It is human nature to explore better lifestyle options when your income grows. Without even knowing, you’ll be guilty of lifestyle inflation within no time and you’ll find yourself in a pool of never-ending bills and no savings. But it is wise to not go overboard with additional expenses with your growing income because in no time you’ll realize that the amount of money going out is way more than the amount coming in.
Considering all of this you’ll be tilted towards finding inexpensive substitutes for your current expenses. Be it cutting down on expensive travel plans, replacing your internet network by getting to know how much is Spectrum internet, or even keeping the eating out to a minimum. Let’s discuss all the ways you can deflate your lifestyle.
Expense tracking
If you plan on deflating your lifestyle, you need to be in constant check of your expenses by paying attention to all the money that you spend, where you spend it, and all the money you earn. To keep in check, you should note down all of your day-to-day expenses which will give you an idea of how much you spend in a day and how much of those expenses are unnecessary so you can consequently think of cutting them down. It can make you realize if your lifestyle is going into inflation mode or deflation mode.
Budgeting
After you’ve successfully managed to differentiate your necessary expenses from the extra ones, you can get a clear idea of where to stop putting your money. At this point, you should consider making budget plans and distributing your income as per your budget. By adjusting a monthly budget, you can efficiently stop spending wastefully and be one step closer to a deflated lifestyle and possible financial freedom.
It can initially be hard to stick to your budget but knowing this is the only way to get some weight off your wallet will make it worth it. Through budgeting you can even divide your income into savings and spending and this way even if you go out of your spending budget for a specific month, you’ll have your savings as a back-up.
Lowering costs
After tracking your expenses and making a budget, you can easily lower your costs by deciding which categories to eliminate from your spending plan and which category you can reduce costs for by going for substitutes. You might want to start with the category where you spend most of your money be it skincare, cars, makeup, clothes, eating out, rent, groceries, gadgets, or even electronics. You might want to shift to cheaper neighborhoods or find apartments with lower rents if that is where the entirety of your income is going or in the case of groceries, you can either find cheap alternatives or plan out what you actually need instead of over-buying unnecessary items.
Decluttering
When you actually take out time to go through stuff, you have stacked up in all nooks and crannies of your home, you might be surprised to find things you never even knew existed or things that you thought you had lost forever. Decluttering is the solution that will not only give you peace of mind by getting rid of unwanted stuff but it can help you find items you no longer need that you can sell and make money from. You’ll find ample stuff to throw out or sell once you set your mind to decluttering and end up with more space in your house.
Setting financial goals
Once you’ve gone through all the initial processes of deflation, you might want to consider what you will be aiming to do with your savings. You might want to set financial goals for yourself and think about any futuristic goals of where you want to see yourself spending money in the future or how much you aim on saving in a given time period.
Takeaway
All in all, the best way to have a better lifestyle is to invest your time considering lifestyle deflation. It can boost your finances and consequently your lifestyle as well. This does not mean you’ll have to give up on all of your favourite restaurants, clothes, or hobbies, but it will only help you keep an eye out for any futile expenses that kick your spending habits over the board. By deflating you’ll be closer to having no financial worries and possible financial freedom. It is as simple as just treading carefully with your expenses, making budgets, reducing extra luxury expenses, and decluttering, and you’ll be on your way to the road of deflation.
Ellen Diamond did her degree in psychology at the University of Hertfordshire. She is interested in mental health, wellness, and lifestyle.
