Saving money / Binge spending.

So i've been trying to save money and not spend money on material things and alcohol and going out but i'm finding it very hard to without being completely anti social. For a few months i did very well and hadn't spent any money on anything except food to cook at home. I quit drinking and quit buying clothing, even tho the clothing i was purchasing was from a thrift store so it wasnt that much... i'm writing this post to promote a discussion on shopping addictions and to help me further understand why i binge spend and ways to prevent it.. can anyone give some advice or help me understand my thought process or lack of.. haha.

How I saved money:

Moved to a different city, sold my car, left all my friends few hundred miles away, live with my mom to save, get a good job, and buy nothing lol.
I manage to spend around 100-200 bucks a month, depends on how much fun I want for my self (such as alcohol, cigarettes, etc etc etc.......)
But basically thats my only expenditure, so I manage to save about 70-80 precent of my paycheck.
Now... If your unemployed its a problem.
I had unemployment binges that were really long.. kinda going into one of those now.......

Thats the sad part about modern society, you gotta be either really lucky, or a slave to save money.

Money is ment to keep us occupied with what to buy next / what debt to pay off first.
Its not ment to be saved by the day to day people who make minimum wage.

Only the rich can afford enjoying life, while we cook their food....

lol
sad but this is life.

Writing down everything, and I do mean everything, you spend is a good way to pinpoint those binges or leaks in your budget.

My big problem is that I'm not too sure if being in debt really matters. So at times i'm completely fine with living my life carefree and spending money on whatever but then other times i'm cautious.. My goal is to pay off a 6000$ debt. I moved in with a friend who is luckly giving me her room to sleep in (as she prefers the futon couch in the frontroom) to sleep on for 200$ a month..

i been slapping hundreds of dollars onto my debt but the last few months i been not worrying about withdrawing money from my credit. so the money i'm putting on is being taken off and my debt is not reducing.. I just have it in my head that the future is going to be a lot different when i'm older and having credit will be a thing of the past. i'm not even sure if there will be a money system in the future.. i dunno what i'm getting offtopic for but just some more of my thoughts.

This wont save you a lot of money but what i like to do is empty out all of my coins after every day of spending, and even throw in a few bucks if you feel like it. If you only have big bills, sometimes you feel like you wont want to break them on little things. This wont save you much, but after time it adds up. hope that helps a bit.

The average American is advertised to 1200 times a day. Hard not to binge under that kind of brain wash.

Shopping addictions develope for a reason, they have a same high reaction like any other addiction.

Usually to get rid of one problem yhou have to develope a better one to replace it.


For me, I have replaced my missionto buy with my mission to be frugal. And it is even more rewarding when you can get away with saving a lot of money.

For example, I get a lot of pride when I figure out sales and coupons and can save a ton of money on groceries.

IT takes work, hours of work of clipping coupons and pouring over sales, but I try to see what is the best I can do. I live having coupons for "BOGO"

My record so far is saving 65$ on one shopping trip. It set the register alarm off and a manager had to come and reset it.

AS for thrift stores, I dress fabulously shopping at thrift stores. chains like Goodwill or Salvation Armyh take the good stuff and sell it overseas because they can get more money for it. That is fine, Good will does a lot of good things.

But the private stores, and the church stores don't, which means you can find the brand names clothes and new clothes and the good stuff.

I just did it today. I got a brand new Nine West blouse wtih tags for 2 bucks. A new Liz Claiborne purse for 5, and a pair of brand new heels from a department store for 2.

So in a nutshell, I get a rush out of the best deal I can get, then out of buying new in itself.

There is a book called the Tightwad Gazette. It is more for families, but there might be some good tips in there. It was written by a mother who insisted on being able to be a stay at home mom on her husbands meager salary.

The thing with groceries is that there are no coupon's for such basics as milk, fresh veggies/fruit/protein. And I don't buy processed products.
The only savings I get, is from buying some items from places as
bulk barn etc. , or just growing my own.

It's hard to break a bad habit, but it can be done.

I'm unemployed, but between working out, school work, and working on my dad's ranch I have little to zero free time. I'm in a new area so at the moment I don't know anybody.

What I'm trying to say is, I get myself a treat once a week for staying focused and working hard and my treat is a Monster energy drink. Yup, every friday I go and by myself a nice Monster energy drink and I enjoy it. Costs me about $3.

1. Treat yourself to something once a week for not spending all your money. A coffee, a DQ blizzard, whatever. In my case a Monster energy drink.

2. Meditation. Today is only my second day of meditation, but I took it up to overcome my lack of self confidence. Twice a day for 20 minutes I visualize the self doubt leaving and being replaced by self confidence. Only after 2 days it really is amazing the change. So maybe meditate over your problem and see it leaving you.

I agree with you. I think meditation has helped me as well. You feel more self confident, and I really feel that meditation has helped me to not spend moeny on things like clothes and things that I dont really need but makes me feel better at the time

reply to post by ToneDeaf


I know what you mean. But you can still get some products like spaghetti, coffee filters, oatmeal, and beauty or hygiene products.

My son is lactose intolerant, and drinks a lot of milk. At 3.59 a half gallon it was costing us quite a penny. So I buy whole and dilute it in half.