Thrifty Burnout

[Mama2ManyBoyz]

Any ideas for getting myself motivated again? I wanted to do a no spend year and I've been slowly slipping, one small purchase at a time.

[MyNameIsMama]

I also have Budget Burnout. I know I can do better but I love eating out, it is killing our budget but I can't seem to get out of the habit again. My grocery budget has also been creeping up since I am not really watching it.

[mrspopo]

Ah yes, the dreaded thrifty burnout. It's hard to stay motivated! What usually helps me is looking at our finances. Looking at the amortization schedule of our mortgage payments to see just how much progress we've made. And looking at how tight things are. I do a spreadsheet that tracks all the fixed expenses and nonfixed items. The totals at the end of the month definitely motivate me since I don't want to go in the red.

And what are the long-term goals? We're hoping to buy a car with cash in a few years after the student loans are paid. When DH gets antsy, I send him off to do some online car shopping and that reminds him to keep the big picture in perspective. I'm really hoping to travel more, so I daydream a little about where I'd like to go.

We're not as cash strapped as we were and we really aren't barely scraping by each month (although we have a few red months here and there), so it's hard for me to stay motivated because we do have money for the extras. But I just try to remind myself that the long term goals will come much sooner if we stay frugal. Yes a new desk would be awesome, but I'll keep watching free craigslist because desks come up often.

[BNC]

I hear ya! Its hard to stay motivated for long periods of time. Can you break it down into manageable goals? Like "I want to save $1000 for X", not "I want to have a no spend year" the smaller goal seems more manageable and easier to attain.

[musicmom2x]

one thing that really helped me save was to set a goal for how much I would LIKE to save. And then knowing that in order to not be living in the red I would most likely end up spending half of the savings it helped me super diligent about keeping at least HALF of my goal per month saved. I realize that doesn't make any sense, but it helped me not to feel guilty or stressed when I would spend money that I had wanted to save. Like I was ALLOWED to spend up to half of the monthly savings so it was a bonus if I didn't have too you know? That way every month I was able to meet my savings goal at least the bare minimum savings goal and anything extra saved was a bonus. It was just a good way for me to stay on target and not feel guilty or stressed if we had unexpected expenses or if I just REALLY wanted to do/get something special that month.

[mlgurney]

I go in streaks like this too. It's always motivating to read about other people's strategies!

[Jburns]

I was doing good until I had to change my cloth diaper stash around.. All prefolds and had to switch to fitteds cuz my MIL can't get the hang of prefolds and I was given promotion at work so now I work all day instead of overnights.

So Im on buying binge!! But my maternity leave starts April 5th, so spending will come to a halt.. But then I can hopefully clean out and list stuff forsale.

[Rdesonia]

I've been doing pretty good at my no spend year. I think I was motivated by having an alternative (Swagbucks) way get my spend on. It of course limited how much a I could spend. Of course DH just got laid off.... I'm so happy that I started saving & we have cushion. We are going to have to really tighten up our budget... And I know it won't be an issue... I've already not touched certain areas of our budget since Jan!

[madebymommy]

Ugh, I am SO right there with you!! I've fallen off the thrifty wagon... its partially because we've been so focused on saving money, we've let lots of things go in the past year - our clothing was in bad shape, things needed around the house, etc. We ended up splurging on some things, and now I have immense guilt. It's time to get motivated again!!

[ctj101502]

Ditto, I see burn out here happening. I used my dryer 3x this week and bought 5$ fave pizza at papa Murphy's. I always make our pizza and always line dry. The good news is the pizza blew up in our oven, total mess but we still ate what we could salvage. Called and told them, they say it happens sometimes and put us on the list for free pizza replacement, so we ate pizza again last night. Also we keep the house at 60 in the winter and had some major snow storm recently, so I have been unusually cold and bumped it to 63. Went to price match produce and planned on buying tea towels to embroider, saw clearance shoes for 3 of my son's and bought them. That was 9$ and I only planned on 5$ for tea towels, so I hee to put back tea towels and spent 4$ more than planned, thankfully ods had some cash I could borrow. Thankful for 3$ sneakers though! But normally I would walk away from sales and not even browse