Why is it so hard to face the truth, America? When we’re broke, we don’t need to ‘budget’ or download an app to ‘track our spending.’ What we need to do is STOP SPENDING MONEY. Yes, we need to eat, pay our bills, and put gas in the car to get to work. But if we’re living paycheck to paycheck, and spending every dollar, we’re not really ‘living’ paycheck to paycheck—we’re just spending foolishly and complaining about being stuck.
We don’t walk into a convenience store for any reason. We don’t dine out. We don’t drop $7 on coffee or waste $9 on energy drinks to ‘get through the day.’ And we certainly don’t DoorDash $30 for lunch. We stop spending. Be frugal. Quit running to the grocery store three times a week when we’ve already got enough food in the fridge, freezer, and pantry to feed our household for days. When we stop pulling money out of our wallet and stop draining our bank account, guess what? That money starts to add up. It’s not complicated. It’s about discipline. Get serious and stop the spending!
my mom is one that absolutely cannot stop spending money. complains of her over $50k in credit card debt, but doesn’t do anything to curb spending to pay it off. It’s a true addiction for her to spend. She literally cannot help it or stop. I have recommended counseling, but she doesn’t want help. “I can’t take it with me so may as well spend it while I can”, problem is she WAY overspends and then cries over the debt.
But you are spot on with “not spending”. But most people don’t think about that.
I am one that dislikes even needing to spend, even on the necessities. I have wants, and plenty of them, and probably have the budget to get those wants, but I just don’t because they would likely go unused anyway, so why waste the money?
She followed my advice and stopped whining about her debt since she couldn’t manage her spending. She had also mentioned that she was attempting to leave my sibling and I with as little as possible. The fact that my sibling and I would be left with nothing but the house and furniture if she and my dad spent all of their money before they passed away would not bother me in the slightest, but the fact that we were in such severe debt and continued to whine about it without doing action was really upsetting.
LOL, it sounds like my father-in-law. He often laments his lack of money, but instead of saving it for his final days, he spends it on weekend getaways since he doesn’t want to leave any of his hard-earned cash to his children.
Yes, I’m not relying on anything at all. Spending time with them and their grandchildren is more important to me than worrying about what will become of me other than memories. My sibling definitely inherited the spending side; I did not. My dad was extremely frugal and taught me to “save, save, save.”