If we are honest, many of us love shopping. For many it could be the grocery store, it could be the clothing store, or it could even be online. Where ever it is, it often hurts our budgets and makes it easy to spend more then we have. We can increase our standard of living by curbing our spending and saving our money. This way we are careful to buy only what we really need or really want and we save tons of clutter space in out house.

When the urge to idly shop hits, go running, excercising, singing, calling a friend, hiking, biking. Take a class, join a team, volunteer, swim, walk on the beach, watch a video  or listen to an audio book - whatever works for you.

Track your spending. Write down, to the penny, every dollar and cent you spend and what you spend it on.You will get a clear picture of where you’re spending your money. That will help you avert financial disaster — and overspending in certain categories, including eating out.

Spend cash only. “Credit gets us into trouble”.

Learn to practice delayed gratification. Internalize this: “I don’t have to have this right now. Having it right now drives me into debt. Getting it later keeps me out of debt.”

Be aware of easy enticements. “We’re being bombarded with offers for easy credit — such as buy now and pay later,” he said. “Awareness leads to not being sucked into easy credit offers.”

When you have to shop for something bring a friend along who isn’t a spender. Tell him or her in advance about your difficulty and set a spending limit that he or she will help you keep.

Reward yourself if you succeed in controlling you spening habit, but take care not to make it an expensive reward that will undermine your progress.

Finally, visualize and put in writing your financial goals (short, medium and long-term). This gives more insight into why you are choosing to spend less money and what you value saving for.