Finding trouble spots for being in debt (part 2)

Once you have familiarized yourself with part one of this article on how to find your trouble spots that prohibit you from becoming debt free, you will be able to better understand this section…

Nondiscretionary Spending

After you have thoroughly taken a look at your discretionary spending areas and habits, it is then time to take a detailed look at what you are spending on what you actually need to spend money on. Just because you need to eat, have a house or somewhere to live, and wear clothing does not mean that you need to have an unlimited budget on in these areas. Meaning, you do have to eat, but you do not need to eat crab legs every night. You do not have to eat expensive food. Eat within your personal budget. This is where needs battle wants.

Many times, food is a problem category, so let’s use it as an example in this article. You may be spending a reasonable amount of your money on groceries but you may be throwing away much of your money at the end of the week, because no one stayed in the house long enough to eat the food you purchased at the grocery store. Instead, you ate out several meals and the food at home that you also spend money on went bad. There really is no point to doing this at all. You are basically double spending your money on food.

If you understand that you will not be able to prepare food at home, than do not but it at the grocery store. This may sound weird, but if you are single, it may be cheaper for you to eat out than cook at home. This is only true if you are frugal enough of a person to do so. Only provide yourself with the basics at home if you don’t cook. We realize this seems simple enough  to understand, but you would be surprised at how many people out there that are living in serious debt that eat extravagant meals all the while having plenty of food at home going to perfect waste. There is no point o buying food if you are a person on the go or not home long enough to enjoy cooking or at least the thriftiness of it.

There are more economical solutions to the time crunch issue too. If you are the type of person to cook food at home on the occasional situation, be certain that you only buy the exact ingredients you need for that specific meal. Again, this many sound simple, but you would be surprised at the amount of people who occasionally cook at home that over buy food items. Impulse buying at the grocery store goes hand in hand with occasional cooks. Therefore - creating more expenditures than are not needed.

Try cooking in quantity one or twice a week so there will be leftovers for you to eat throughout the work week too.

We realize that being able to spot your trouble areas when it comes to overspending may be hard, so you should not be too hard on yourself in this manner. But, if you are in serious need of debt reduction – get busy trying to abide by these recommendations. You are only hurting yourself if you are spending too much money in these types of situations. You will never become a debt free human being however if you don’t try hard to.

Part 3…

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