What is smart spending? It’s a way to get yourself on track so that you are spending money wisely and with a plan. Here’s how I make this happen!
This post is brought to you by The Huntington National Bank and The Motherhood. All opinions are my own.
How To Start Smart Spending to Save Money Now
I think as we move through life and become parents, we always hear the words “save” whispered in our ears through everything that we do. Think about it: we just came off of the holiday season where you probably saved all year to buy all the presents for family and friends, mixed with unexpected holiday purchases and activities. We saved so that we could spend. And now here we are, probably looking at credit card bills and thinking about how important it is to adopt smarter spending practices into our daily lives.
Did I hit the nail on the head?
I think I probably did for most people.
Now, I’m not perfect, nor do I have a huge amount of expendable income that I can properly put in all the “right” places. But I do have Huntington Bank and am armed with some key tips to help you start smart spending and save money NOW.
How We Plan For Splurge-Worthy Purchases
I love to shop. Not just for myself but for the family, the dog, and honestly, grocery shopping is my favorite.
So, I might have a little bit of a shopping problem, but I don’t feel like I have a spending problem because I truly implement some smart spending practices into our everyday lives.
Right now, Chris and I feel a little bit stuck whenever it comes to our fitness routines. It’s cold outside. I’m rarely running because of the drop in temperatures, yet the thought of doing an indoor workout to my usual favorite online video is not motivating me. I want to move more and we’re both looking for a piece of workout equipment that will fit both of our wants and needs.
But, we all know that fitness equipment is not cheap – not even close. And since it’s not an item that we need per se, this workout equipment that we want to get has moved into our “splurge-worthy” category.
So how do we practice smart spending here?
First, we use the Huntington Hub tools to set up a budget and do our best to stick with it. To do this, you need to first have a Huntington account and then you can you set the monthly amounts you want to spend on shopping in the Spend SetterSM tool. Then you can enroll in Huntington Heads Up® alerts (as always, message and data rates may apply) which sends you real-time insights into your saving and spending and helps you make more informed decisions about your money… Talk about easy budgeting! It can be really easy for us to go over what we want to spend on things like eating out if I don’t have these set. They will literally send you a ‘heads up’ whenever you are spending more than usual. And then as a little bonus, you get an analysis at the end of each month to see how you measure up with your goals. Easy-peasy, as our kids say.
For example, the piece of equipment that we want to buy is going to cost us $100 per month for a period of 6 months until it’s paid off. Knowing this, we are left with two choices: figure out a way to earn that extra money or (more likely) figure out a way to cut back on things we’re already probably over-spending on. It’s so much easier to do this whenever you are tracking your spending and have a very clear goal in mind. Thankfully, Huntington Bank is there to help.
So what do you like to spend money on? Make sure to follow Huntington Bank on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter!
XOXO,
Allison
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