How to Stop Spending Money: 9 Ways

Knowing how to stop spending money is an art. It’s going to save you in times of financial distress and if you do it for a number of years, it can set you up for life. Before knowing how to not spend money, you need to first understand yourself. Figure out why you’re spending money in the first place.

There are many ways to spend less money, almost to the point where you have no spending days. I have quite a few of them, myself. How I got to that point is when I figured out when I was overdoing something. Take simple things like eating, for example. I started eating less, not to save money.

But because I figured out I was overeating. In January 2022, I lowered my eating costs down to $5 per day. Not only did it help my waistline, it helped my wallet. I didn’t eat bad food either, I ate very well with veggies, meats, and the like. It was the classic example of killing two birds with one stone.

As far as entertainment goes, I use Youtube videos as entertainment and/or hanging out with friends in the park. These are free activities that doesn’t require anything else but time to do. My house is fully stocked with furniture, clothes, electronics, and anything that I could possibly want.

The best purchase I made in the past year was purchasing a sparkling water maker. It only costed $100 and it’s brought me so much joy since I bought it. After which, there wasn’t really anything that I needed in order to keep me alive. How to stop spending money starts with eliminating overconsumption and overeating.

How to Stop Spending Money: 9 Ways

One way to know how to stop spending money is to SMACK that social share button and post to your favorite social media! Overconsumption is so common these days, imagine just how much your friends’ lives could be better with this article.

So with that said, let’s get into how you can stop or spend less money.

1) Understand Why You Are Spending Money

There’s a reason behind each purchase. It could be either to keep you alive by keeping your belly full. Or it could be because you want to eat something delicious and decadent today. Whatever it is, there’s a reason for you to spend money. Find out and figure out what they are.

Then see if it’s a valid expense that you can cut out. My mom used to spend $100 every two weeks for groceries only for the food to end up in the trash. We ate like a king! However, we could’ve done better to be more efficient with our spending and help the environment at the same time.

How to stop spending money has to start with figuring out the reason for spending money in the first place. It could be to keep up with the Joneses or it could be to impress people at work. You have to find the underlying root reason for the purchases in order to make changes to it, if there needs to be changes.

2) Track Every Dollar

The second task to know how to stop spending money is to track the dollars that are going out and the dollars that are going in. Your money is an important part of you. Don’t let a dollar go to waste because a dollar is actually a powerful tool in your life.

When I started out my personal finance journey, I meticulously kept tabs of every dollar through a budget. Every dollar had a purpose whether it had to go towards rent, food, utilities, entertainment, insurance, and the like. There would of course be money leftover for a fun budget for my dollars.

It will be tedious at times and you will have to do so for a year or two. After the year or two passes is when you can start loosening up and caring less about every dollar. Why? You’re used to it and it becomes second nature. However, you have to put in the legwork in order to get there first. Putting in your dues is great.

3) Find Ways to Trim the Fat

There are always ways to trim the fat. With a 7% inflation rate, it’s more important than ever to cut back on costs. One of my favorite restaurants, Raising Cane’s, raised their prices by a whopping 10% where I live. That’s insane! That means I can eat less Cane’s for the same amount of dollars I spent last year.

Restaurants are notorious for this. They raise a $10 item by $1 and think that consumers won’t notice. Why? I mean, it’s only one dollar. What’s the harm! Customers don’t realize that’s a 10% increase in food costs. That’s more than the inflation rate of 7%. It makes a huge difference by the end of it all.

There’s always a way to trim the fat. It doesn’t have to be a $1,000 budget. It can be those little $1 or $2 a here budget that makes the leaky bucket idea go in motion. The little purchases do add up to big differences by the end of it all. My highest aggregate credit card balance was at $500 in January 2022. I like it.

How to stop spending money can be by trimming the fat.

4) Go on a Stop Spending Money Challenge

There are many of these and they are very popular. Some of these include going on a one month no spend challenge. Now, obviously, don’t stop spending on things that keep you alive. Things like rent and food are essential expenses that you must spend on. However, on other extraneous things, consider cutting back.

Instead of knowing how to stop spending money, actually spend no money. You’ll realize it declutters your mind more often than you think. We over-consume things much more than we realize. Society teaches us that you need to have stuff in order to be happy. No.

No amount of stuff is going to fix any amount of emotions you feel on a day to day basis. I find it especially painful when I have to throw away so much stuff that I bought in the past year. For stuff that I thought was cool and novel only to end up in landfill later. You don’t need to spend as much money as you think.

5) Stop Going Out to Things that Cost Money

There are many free events around town to take advantage of. Now, don’t get me wrong, the events that cost money are pretty great. I’ve gone to a Freddie Mercury classical concert downtown. Wow, was that an event that I don’t ever want to forget. However, that doesn’t mean that great free events don’t exist.

I’ve gone to free classical concerts at the park, or to a flea market and browsing the different selections. There are many great things to do around town, you just have to go and find them. For example, my city has a “365 things to do in the city” guide that updates every week.

