Living a more frugal lifestyle is fantastic. You save more money, avoid cluttering your home, and learn to be happy living within your means. But sometimes all that wallet watching, coupon clipping, penny pinching, and price comparing piles up on you, and you just want to do something irresponsible!
I’m not referring to anything too over the top, of course. You’re not going to blow the emergency fund on a truckload of puppies, or spend your kids’ lunch money for the week on a clown suit. But you do want to do something completely out of the ordinary. You want to go out to a fabulous restaurant that you can’t afford, or splurge on the heels you’ve been eying for weeks, or spend a night out with friends without keeping track of every dime.
But if you actually give in and do something irresponsible, one of two very negative things might happen:
- You become horribly guilty after the fact and beat yourself up for destroying the budget.
- You develop a taste for living beyond your budget.
So what can you do? You can learn to reward yourself in a healthy way.
Know When to Take a Break
Most of us have a limit to how much scrimping and saving we can take before we need to do something different, and you need to know what your limit is. You mustn’t spend all weekend budgeting, or compare health insurance premiums instead of meeting friends in the evening. If you don’t give yourself a break you’ll burn out entirely.
Now that you have your frugality tolerance limit in mind, you also have to budget a reasonable amount to spend per month on your “treat.” This amount will vary widely depending on your income, your debt, your budget, and what you like to do. Just remember that this reward is supposed to be an occasional reinforcement for all the good frugal living you’ve been doing. So don’t make it so big a deal that you’re treating yourself constantly, but don’t make it so small that it pushes you to your limit without much reward. Like any other part of your budget, this number may take some adjusting over time until you’re happy with it.
Enjoy the Treats You’ve Earned!
Finally, when the time comes to enjoy a treat, slow down and do it guilt-free. In my own life I too often find that my husband and I treat ourselves only when we’re really desperate. We go out to dinner, for example, on the night that we both work until 9pm. It’s nice to just get our food quickly without coming up with a meal or cooking one, but we’re usually so hungry that pre-dinner conversation is limited to moans of, “I’m so hungry!” and “When is the food going to be ready?” Our rare splurges would probably mean more if we occasionally went out just for fun, not because we’d hit our hunger limit and could think of nothing better to do.
So when you do reward yourself, slow down. Savor your meal, enjoy trying on those clothes, revel in a college-like night on the town. But do it because you choose to, not because you scrimped and saved until your responsibility fuse ran out!
About the author: Sabrina Matheson used to spend hours on health insurance comparison but now limits it to a few times per year! She enjoys saving money and spending it responsibly, as well as sharing her tips online.
Credits: Photo courtesy of Elvert Barnes.