What trigger your spending? When you are sad, depressed, angry, excited or lonely? I use to spend more money when I feel bored or carrying a lot of cash in my pocket. That's why I don't carry much cash myself to avoid temptation to spend. Having to identify the way to trigger my spending, I have been very caution to avoid and control them. I find it challenge to disciplined myself and it takes time to learns discipline money.

It is very hard for you to have the temptation not to buy when the stuff you have been thinking to buy are on sales, 50%, 60% or 70% discount. You feel disturb and your subconcious mind keep asking yourself, "buy or not buy?", "sales now, great deals!", "I can swipe first and pay later since it's on sales, I can save a lot." and many more which you are convincing yourself to buy, you are finding a good reason to buy so that you can buy comfortably and feel better in spending, I think many of us have such thought before, self talking to yourself buy or not buy. However, it's good to practices evaluating before taking action to purchase, instead of convincing youself, why not you evaluate why you need the stuff, it is necessary? do I have more than enough? do I have budget for this? If the answer is NO, then just stay away and hang in there for awhile, you may notice your temptation to buy will fade away and you may even forgotten about it after 2 to 3 days. I know the feeling is sucks, whenever the feeling slip through, shift your thought to think positively, think about another fews more digit in your bank account or stay out of debts, it will makes you feel better. 

Discipline Money require self-discipline,  it is a key to reduce debts and increase savings, if you practice it in long run, it will also improve your standard of living. Undiscipline person normally does not have discipline in money, if you notices yourself working day and night for money and the money just slip away easily, it is time for you to review your spending habits and time for money management lesson.

Discipline Money require a lot of self-discipline,  it is easy when you come to think of fantastic rewards to reach financial stability that you hopes for. Take each step forward in controlling your spending habits with bit of imagination and just little creativity to put your hard-earned money on lock. 

Did you overspent your budget this month due to petrol price increase? Whether you want it or not, we are forced to change lifestyle. Easier said than done, nowadays, it seems like every penny counts. If you spend more than you earned, you are in trouble. You are attracting debt. You may not want to see this happen to you, The Magic of Starting Small "Debt", without proper self-control and budgeting, small debt become big debt, when you have more debt, you will dig more hole to cover the first debt, when you are out of hole to cover, you will seek help from family, friends and relatives. Your one problem matter is now everybody matter. What if they have no family, friends or relatives to help? even good guy become bad guy, human being will do anything to survive, our nation crime rate will increase. This is no more one person matter but a threat to society. Now we can see the magic of starting small debt.

Where else, Sticking to a budget can be difficult, but with so many commitments on hand you have to be extra cautious. Everyday TV, radio and newspaper ads are mining information to our mind to buy this and that. STOP your urge and wait for a week or two, the urge to buy the new thing will gone. Even if you overspent this month, here's where you can apply The Magic of Thinking Small Idea - Trimming small expenses.

Don't under estimate trimming small expenses, if you can cultivate this habit, you can actually find yourself saving maybe a lot or maybe enough for you to fill another full tank petrol for the rest of the weeks. For example, some may sounds uneasy but worth trying,

1. Go to your car and get the car's manual and flip through the pages to look for the recommended maximum tire pressure. A simple math here, for every 8 PSI you add to any tire, you improve your petrol usage by 1%, most of the car tire is 10-12 PSI below the recommended maximum. If you airing up your tires, you can actually save 6% of you petrol usage. If petrol costs RM2.70 a litre and your car need 10 km per litre (for easy calculation) over your next 10,000 km, you can actually save approximately RM162.
2. If you get your haircut every 4 weeks, probably you can go on the 5 or 6 weeks instead. This may save you a few cut a year.
3. Credit Card balance transfer: shop around and transfer a balance to a low-interest rate card.
4. Borrow instead of buying book.
5. Renting a video instead of going for movie.
6. Purchase a ready-made meal instead of going out for dining.
7. Look out for customer reward program.
8. Use CFLs instead of light bulb, because a light bulb use 75 watt which is equivalent to 26 watt CFL, save 50 watt.
9. Terminate your fitness monthly bill where you don't visit regularly.
10. Subscribe ASTRO only the channel you watched most.
11. Unlimited text messages or unlimited phone call or unlimited broadband, if you are not using unlimited, then choose a cheaper package.
12. Cancel your caller ring tone or any other stuff on your handphone which you think is not needed (those unnecessary service).
13. Taking your lunch to work.
14. Carpooling, walking or cycling.
15. Stop smoking.
16. Dating and Romance at zero cost in my old post –> Ways to romantic without using money
17. I run out of idea, is now your chance to show your creativity.

Finally, it hit us, this sentence "PRICE INCREASE" will be the hot topic anywhere in Malaysia. Fuel price jack up and the upcoming price increase for electricity, whether you like it or not, life must goes on.

In my previous 2 posts, I wrote Can your hard earn money keep up with inflation?, the 3.0% inflation that I mentioned in the post is outdated. The new inflation is estimate to rose to 5% or 6% due to fuel price increased. If we can't avoid inflation, then we can take opportunities from the advantage of it, to keep up with the inflation. Foremost, you may need to revise your lifestyle and start budgeting. I always think that the word "budget" is punishment for those who are poor, like I need to think twice before spending and budgeting seemed like a waste of time. After practising it for months, I discovered that budgeting can keep me focused on the goals I want to achieve and that's why I need it. I personally think it's a smart move NOT putting yourself on credit that you couldn't afford - "Spending without Budgeting". You can know more about how do I manage my money here.

I mentioned in my previous post that I would recommend a book. This is the book -> The Automatic Millionaire. All of us know this "Pay OURSELF first" before you pay others, but how many of us are doing that? When you received your paycheck, do you pay yourself first? through this book, you will discover ways never considered.

Here's the sum up, The Automatic Millionaire one-step plan to live and finish rich is to save money. If you are looking for a get rich quick book, you can avoid this one. To practice the concept in this book, required self-discipline and time. Basically the concept of this book is pay yourself first, and try to make it at least the first 10% of your gross income. This powerful concept and the magic of compounding is irresitable for everyone to follow if you want to finish rich.

Do you want to get up at the middle of the night and say this:- 

Ouch 1: I'm approaching retirement and I have no savings? 
Ouch 2: I tried very hard and no matter what I do, I can't seem to make enough money to cover my expenses and save some money. 
Ouch 3: I wish I could quit this miserable job, but I have no choice, I got bills to pay.

Money is not enough, do you blame money? Money is never the problem, you are the master of your Money. It's just our lack of understanding of money and how we manage our financial planning that cause us lose sleep at night.

You know what the things should do, but simply don't do it - Pay Yourself First!. Making excuses and blaming others, your parent for instead for not teaching us about money are over. If you want to continue to lose sleep at night, it's your choice and it's not because you are born poor, it's just lack of understanding. The great things about this book is that it does not ask you to save big, if you can, that's good, but most people are not in that position, which is why this book will show you how little savings can add up quickly. Saving is something found in your everyday life by the way you live and the choices you make. I am sure you have heard of this "Sikit Sikit Lama Lama Jadi Bukit (Malay translated in English as "from little to grows into mountain")" or this "Rome was not built in a day" and neither will your bank account.

There are hundreds of ways to save money, encouraged yourself that it is never too late to start saving, regardless of your age. Follow your own pace and I always put this quotes with me all the time "I cannot go back and make a new start, but I can start now and make a brand new ending."

Cheers~