever you want after the freeze is over? No, but you’ll make your best progress ever toward being able to do that in the next year.
Spending Freeze 2013 is a program that you put yourself on, and maintain, vowing to only spend money on what you need, and never on things you don’t. By participating in Spending Freeze 2013 (there’s nothing to do but make a commitment to yourself), you’ll reduce your debt and put more cash back in your own pocket.
A spending freeze helps you prioritize. By relearning the difference between needs and wants, you’ll retrain yourself to stop and consider whether you really need that new sweater. You don’t have one and it’s 30ºF out, but does it need to cost $75? Probably not.
Success comes from habit. The Spending Freeze will help you form the habit of asking yourself whether you truly need something before wasting your money. To stop and consider necessity. A year of diligence will turn you into a different spender.
Our society makes it easy to believe the lie, “I need it NOW, so let me put it on my card and I’ll just pay it later.”
Our cards are crutches allowing us to live a life we can’t afford.
Spending Freeze 2013 is your path to burning that mentality from your mind. You’ll learn what it’s like to live without relying on plastic, and every penny you earn will go to paying down what you owe or to buying essentials.
Anna Newell Jones put herself on a spending freeze in January 2010, and in 15 months, she paid down $23,605. Enact your own spending freeze this coming year, and see how much debt you can get rid of!
The 2013 Spending Freeze Guidelines
Determine what you need versus what you want. If it isn’t paying off your debt, home, or bills, don’t buy it.
Set a limit on wants (or, if you’re up for the challenge, don’t spend on non-essentials at all).
Consider the kids when considering needs. Even if you can get away without buying anything for yourself for a year, it isn’t reasonable to think they can. Factor in an allowance for yourself to spend on them or to give to them.
Pay your bills and debt first, buy your groceries (don’t forget about “needs and wants” here, too), then either put away the rest for savings or split it between savings and debt repayment.
Consider giving yourself $100 each month to spend on whatever you want to ease the frustration of the freeze until 2014 is in sight.
Take part in the 2013 Spending Freeze and set yourself free.
What tips do you have for cutting back in 2013?
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{ read the comments below or add one }
Count me in! I will be freezing in 2013. But I have been forced to freeze slowly ever since I maxed out our credit card last year. One thing we do is we each have an allowance. We started that from the beginning of our marriage 18 years ago as a way to control expenses.
Save money for the next steps in your lives. It is more difficult to plan while the economy slumps, but you have to do it.
If I am not mistaken in 1968 the credit card was a new concept . The total credit then was 8 Billion but now the total exceeds 880 Billion according to the Federal Reserve . I remember about 6 or 7 years ago a Chase.Com commercial on T.V. said , ” I want it all , I want it all , I want it NOW .” Remember when Bush spoke about the ” Ownership Society ” , everyone has a right to own their own home . The government coerced Banks to loan money to even the social misfits , the losers who never learned monetary disapline , did not have a decent job , no savings , only debt. The loans were labeled N.I.N.J.A. loans . No income , no job , no assets . [ only debt ] The government and the Banksters lowered interest rates and offered ” teaser loans ” to lure the suckers in. ” A fairly percentage of the lumpen masses don’t have the foggiest notion about compound interest and its cost or value in savings . Our Educational system should teach this to Jr. High and High School kids considering its value if you want to succeed in life . Wall Street , the Banksters and our politicians are little more than Con Artists , legalized Mafia . Credit cards / 18 % + interest . What a racket . Slavery has once again been legalized but now they do not discriminate , whites are also allowed to become indentured servants their entire life . Wait until you retire and can no longer work and have no savings to help carry you thru for the next 15 years or so . Le Misarable .
What Fools Ye Mortals Be .
You’re preaching to the choir! Most of us probably live this lifestyle without needing to be challenged. How do we spread the word in a non-preachy manner? -AJ
My expenses for this year is projected to be lower than last year and I’m planning on making it even lower for 2013. Refinancing helped, but disciplined spending habits helped even more.
It can be done!