Ep 137 | How to Stop Overspending Money When Tracking Isn’t Enough

How do you stop overspending money even when you’re tracking and knowing where your money is going? Control happens at the decision-making stage not when you review your expenses and “see your overspending”. 

This episode will help you understand why knowing where your money goes isn’t the same as being in control and what you should do instead to help you stop overspending. 

What You’ll Learn:

✅ What is Overspending 

✅ Are You Truly Overspending

✅ Why You Overspend Even When Using A Budget

✅ 3 Actions To Help You Stop Overspending

Related Episodes:

Episode 133 - How to Create a Budget and Stick to It (Even When Life Goes Off Track)

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Transcript

 Welcome to the episode. I'm so excited to dive into the topic of overspending. I get a lot of clients come to me and they express their true desire in me to help them stop overspending, and they're looking for me to tell them how to do that. First off, I wanna say, I don't coach like this. I'm not gonna tell you where to spend your money.

By the end of this episode, you'll understand a better why. But if you are looking for someone to tell you exactly how to stop overspending, head on over to Dave Ramsey. He will tell you, he will tell you exactly what to do and what not to do. But if you're looking for a better, more effective, and honestly.

A happier approach to your spending and your money. You found the right place, and today I'm going to help you understand overspending and how to quote, control where your money is going. Lots of quotes. Lots of quotes today, because some of these words I'm using aren't true exact definitions of what you hear the word normally.

Most of us don't like restrictive budgets. In fact, most of us stay away from budgeting because we find it is restrictive. We, you know, we don't like it. It's never been effective for us. And I'm here to tell you that you don't need a restricted budget to help you be effective in having control of your money, but I do believe you need a budget.

Hopefully, hopefully you'll stay tuned and I'll explain more why. But we're gonna start off by talking about what is overspending. Really as the clients have come to me and shared this word, and then I ask them to explain to me what they mean. First off, for me, overspending means I just go out and I spend money.

I know I don't have. To me that is true overspending and that is a different issue than what I am talking about today. That needs different support coaching therapy, if I can say. The other thing, and this is mainly what I hear from my clients. Is that overspending is I, I spent things that weren't in my budget.

I purchased things that weren't in my budget and I knew I shouldn't have, or, you know, with the things that happened this month, I overspent my budget. That's completely different problem, and that is the problem I'm going to help you solve today. If you have the other problem I would love for you to book a free call.

I can find somebody to help support you. But let's go back to overspending. And I want you, if you are somebody that uses that word often, oh man, I overspent. Oh, I overspent. I want you to stop and I want you to define. What that means to you? Define overspending. Just like I said at the first of the episode, there's gonna be words that we are not using in the same context.

And when you say overspending, I know it's not the same context as what somebody believes it to be, and it is important for you to understand what you mean by this, because then you can actually identify your problem. And you can find a solution, or when you reach out, somebody can help you find a solution.

Much easier. So we've gotta start there. Why do we overspend, why do you overspend? And remember, we're not talking about just going out and bla blatantly spending money. There are certain opportunities, and I'm using that word because it's a very positive word that show up that you will want to choose to take advantage of,

and when these opportunities show up and you quote, spend money, doing so is not overspending. You feel bad because you've been told to stick to your budget, so it's not overspending, but you think, well, I'm supposed to stick to my budget. If you recall in episode one thirty three, and if you haven't listened to that, go back and listen to that after this episode, but I talk about a budget is a guideline.

We create a plan. That we hope to stick to if life is perfect. Most of the time, most it's not going to happen, especially if you have kids, spouses, and stuff going on in your life. Opportunities are presented to you all of the time, but it's when these opportunities show up. And it's in that moment that you need to take control.

This is how we alleviate that thought of overspending or it's not in our budget. Now opportunities are things such as, oh, you know, there's a really good deal on, you know, some sort of grocery item I need to stock up so you spend more than normal. Or, my child came to me with a great opportunity to go learn something.

Or even for yourself, these are the opportunities I'm, you know, saying that are showing up. But it's what you do when these opportunities show up that matters most. What should you do instead? Instead of shaming yourself when you don't stick to that budget because the opportunity is there, I want you to create a control mechanism.

Now that sounds pretty harsh. I didn't know what else to, to talk about it and use the terms, but as I get to the end of this, you'll better understand it. But what I want you to do first, I want you to keep creating a budget. I know you're thinking, but you just told me I'm not gonna stick to it. Well, creating a budget and tracking your expenses.

When you see things normally pop up, often, and they're not in your budget, where it's always a certain amount, you rewrite that budget, we're not creating the budget every month, but we are refining it. We are making these changes as we are actually using it. This is how you create a sustainable budget.

Now, if you've been here a while, you might have heard me say. Flexible budget. How do you create a flexible budget? You're going to do this by creating a quote, again, control mechanism. It is the control mechanism in your brain and an action with your budget where you begin to reflect on the choices.

For example. You have an opportunity show up, you're going to review it, you're going to think about it, you're going to understand it better. All of the things, the cost, what are the benefits? You know, really explore it. Now the opportunities are, you know, a good opportunity, an emergency, a new purchase.

And as you think about it, you are going to look at your budget as a framework, as you look at your budget. You will need to think about, give and take because it is true. You only have so much money, but does this new choice or new opportunity fit better with your values, with what you want your money to be supporting you with?

Is it leading you to your goals? Is it supporting what you want money to be creating for you? It's really important to have goals with our money, as it also guides us with our budget, with our framework. But it's there that we actually then make that decision, I have an opportunity, this is the cost, this is the benefit to me.

Is that greater than something else? Or if I kind of like shift things. I've had clients say, you know, I have a budget I track, but I don't know what to do with it at that point. This is one of those things. This is one of those things. This is how you create the flex. This is how you go. Well, all right, I know I only have so much money.

This new opportunity is here, and how can I make it work? We're not restricted, we're flexing and we're keeping it sus sustainable. I wanna share with you a message from a dear client as she was one of the clients who came to me. All frazzled about her spending, wanting me to tell her what to, you know, what to do, where she was overspending, all of those things.

And as you heard me at the very beginning, that's not how I do it, but I walk you through, you know, different steps and as we were, had been working together for several sessions. She sent me this message and I'll read you her words. Dear Dalene, I was thinking about our value spending discussion this morning and just wanted you to know that was so very impactful to me.

Truly grateful that you are coaching me despite knowing the money is there and I have done all the things to build the nest egg. I was really lacking the tools and insight on how to manage it and had lots of fears and worries about it. I am feeling more at ease and quite excited actually about what the future holds.

Man to have her go from frazzled, a lot of the fear she was gonna outspend her nest egg to really being in tune with her spending and with what she was choosing to do with her money was such a huge transformation for her. If you are like my client and you're ready to get rid of fears and worries, your first step is a financial reality checkup inside the retirement roadmap session.

So in this session, we'll map out where your money is going. I'll help you build a budget, the framework that you're going to use to help you take control of your decisions and define your savings to build your future. This is your first step to looking at your money differently to see how things truly are going, and explore different options for the success you desire.

If that sounds something like something that you really, truly want to explore, book a free clarity connection call. You can do that at Elevate Finances us slash connection, and let's chat about if the retirement roadmap session is the best right step for you or not. I will let you know. Again, you can find that free call at Elevate Finances us slash connection.

Let's recap what we talked about in this