Economy Spending -- Be Careful What You Cut

A lot of people are concerned about spending cash right now, and for good reason. Here are some tips for getting the most out of your purchases and avoiding a "scarcity mentality" that causes you to hoard and lose perspective. Remember that if you're depressed it may make it more difficult to find motivation to tackle your goals -- so choose your purchases wisely, keeping yourself and what you need to be happy and healthy in mind. 

1. What is really necessary? Not only for your budget, but for what makes you happy. If you're miserable it will be harder to maintain the motivation to work, improve your current career or find a new, better career that pays what you need -- these things take emotional and physical energy. Think what purchases you really enjoy and add to your life for some time and what are things that don't really matter to you. For instance, if taking yoga class makes you feel balanced, energetic and gives you what you need to get through the week, then do it, even if your friends think it's expensive. But a $200 scarf that is only exciting to wear to one event and ends up in the back of your closet, may not be something that really adds to your happiness or health. Maybe you even already have a great outfit or necklace you could wear, or you could swap accessories with a good friend. Decide what really matters and what doesn't.

2. Remember other costs -- Making an easy decision to cut an expense may be a bad thing down the line. For instance, cutting a gym membership without first finding another cost-effective way to work out could mean you have no outlet for releasing stress and increasing strength and health. Long term, it could even lead to lack-of-exercise related health problems -- and as we know many diseases are linked to diet and exercise. The same goes for buying fatty, high calorie but cheap foods over healthier (and short-term higher cost) salads and produce. Remember that medical bills are also expensive.

3. Pinpoint the purchases that will really make you thrive -- Instead of just cutting back on everything blindly, decide what purchases matter, and which don't. Maybe you can purchase a cheap, no-name mp3 player and load it up with free music from your best friend's band. Then you can take this player out and run around your city or town, saving you $150/month on gym fees -- perhaps that would be equally or even more fulfilling than your usual routine. Or maybe you're an athlete and know that if you quit your gym training things will fall apart for you. Be careful what you substitute!

4. Avoid a scarcity mentality -- If you focus too much on saving, hoarding and "not spending" you might miss seriously amazing opportunities to make money, find new opportunities, improve yourself or even find a better career that would make all that cutting back a non-issue. Are you filling every moment thinking "how can I cut back and save" or "how can I expand my life and make more money?" The depression mentality isn't always a pretty thing when it expands beyond being practical into filling up your cabinets with empty soup cans you might use someday. Exerting some of that energy on learning, getting more education, finding ways to increase your income could pay off much more than saving a few cents here and there. Each minute is valuable, so take advantage of using it wisely.

5. Remember that time is the only thing we really spend -- Though being wise with money is important, time is the only thing we can never get back. We can be smart and get out of debt, we can pay off loans, we can increase our income. But we can never get back lost minutes, days and years. They are gone for good. So be careful how you spend your time and what you are thinking about in the limited time you have living on earth. Thinking of that will help you decide what can be cut back on and what should be maintained no matter what.