Discipline

[sunshine5637]

I'm assuming most of you had to start somewhere...you are now either debt free or are getting close to it...CONGRATULATIONS!...but was it hard to discipline yourself in the beginning? I mean, you see everyone else going and doing, you want to go and do, too. How did you deal with that?

[maat55]

You have to find a motivation that will get you started. After a good start, you begin to thrive on it. After a while, frivilous spending will leave a bad taste in your mouth.

When your goal(Debtgreedom,EF etc.) becomes more important than the reasons you stay in debt or don't save, you will sacrifice more to reach your goal. After a while, you won't think of it as sacrifice.

[disneysteve]

Actually, I think it was easier when we were just starting out because we didn't have that much money. Today, when we have a higher income and all our basic needs met and a nice savings stash is when it is harder to keep motivated and not give in to the tendency to increase our spending and elevate our lifestyle.

Early on, our goals were more immediate and concrete: buy a house, get a new car, have a baby. It was easy to watch the savings grow toward a goal that was only a couple of years away. Now, our goals are both bigger and more distant: retire, help pay for our daughter's education. It is harder to appreciate the progress and the end points are a little fuzzier.

I guess what helps us most is the habits we established early on when money was tight. We learned to be frugal and as our income has increased, we've held on to that frugal mindset, though we certainly aren't as frugal as we once were.

[Broken Arrow]

Well, when I started out, I was broke and scared witless, all the while going through a divorce. So, discipline wasn't really a problem.

Nowadays, it's a bit more challenging, because there's so much stuff that I could really use, but have been putting it off after all these years of scrounging every penny....

Still, because now that I've known what can happen if things were to fall apart, I continue my frugal endeavors simply because I don't want to fall back into that pit again.

And that's my "discipline", knowing the consequences of not having my financial house in order....

[GREENBACK]

I too was once very broke and needed items weren't a matter of using a credit card so I did without. I always think of those days and it motivates me like nothing else. My early motivation was simply being at the bottom with no other direction but up.
Once you establish regular saving habits you'll begin to see how foolish it is to blow every dime you have just because others do it.

[KatieNK]

You're right, it is hard to be disciplined. When your debt is really large, it is hard to see that not spending that $2 for coffee or $30 for new jeans is really going to make any kind of difference. I think most people have the "why bother" attitude. The only thing that can make them be disciplined is if they have a wake-up call and really want it.

[Ima saver]

Well, we may see a lot of wake up calls as this economy keeps getting worse. I am glad I learned to do without when I was a very young teen and had to pay for my own stuff.

[skydivingchic]

Discipline comes fairly easy if your goal is the most important thing to you. I tend to be goal oriented, so once I had set my mind to paying off my CC and got set up on a budget, things pretty well fell into place. I would also add that you can't completely deprive yourself. Even as I was paying off my CC I had some money designated as fun money which I used to eat out, get a coffee, put gas in my motorcycle, etc. If you don't leave any room for fun, sooner or later you are likely to go nuts and undo all your hard work by charging up a bunch of unneeded stuff.

[tripods68]

I agree, we woke up last year after realizing we didn't know where all our moneys were going. We decided to put ourselves in the budget mode. We stopped going to Starbucks every morning. That saved us about $1000 so far. I brought my lunch to work more often than eating out. We've created a family budget and started watching our pennies and established EF. We started a gift fund for christmas too. Next year our goal to pay off our car loan. Its a matter of perspective.

[snafu]

I think it helps to know why you buy stuff. It's important to differentiate between 'need' and 'want'.

I watched colleagues buy yet another silk blouse and wondered how many silk blouses were 'enough!' I found myself giggling at the idea of wearing designer jeans with an advert on one's rear. Today I observed women teetering in 6 inch heels and while I suspect they thought buying them was glamorous, but they moved as though their feet hurt.

With the economy in tatters it's a good idea to make a plan and commit to paying down your debt. If you post details on this site you'll get tons of suggestions and encouragement.