When it comes to money management everyone seems to have an idea of what works best. While all of those ideas are great in theory none of them seem to matter to most people when it’s payday and a really hot pair of shoes are staring at them from a shops window. The three things that have seemed to finally work for me and allowed me to go on lavish trips, shopping sprees and finally move out west was having a savings account not linked to my checking, creating a budget and setting up various types of daily and transaction alerts from my numerous accounts. Having a savings account is what most people think is the key to saving but it’s the complete opposite of that. I’ve stood at checkout lines many times trying to make a last minute decision on purchases and always end up transferring money from savings into checking within minutes. After a few times doing that I decided to look into other ways and opened up an ING account. With ING I can set up direct deposits from my checking account and in order to withdraw funds I have to wait five business days and that gives anyone enough time to get over an impulse buy and keeps their savings account growing. Creating a budget and having things on paper (or on a screen most likely) is a way to visual where a person wants their money to go, what they actually need to spend money on and give themselves a set amount of money for fun things like dining out, drinks and shopping. I always feel accomplished when I create a budget because it lets me visualize what I’m hoping to achieve.

Once I have it all written down I can begin to take control and do things like mass grocery shopping, pay off my bills, put the allocated amount into my savings and then begin to shop with the rest. It’s win win. My internet service doesn’t get cut off while shop online for shoes and dresses. The one part of budgeting that I dread is receiving all my transaction alerts. I have it set up so that I receive an email for every purchase made that’s over five dollars. In additional to that I have the (dis)pleasure of waking up to my daily balance via email. As if waking up isn’t’ bad enough on its own, having my spending staring at me through half open eyes is enough to shock me into putting a hold on my spending for a few days. All in all, there are many ways for us to try to mange our money better but those were a few that have worked for me. No matter what anyone does the only surefire way to not live check to check is by living at home, not having a social life and not having any bills such as cellphone, cable or internet. Being that that’s not realistic or fun all anyone can do is try and try again. And put the $400 pair of shoes down for the time being.