10 Financial Fitness Tips for Big Spenders

There's a reason that piggy bank is starved for your attention.  You're not feeding it.  Imagine what would happen if you made your small change work for you.  It could be the difference between living day-to-day or living the dream life.  Here are ten financial tips that add up to an amazing financial makeover.

1.  Pay with cash.  This increases the pain factor when you're in the splurging mood.
2. Analyze your monthly bills.  Find something in each invoice you can cut or reduce.
3. Tap into your creative side.  Chart your monthly progress in colorful graphs.
4. Make a vacation bucket.  Put your loose change here and don't raid it.
5. Visit your local library.  There are some great books about financial fitness you can check out for free.
6. Eat in on your next date night.  Do this once a month.
7. Make your shopping list in advance and stick to it.
8. Pay yourself first.  The easiest way to do this is automate your savings program.  Decide how much you want to allocate each month for your retirement and then forget about it.
9. Use envelopes for monthly fun money and entertainment.  Tomorrow's blog message is dedicated to this tip because I believe it's worth the effort and you will see huge results if you do it right.
10. Share your financial fitness tips with your friends.  It's easier to cut your spending when you have a support group.

My wife and I are super committed to becoming financially fit.  Our target date for making our last credit card payment is 8/08/15.  We already started our first envelope mentioned in #9 for future vacations.  The idea is to decide in advance how much fun we can afford and then budget for it in advance.  Make sure you visit often.  I'll be sharing more tips in "Break the Chains of Debt Bondage," in late summer.  Have a great day.