It is not easy to go from living above your means to living below your means. It is, though, actually quite beneficial. I audit my finances every few weeks. I find it so beneficial, and it allows me to see exactly where my money is going. The reason is that I never keep the budget in full steam. Things happen all of the time. This means I will incur debt, and things will get paid, but I will also be accumulating what needs to be paid and then repaid.
There are habits that I have accumulated and consider consistently. Here are a few that I find to be helpful:
I have stopped impulse spending. I LOVE books. I love to read, and buying books is so common and second nature to me that it has become quite problematic in the past. Breathing does not cost me money, but buying books keeps adding up. This was the case with pens for me at one point. I stopped doing that. Now my new habit is to read what I have. I already have so much that there is no reason to get anything new. The same holds true for finding free sources of books, which I never looked into without being mindful of my spending. You see, I often want to share my books with others. I have no desire to keep them, so I may try to sell them, or more often than not, donate them. I have begun buying used books not only because they are less expensive but also because they are a form of paying it forward. First, the books often cannot be sold. Many times, no one wants to buy them. Many times I will have lost money even when buying used books. Second, and the brighter side of this, is that while I may “lose” in the used-books process, I still gain the stories and history that come with the books. I have begun to cherish this. I not only get to save on their price, but also get to see where these books have come from. I can have the same experience from a library book. I can have a similar experience from a book swap. And third, and this is usually the clearest reason for many, I can use many for free, read them, return them, and there is no need to keep them and move on from the book.
And so, this has changed a lot. I do not always do it perfectly. I still have moments when I see something for $3.86, and it’s less about the price than about reading it next. But here is the thing: I’ve picked up another habit. I have started a To Be Read (TBR) list, which helps me remember the book’s title and know when I can read it. Then I buy it. If I buy it, it’s because it’s next. If I don’t know that it is a certainty, I may add it to my basket and then move it to my wish list.
It has become very important, so the TBR list matters. Looking at what I have that’s pending matters a lot, too. I can always keep adding, but I have the choice of adding to the bookshelf or the lack thereof, and the floor space I have available, or I can feel a bit more relieved because there have been many times that after buying the book, I receive it, and then it’s not the next one. So, I try to live and to learn.
I have that choice today.
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