Are you tempted to spend?

Do you set out with good intentions every month, only to find yourself spending money you could have saved on things you don`t really need?

We all buy things we don`t need from time to time, and that`s fine to a certain extent - life would be pretty boring without a few luxuries. But if you`re trying to budget, or just spend less in general, you might find that temptation is spoiling your plans.

It`s all too easy to be tempted. These days, we`re surrounded by adverts and promotions trying to make us want things we didn`t know we wanted. If you`re trying to spend less, it`s sensible to take a few steps to reduce that temptation and focus on good financial management.

Cancel promotional e-mails / mailing lists If you`ve ever bought anything online, it`s likely that the company you bought the goods from sends you regular e-mails advertising their other products. This is especially the case with companies that sell things like CDs, DVDs and games, and some of the offers they put on can be very hard to ignore.

If you think these e-mails are causing you to spend more than you normally would, you can usually unsubscribe from them to stop them appearing in your inbox. Most promotional e-mails will have an `unsubscribe` or `stop` link at the bottom of the e-mail. If they don`t, contact the company and ask them to stop sending you promotional e-mails.

Set some rules

It might sound simple, but you might find that setting a few simple rules helps you to rein in your spending. A few ideas might include:

• Setting a £20 limit on individual non-essential purchases
• Limiting yourself to £40 a week for unnecessary items
• Saving purchases until the end of the month - don`t buy anything the first time you see it (you`ll only remember the things that are important).

Obviously, the limits you might set yourself could vary, but the idea is that you`ll stop yourself exceeding your limits and overspending, which will help you keep your finances healthier.

Always pay in cash

Credit and debit cards mean that it can be very easy to spend without really considering how much money you`re actually parting with.

To get around this, you could make sure you pay for everything in cash. Obviously this won`t be possible on very expensive purchases (which you should always think about carefully anyway), but looking in your wallet and actually seeing your money disappear could make you think twice about what you`re spending that money on.

Tags: spend, debt, money

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