Some of these are free events and some are not. However, what’s important is that there are different resources out there to explore the city. I’ve been to an art museum for free and it was nice to implement all of the art history lessons I learned in college classes. That’s how to stop spending money.

6) Tune Out Others

Now, you will get a lot of pushback from others if you tell them you’re doing this. They will call you “cheap” or literally laugh at your face. That’s OK. That’s when you get to see who your real friends are. I’ve had those things literally happen to me. None are my friends today, and I love that.

You’re not trying to keep up with the Joneses, you’re trying to better your financial life. How to stop spending money doesn’t just mean managing your own choices. It also means knowing how to respond to others. Learning to ignore and let them criticize you while you get rich is one aspect you will have to learn.

Others are going to attack you in ways that they never thought was possible. Then after 10 years passes, and you can easily afford a 5-star vacation while they have to wait for their bonus just to stay alive, is when you know you made it. Sacrificing today for a better tomorrow is the way to go.

7) Only Accept Invitations to Things You’ll Enjoy

I’ve been here before. A friend would ask me to a concert I wasn’t particularly interested in. Or to listen to a comedian that I wasn’t interested in either. Ruthlessly cut back on expenses that doesn’t matter to you and spend lavishly on things that don’t matter to you.

When an event doesn’t give you joy, it’s not a bad idea to politely decline. That’s how to stop spending money. Say yes to things that you know you’ll enjoy and are interested in. Otherwise, you’re spending money for the sake of spending money. You’re not spending money on things that give you joy.

Last year, I accepted a wedding invitation, bachelor party, floating down the river, and the like. It was a TON of fun. Those are experiences I was more than happy to dish out money for. Why? Those are experiential that gave me meaning. I will never forget things like that in my life happening to me.

8) Reevaluate “Deals”

There are many deals that tout “buy one get one off”! Or many Black Friday deals that say, “20% off today!” Well guess what’s better than 20% or 50% off? 100% off! It’s not a sale unless you were going to buy the item anyway. I love shopping and getting Black Friday deals.

However, if I wasn’t going to buy anyway, I know that it wasn’t really a deal. That’s how to stop spending money. When you know how to resist sales and deals. It’s one thing if you buy something on sale and at a discount that you were going to use. It’s another if it just collects dust.

I bought my sparkling water maker during Black Friday for $100, all-in. That includes that machine, the carbonation, flavoring, cleaning brush, bottles to pour the sparkling water in, and shipping. I thought that was a steal compared to the usual prices. There’s nothing wrong with deals, but you have to use it for it to be worth it.

9) Stop Paying Attention to Others

This is different from tuning out others. This is about not caring whether your neighbor got a new car. I could easily by a $35,000 SUV today, if I wanted to. However, I don’t want to. One of our new hires last year bought a brand new car. I took a ride in it. It’s sleek, shiny, and great.

While I was happy for him, I wasn’t going to spend the money on myself to buy a brand new SUV myself. And either choice is completely fine to do. It’s one thing to buy an SUV because you need it, it’s another to buy it because others are buying it. Don’t pay attention to what others are doing.

How to stop spending money is being happy for your friends when they buy a great new toy. But making your own choices that best benefit you in the meantime. One day, I hope to be rich in order to afford these things. It’s not going to happen in the next 2 – 3 years, but one day, it will happen.

Using How to Stop Spending Money Guide in Real Life

In my personal life, I consciously keep in mind on how to stop spending money. In my Amazon shopping cart, there sits a $250 computer monitor that I could buy but I didn’t. Instead, I just use the TV that I’m currently not using in order to connect my work laptop to the TV using an HDMI.

The TV is much bigger and doesn’t require a lot of set up for me to project the screen. That’s one example of how I don’t spend money. I could easily afford and buy a $250 expense. Instead I look at the resources that I have and take advantage of it. There’s more ways to do so in your life.

You can easily know how to spend money and apply those principles to your life. We need to spend less money than we think in order to exist. Then add on a little on top of that for fun, entertainment, and spending activities. There’s nothing wrong with that. It all starts with making conscious decisions.

It’s shocking just how much of our life is driven by money. It buys security, freedom, and a better life. It may not buy happiness but it buys a comfortable life. Once you conceptualize just how important it is, you don’t take things as trivial. A dollar that you spend has a very meaningful impact to your life.

Now that you know how to stop spending money, use it to your advantage. Every $100,000 was made using a single dollar. It makes a much more impact than you think it does. If you can differentiate yourself and get ahead just by controlling your urges, that’s a good thing. No skill required, just hard work.

How to Stop Spending Money: Shortlist

• Understand why you’re spending money
• Track every dollar
• Find ways to trim the fat
• Go on a stop spending money challenge
• Stop going out to things that cost money
• Tune out others
• Only accept invitations to things you’ll enjoy
• Reevaluate “deals”
• Stop paying attention to others