Money Management Help Part 1

Keeping Yourself Out of a Cycle of Debt

Get Back on Track with Budgeting Bootcamp

Are You Making These Money Mistakes?

How Today’s Debt Affects Tomorrow’s Retirement

Are You a Shopaholic?

Money Management Help Part 2

5 Lessons Learned from the Recession

Is the Era of Spending Over?

Curing the Holiday Debt Hangover

Return of the Expenses

Often times, when people begin paying serious attention to their finances they end up going through what’s referred to as the “splurge and purge” cycle. It is basically the cycle of saving your money very carefully for a period of time, only to relapse later and go on a huge spending spree. Usually, we’re simply too hard on ourselves and cut back so much that we eventually have to splurge. By putting yourself on too strict of a budget, you’re asking for the return of the expenses and it probably won’t be pretty. If you really want to end the debt cycle, follow these tips and stop the expenses for good!

Stopping the Expenses

• Don’t just avoid spending, avoid behavior that leads to it – You may be able to avoid buying things most of the time, but still find yourself visiting those electronic stores or surfing the web pages of online retailers. You won’t be able to make any real changes until you ditch this mindset and stop tempting yourself by visiting these places.
• Evaluate yourself over a longer period – Your short term spending isn’t nearly as important as what happens over the longer term. Evaluate yourself over a period of 6 months as opposed to one month.
• Constantly set new goals for yourself – You should always be planning new goals to curb spending or to save money. Try saving a certain amount of money over a month or even just a week.
• Don’t let one mistake ruin your goals – Just because you splurged one time doesn’t mean you have to give up on your goals entirely. After you’ve overspent, you simply have to get back on track.
• Make changes you can’t easily undo – Often times, we find our will to save weakening, which is why you should make changes that you can’t easily undo should you have a relapse. Cut up your credit cards, cancel services, and anything else you can do to avoid falling back into debt.
• Find less expensive things you enjoy – Many people find themselves getting bored after saving for a period of time. They may not be able to do all the things they were used to doing. During this time, it’s important to look for new things you might enjoy that won’t damage your budget.

Additional Resources:

• 7 Steps to Debt Relief
• Zombie Debt: The Bills That Won’t Die