Your grandparents are wise beyond their years — and because of them. You need proof? Here are five money-saving habits from them that you should adopt if you want to get your finances under control.
Teach Yourself Financial Discipline
Let’s face it: most of us struggling with habits all lack discipline. We’re too lenient with ourselves, and finances can be one of the most contentious things to come face-to-face with in our lives. But your grandparents didn’t hide from their financial situation.
Instead, they took charge, creating detailed budgets, tracking their expenses, and making plans for the future. Do the same, but start slow and build healthy habits over time. One of the easiest ways to ensure a habit doesn’t stick is to go too hard too fast.
Do Your Research Before You Shop
It’s common to waltz into a grocery shop without a list, plan, or care in the world. The hope is that a dinner concept will reach out and grab you. But what happens? You’re at the mercy of the store’s tricks to buy expensive and unhealthy food you probably didn’t need.
Grandma would never; she wouldn’t dare enter a store without a plan first. Whether it was cutting coupons or a meticulously curated grocery shopping list based around sale items, she always knew that good grocery habits started before you even entered the store.
Make Do With What You Have
This is one of the easier habits because you don’t really have to do anything. Grandparents would only buy things when they were necessary. They’d see what they had, reuse or recycle, and buy whatever they needed to fill the gaps.
But today, we’re accustomed to tossing things and immediately replacing them, which is both expensive and wasteful. Try your best with what’s already around you; you’ll be surprised how you can reinvent things and turn them into something usable.
Build an Emergency Fund
Your grandparents knew they needed to be ready for anything. They didn’t rely on credit to bail them out when things got tough; they had money set aside specifically for the moments where life handed them lemons.
But today, many Americans don’t have any amount of savings, let alone an account specifically intended for emergencies. Start an emergency fund today, even if it’s only a few dollars to start, because something is better than nothing.
Use Cash When You Can
We’re not referring to any kind of plastic here, including debit cards. This wasn’t so much a habit as it was just the norm. People had to spend with cash or a check, so they were much more likely to be mindful about their spending.
Try this yourself and set cash aside specifically for fun money. Promise yourself that once it’s gone, you’re done for the day/week/month, however you choose to use it. This makes you think twice before spending, which we can all agree we need to do a little more of.
