Did you ever see something you really wanted, and bought it for no other reason than you wanted

Yes, I am a recovering spendaholic;

If spending money was an Olympic sport. I would be the gold medal finalist

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If I was at the mall, or the bar with friends It didn’t matter to me. I didn't care or even think of the consequences. I would make that purchase until the bank account was empty, or the credit card was maxed out.

Yes, I was wasteful with my finances. I felt like I didn't have time to cook a good home-cooked meal. So I would eat at restaurants at least five nights a week. I didn't have enough time to sit down and make my coffee and breakfast, so I would stop off on my way to and from work to buy that coffee. I also had to have the latest and greatest whenever something new would come out.

I was fortunate to sit down with a financial planner who cared. It was at that meeting that I decided to take control of my life. Before that meeting, when the bank account reached a zero balance, I didn't care. I was used to it. When this happened, I just pulled out the credit card or waited for the bank account to replenish with my next pay, which, in most cases, was only a few days away.

My financial planner reviewed my situation. I had just gotten married, and we were expecting our first child. When I told my planner this, he just looked at me and said it was time to make changes. He started asking me a few questions.

• How much was my income?

• What were my living expenses?

• What's important to me about my money?

• Do I have a household budget?

• What goals have I set for myself, financially?

Before our meeting ended, the financial planner gave me an assignment to track my finances over a period of time, and that's what I did.

In our next meeting, I came prepared. I presented my financial planner with all the information that I had compiled. I was starting to feel intimidated watching this guy study the information I gave him.

When he finished going over the information I had provided, Looking up at me, he told me I had a problem. He then slid a pamphlet across his desk towards me and told me to take this home, read it, and, if I had any questions, send an email...How I Stopped Overspending

Before reading the information that was given to me, I only had a checking account and a savings account, and that was it. The way this works is like this. You set up accounts in two different banks. You will assign one bank as your primary bank. With this bank, this is where all your income gets deposited, and where you do all your spending from. The other bank is where you will place funds that you will be saving. Using two different banks like this makes it inconvenient to spend money designated for other things.

At your primary bank, you'll have multiple accounts, including one for your income that gets deposited into and two others. One bank account will be for living expenses, and another for spending money. At your savings bank, you'll have two accounts, one for emergency funds and another for saving up for big purchases. Whenever you get paid, most paychecks are now direct deposit. Log into your online banking and transfer the money to the appropriate accounts.

It will look like this.

Main Bank

• One account for funds deposited into

• One account for living expenses

• One account used as your casual spending, AKA play money

Savings Bank

• One account saving for a rainy day

• One account saving for purchases

When making purchases unrelated to your living expenses, Use your bank card exclusively or cash withdrawn from your spending account. While this advice may seem straightforward, for me, it was life-changing.

The problem that I thought of was if I implemented this method. Say when I am out, and I don't have enough funds in my spending account to make a purchase. I could select another option that I had available on my bank card and easily use another account that had enough money in it.

If you decide that a strategy like this might work for you. One of the things you have to watch out for is the service fees you can acquire, so make sure you have the proper bank account for what you want to use it for, and also find out the amount of funds that you need to keep in the account before these service fees are waived.

The nice thing about this method is when you log into your online banking, you will see all your accounts and still have full access to them.

By using this strategy, I was able to break my impulse spending habit in a short amount of time. It taught me to start setting money aside for those larger purchases instead of just relying on the credit card and to also say no, to the things I wanted but didn't need

If I were to participate in the Olympics as a spendaholic today, I would undoubtedly end up being the last-place loser. However, I wouldn't mind losing in that particular competition.

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