The self-discipline of spending money.
I've been tracking my spending with the Money Book app since 2011. Given I earn a different amount every month and sometimes very little, I want to know how much I'm spending in order to feel like I’m in control. I guess knowing my spending gives me the security that others gain from knowing how much they're earning every month.
How I manage my money
Having a slow month from time to time is actually much better than most might say. At least from time to time because once it’s more than two, it is indeed quite troubling.
Looking back, slow months have been the months in which I've produced the three books I've published.
It's the months that I've used to kickstart them.
It's been the months I've used to produce Skillshare classes.
It's been the months I've used to rethink what I'm doing and/or what I want to do in the future.
What's best about slow months also require to rethink one's consumption and spending patterns. Hence, it's pretty useful to know where the money is flowing.
Recently, I shared three blog posts on my sustainable habits in the kitchen, my bathroom, and on the go. I managed to establish some of them because I was having a slow month. Getting into the habit of cooking every morning was, at some point, a necessity. Especially after I realized that I could save at least € 140 monthly if I didn’t eat out for lunch every day.
Over time, I've also learned that, if I shop for veggies at the local farmers market, I'll end up spending much less because I won't have to pay all the margins supermarkets charge for the food waste they produce.
Slow months help as they're a reminder of how to slow down and spend less.
My tricks to track expenses
If you ever wondered how to keep track of your expenses, it’s not without some technical help. I manage to keep track of my expenditures because I pay as much as I can with my card. Luckily I can see my expenses immediately. And then, I also keep track of where I go on Swarm, which is what makes it easier for me to remember where I paid cash, what I had there, and how much it cost me. I also use Swarm when doing my taxes and trying to remember where I had been that month and what client projects I had worked on on those specific days.
How has my relationship to money changed since I started freelancing
When talking to Theresa Lachner for Work Trips and Road Trips, she told me how — when she used to have a full-time job — she'd often think she had to reward herself for the hard work and make up for her everyday frustrations. Since she's become self-employed and because she owns and feels responsible for how she's spending her time, she hardly ever feels the need to reward herself. If she does, then she thinks of the experiences she wants to have in life, rather than the material goods she wants to own. I guess slow months also help her reflect where she wants to go in life and what she wants to do.
Money has a lot to do with your mindset. Having spent my childhood in a post-communist country, I remember how shiny everything felt when I first moved to Austria.
As a teenager, the deal I had with my father was that he’d pay me pocket money and I’d have to pay for everything I needed for school and wanted to spend money on. He wanted me to learn how to calculate. I guess that’s worked out more or less fine. However, during my first few months living in Austria, I spent all I had on clothes. It took me years and a lot of self-development to analyze and rethink my consumption habits. It's a topic that I dedicated both my bachelor’s and master's theses to. I wrote about post-war housewives in the U.S. for my BA and then about a new system for fashion consumption for my MA.
Books that helped me change my money mindset
Some of the books that completely changed how I feel and think about consumption are:
Haben oder Sein by Erich Fromm
Made by Hand by Mark Frauenfelder
Brandwashed by Martin Lindstrom
The 100 Thing Challenge by Dave Bruno.
In short, what we hold onto might be what we'd like to be seen as.
Practicing honesty with yourself might help to sort things out, but it also helps you decide what things to buy or what not to spend money on.
How to change consumption habits
If you’d like to change your consumption habits, I can recommend reading Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer or watching:
These are just some of the books and movies that helped me reconsider my spending habits. But of course, it’s all a slow process, and I feel I still have a lot to learn, too.
