Financial Anxiety
Saving money is something that feels important as well as hard to do when the only thing that comes to my mind is overwhelming anxiety and worry. Being able to identify what can be done about the worries and having a plan helps to allay some of those fears.
Addressing each of those what if scenarios enables me to put a plan in place for those worse case scenarios playing in my head.
Importance of Emergency Fund
I try to follow Dave Ramsey’s financial guidance for the most part. I do have an emergency fund for 6 months-to a year of my earnings. This I work to accrue over a period of a year to year and half and not touch that. Keeping this feels like saving for the rainy day truly.
Paying Off Debt
Ensuring my debt is paid off regularly helps me feel like I’m not paying unwanted interest fees on credit cards. This I’m able to do by making a budget for my expenses monthly. Having a way to not eat out as much as possible with just once a week of eating out feels comfortable to not overwhelm myself with household activities as well to have a balance.
Planning Meals
Planning groceries using my grocery list prior to purchase. This is something I’ve ensured I do not overextend on unwanted purchases more than necessary. Since COVID I have kept to door delivery of groceries especially. This has also allowed me to repeat grocery lists mostly. I do not wander in aisles for purchasing unwanted on the go items which I didn’t plan for earlier. This has helped me overall tremendously. It is one less task that I need to run out for. This helps me with meal prep for the week as well.
Staying in the Neighborhood
I do ensure I drive close to 15mile radius to shops and leisure activities so as to keep the gas bills to a minimum. This ensures I spend less time on the road. I can actually stay mindful with my time spent on the activity planned. Being in Texas there’s no dearth of sunlight. This enables me to keep lights off as much as possible throughout the day. The energy is spent only on air-conditioning for work and life times.
MealPrep
Meal prep helps me cook/bake just once a week. I hope to save energy that way as well. Being with the emotions that arise as I plan through these has been very eye opening and enlightening in its own way. Going through the iterations to get to a sweet spot took about a year to monitor and tweak the expenses.
Planning for Retirement
I do contribute to a long term retirement plan like 401k and have been through all my working years.
Some of these strategies have lived with me through years of engineering as well as social work with caregiving of kids in the mix.