Salary week is the best time to curb your spending habit and here's how to do it

Salary week is the time that every 9 to 5 earner waits for—when the money finally comes and you’re rewarded for all your hard work. Since it’s most likely that you’ve spent the entire month waiting for your salary, the chance of spending it all at once is super high.

Yes, you are more likely to walk past restaurants that you’ve never given a second thought before and think, “hmm, I should give that a try,” and then do that again ten more times.

While you might think of this as rewarding yourself for your hard work, it is actually pretty harmful. You can quickly veer into the area of overspending and before you know it, you have no savings and you’re right back where you started before you got your salary.

This is why you must curb your spending habits particularly during salary week. Turn your face away from the displays, don’t buy yourself those fancy shoes just yet, and take some money out for your savings first.

If you find that you’re not able to do this though, don’t beat yourself up. You should absolutely not give up. There are many things that you can do to ensure that you are financially healthy, especially during this period.

Try one of the five suggestions outlined below and transform your spending habits.

1. Track your spending

Tracking your spending is the key to saving more money and being financially healthy. Know why? It’s because you become accountable for every single purchase you make.

You’ll be surprised to find out that it’s the little purchases here and there that tend to make up the bulk of your purchases. When you start tracking your spending, you’ll know what to cut and what to keep.

Here are 10 best smartphone apps to track your spending with and save more.

2. Stick to cash and not credit/debit cards

Isn’t it amazing when you want to pay for something and you whip your card out just like that? The ease is fabulous. None of the stress of queueing at ATMs to withdraw money. No need to hold on to dirty notes.

Well, that’s a lie. Using cash to pay for things is actually better for you because when you’re going through your expenses for the month, you’ll realise that you’ve spent quite a lot of money.

Yep! All that wrist flipping has consequences. Stick to cash. That way, you’ll think harder about buying things.

3. Understand your spending triggers

For every action, there’s a trigger. When it comes to spending, what is yours? Do you know what causes you to spend money? Are there certain environments that cause you to spend more money or certain behavioral triggers that make you buy more things than usual?

It could be due to your mood, peer pressure, or even that you’re used to a certain lifestyle that is draining your purse. Well, to save money and cease overspending, you must get it under control. Identify your triggers and steer clear of them.

4. Learn how to set a budget

The very best and most straightforward way to not spend all your money in salary week is to have a budget and stick to it, religiously.

The fact that so many people don’t have a spending plan is the main reason why they overspend. How can you not spend too much money when you think you can afford a certain lifestyle and then keep spending excessively to fit into it.

The first step on your budgeting journey is to calculate your income and then do the same for your expenditure for the last month.

Use this to plan your spending for the next month, cutting back on the unnecessary expenditure from the last month.

5. Set financial goals

As you change your spending habits, you’re bound to get tired at a point. Set some short term financial goals to remind yourself of the reason why you’re doing this.

Every time you hit a new milestone, you’ll pat yourself on the back for a job well done and you’ll be more inspired to keep going.

In conclusion…

Even if you’re not a big spender, salary week is tricky for everyone—blink, and the money is gone. You need to get a lot more attentive if you want your money to last more than a week.

To do that, you should track your spending, have a budget, stick to spending just cash, set financial goals, and avoid your spending triggers. Hopefully, this month you’ll have an easier time of it.

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