Have you ever tried a crash diet? Sure, they don’t generally work for your body. You may lose a lot of weight quickly, but as soon as you go back to your normal eating and workout routines (or lack thereof), the weight comes right back. It’s a bit disheartening, to say the least.
Money crash diets can be similar. You decide to save a lot of money, and for a while you are very, very frugal. Then you slip. Then you slip again. Finally, you go back to your old ways, bailing out of the crash diet in a big way.
Small renovations to your budget are more likely to succeed. However, money diets can sometimes work – the key is to have a goal.
We’re saving for a big trip, one of those really amazing trips that take a long time to save for and plan. I love traveling, so I am very motivated to save for the trip. However, Christmas is also coming and I realize that it is going to continue to whittle away the bank account. Plus, household expenses continue as they always do. The only solution is a two month frugal crash diet.
We’re going to spend very little money on extra household items, and that includes my usual splurges on extra food here and there. No fancy outings unless we can sell something or make some extra money to pay for them. We’ll see if it works, but I have done it before to create space in the budget for a needed item or a much-wanted trip.
In the very short term, the frugal diet can work. However, you need to have a goal. Perhaps your goal is to save money for a house downpayment or to stay home with your kids for a year or for the summer. Maybe you too want to go on an amazing trip. When you have a goal in mind and you know that you can feel deprived for a small length of time but get a great payback at the end, money diets are worth it.
Who knows, maybe some of the frugality will also stick around, and you’ll end up questioning your future spending as well.