Millennials and Gen Z are interested in using their money wisely and enjoying the perks of earning on their own. Many of them have shifted to the work hard, play harder mindset as it becomes a worldwide perspective that working hard can achieve more of your goals — not just working hard, hustling smarter as well. As much as we want to exercise our financial literacy, having another perspective won’t hurt you.
Saving up and budgeting the right way are just some little money management methods advised to people with this kind of goal. Apparently, at times these are not enough. For the current economic climate that we’re in right now, what if this method is no match for the growing expenses many of us go through?
At this rate, instead of exhausting ourselves to find ways to earn more, perhaps you can consider cutting costs for now. Start by knowing where you spend your hard-earned money and know which ones you can let go of. Here are some basic things we spend on and how we can cut them off to save more money.
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Online Shopping
Online shopping is one of the many things Millennials and Gen Z included spend on. Almost every month, e-commerce apps have monthly sales going on, and that young people anticipate. Sounds familiar right? Of course, most of us can feel guilty.
Buying new clothes, shoes, even new phones. They are a never-ending process of add-to-cart checkouts to the point that we purchase things we don’t need but acquire them because of the sale and discounts.
One effective way to save ourselves from falling into this rabbit hole is to prioritize what we need. You can practice the 7-day rule where you will only add your desired item to the cart after a week of thinking it through. Talk to yourself and ask: Do I need this? Will this be useful to me?
If you are considering upgrading to a new phone, especially the latest iPhone model, maybe you might consider sticking to your old one and contacting an iPhone repair shop to fix whatever issues you have with it.
Maybe it’s just lagging or a few dents that can be replaced. Sometimes not having the latest gadget and saving up instead can save you for the best one out there. You can channel this impulse into listing your ideal phone features and waiting for the right time to purchase.
Food
With food trends circulating on social media, a lot of us are up to the chase to have a taste. We’re always satisfying our cravings like having a get-together and eating in a restaurant with friends or buying food we crave for a me-time.
These kinds of urges are hard to put on the side and simply saying to hold back from your cravings is futile. As an alternative, you can start by picking just one craving per week as a treat to yourself. Then every two weeks until you can do it once per month or better yet, buy whenever you have excess from your savings and expenses, or when there’s an occasion.
Spending on food is inevitable since it is one of our basic needs, but having to splurge is something entirely different and controllable.
Gaming & Entertainment
During the pandemic, most of us were privileged enough to work at home and provide more time to play games and catch up with our backlogs of series and movies. But some of us took this a bit overboard.
If your goal is to save up, instead of putting a big sum of money into gaming, you can limit spending on it during special occasions. Like food, you can gradually decrease your expenditure in this area.
For subscriptions, it would be helpful if you get a premium account with your peers, and split the expenses between all of you. Make sure they can pay monthly or according to your agreed frequency. That’s spending smart and enjoying the perks simultaneously.
Debt Payment
As surprising as it may be, some of us have a debt to pay like student loans, mortgages, or accumulated liabilities. There were financial decisions that we were not able to dodge that may have turned to a disadvantage.
With this matter, you should prioritize paying your debt to save easier. Once you no longer have a debt to pay, the amount you allotted in paying your debt can go straight to your savings.
Travel
A lot of Millennials and Gen Z have a list of travel goals, and some wish to travel the world. Wouldn’t it be nice to escape and have an escapade? To learn a new culture and experience it personally. You can take lots of photos to share online.
But not everyone can afford to travel in this current state, so if you look forward to traveling, you should build patience and discipline to mark them off your bucket list for now. If traveling is not a necessity for you, hold it off until you are financially ready to be in another place. Better to be safe than to be held off by immigration.
If these expenses are unavoidable for you, consider having additional streams of income. Build up and grind hard to play hard.
As we get accustomed to the current way of the world, we shouldn’t let this easily influence our values and priorities. At this current phase of adulting, we should try to know ourselves better, observe where these desires come from, and grant ourselves the ability to have judgment with how we spend our money.
Meta title: How to Be Financially Smart With Your Spending
Meta desc: It might be difficult to control expenses, but it is necessary, especially if you’ve just started earning. Read on to learn how you can be smarter when it comes to spending your income.
