Sticking to your guns: how to form and keep to good money habits

So, you’ve got yourself a budget and on paper all looks good.  Why then is it so hard to stick to sometimes, especially with overspending or impulse buying, and what can you do to help yourself in this area?  

On average, 40% of our actions are automatic – meaning that our habits are so ingrained that even if we want to change them, we need more than just willpower and determination to do so. So try some of our suggestions to get to the root of your spending habits and impulses, and put some steps in place to make gradual (or radical!) changes. 

Laying the foundations 

Ensure you have started with a realistic budget: otherwise you’re setting yourself up to fail in the first place! If you don’t have accurate figures for your bills, for your other expenditure, and also for your income, the budget won’t work in practice and you’ll be fighting a losing battle.  So put in the time up front to work out your real-life figures – your budget will thank you for it in the long run!  Our Money Course covers setting up a budget in detail, including introducing some tools you can use to capture the details and work out a plan.  

Understand your ‘why’: what is it that you are budgeting or saving for? What’s your personal motivation for wanting to make the changes that you’re planning? If your spending is aligned to your priorities, it is less likely that you’ll be distracted, and more likely that you’ll succeed in sticking to your budget.  

Writing down an affirmation or encouraging statement works for some people – you can then look at it when times are tough, to remind you of the reason you’re doing this, or ways that you have proven in the past that you can overcome challenges, for example.
Using visual prompts is another helpful option – sticking a picture of what you’re saving up for (or what spending will mean will happen!) somewhere you’ll see it regularly can be a powerful influence on your actions. 

Put aside regular times to review your budget: this is essential, and should be done frequently at the beginning of the process - you can space out the reviews as time goes on.  Try to match the time you check your budget to your most productive time of day – are you a morning person or a night owl? Set a reminder if necessary and try hard to stick to this routine – it's so much harder to catch up, and to carry out a thorough review, if you’ve left it too long or skipped a week. 

Set small goals as well as longer-term targets if your budget involves saving up for something – this encourages us by demonstrating that it is possible to reach targets, and gives a boost to spur us onto the next step. 

Switch off from temptation: unsubscribe from emails containing discount codes and 'special offers’ - it’s not a bargain if you didn’t need it in the first place! Stop following feeds on social media which promote items for sale, and catch yourself before you wander into shops which you don’t actually need an item from.  

Work some low-cost fun into your budget in whatever form works for you, if it’s at all possible to do; if you deprive yourself of everything apart from the essentials, at some point you may find yourself turning against the budget, so consider this as a way to bolster your budget to work for you long-term. You might decide to build in incentives, such as if you manage to stick to your budget for a month, you allow yourself a small (pre-decided) treat. Plan the spending in advance and allow for it, if you can. 

Identify then change your habits: first choose the ones you want to address (buying coffee when out, shopping online after a drink or two, getting a takeaway every weekend), and then find practical ways to break those habits: get yourself a nice re-useable cup and make coffee at home, introduce a ‘sleep on it’ rule for anything bought online, or shake up your weekend menu planning with a ‘fakeaway’ cooking session or a supermarket ready-meal substitute instead of fast food / takeaway. 

Use automation to your advantage: for example, having the money for your bills moved out of your regular bank account automatically every month reduces temptation to spend what is sitting there. On our Money Course we introduce the concept of ‘piggy banking’ which can help to embed this system, using your bank accounts or digital banking app. 

Don’t be too hard on yourself: budgeting is a long haul.  Don’t worry if things go wrong – go back to the start and begin again – tomorrow is another day! 

Putting your plans into action 

Once you have these basics in place, it’s time to prepare yourself for the inevitable bumps in the road that will crop up – how will you avoid derailment and temptation along the way? 

Practise saying no! Use whatever tactics work for you to help yourself consider, and sometimes decide against, certain purchases or ways of spending your money.  Remember it’s OK to say no (or not today) sometimes – you may need to actively ‘defend’ your budget against curveballs. If you can get that message clear in your mind before you get into an unplanned situation where you are tempted to spend, your subconscious may remind you of it! 

Be conscious of social pressure: influences (and influencers!) are all around us – now more than ever with social media being so pervasive.  Remember that what you see in those perfect photos isn’t always a reflection of reality, so take it with a pinch of salt.  If you find it hard to resist the pressure of others, consider ‘unfollowing’ people, giving yourself a social media break, or even changing the people you spend time with in real life if they have a particular influence on you. 

Get someone else to support you: whether you term this a ‘budgeting buddy’, an ‘accountability partner’ or perhaps just your spouse or friend, having someone alongside you to help you stick to your plans, encourage you, hold you accountable and be the voice of your conscience when needed can be invaluable. Arrange a regular check-in with them alongside the day-to-day interaction you’ll likely have – at those meetings you can review the previous month or period, plan for the upcoming one, and review your goals.  If you’re working with someone else who’s also focusing on their budget, the help can be mutual! 

Identify your spending triggers - and then put strategies in place to try to deal with them.  Common triggers include stress, boredom, sadness, anxiety or loneliness.   Our brains are actually fighting impulses to over-eat, over-spend etc. all the time, but mostly we’re good at the defence.  However stress makes it harder to overcome those impulses – our ‘emotional immune system’ is affected and it can be harder for us to exercise self-control. Even something as simple as having a snack before going to the supermarket (addressing the trigger of hunger) can make a real difference to our desire to spend – walking the aisles with an empty stomach can mean we spend up to 60% more on food! 

To help yourself identify your spending triggers, you might like to try analysing your spending and making a note of any instances where you’ve spent money that wasn’t accounted for in your budget.  Note what was going on in your life at that time and see if there are any common themes.  Then think about other ways you might be able to deal with the causes – stress, anxiety, boredom etc. You might consider going out for a run, calling a friend for moral support, or use the desire to go online to make some money rather than spend it with a site such as Swagbucks or iSay. 

If you can identify alternatives during a period of calm, and make practical plans for how you can opt for them, you’ll be more likely to be able to employ that option at times of crisis. 

Put barriers in your own way: make it harder for yourself to impulse buy or deviate from your planned spending. Try practical tips like leaving your credit card at home, logging out of all the online shopping sites you use, taking only the amount of cash that you need out with you, or pre-loading a top-up card with the amount you need. You could also take someone along with you on a shopping trip who can remind you of your goals and help to dissuade you from impulse spending. 

Try the concept of ‘stacking’ to embed new habits: this is the idea of attaching a new habit to an existing one.  So for example, if you’re trying to avoid buying a morning coffee on your way to work, choose something from your normal morning routine that you can designate as a ‘trigger’ for making your own drink – e.g. when the 8am news comes on the radio, boil the kettle and get your reusable cup out.  Because our brains are always looking for ways to simplify what we do, an action repeated lots of times will become automatic without having to be specifically thought about. 

 
It’s important to acknowledge that changing your behaviour is a really tough thing to do for us humans – it takes time, and it’s a constant work in progress, so be kind to yourself as you’re trying out some of these suggestions! 

We’d love to hear from you with what worked, what didn’t, and any other suggestions you may have on this topic – email info@themoneycourse.org to get in touch.