I love the word spending.  Hate the word diet.  How do you feel about the two words?  An oxymoron?  Probably, but it doesn’t have to be.

Okay, this post has nothing to do with getting thin, but it will make you fabulously richer.  Cheesy, I know, but I couldn’t help myself, especially with this topic.  But know this, all kidding aside, if you’re looking to save a little extra cash, a spending diet is something to try out.  I know it seems stupid at first – especially since most diets don’t work – but think about it for a moment and then commit to seeing if you can last on a week-long spending diet. 

Focus on changing a few small behaviors that will force you to save money.  Stay in this weekend and don’t spend any money that you don’t absolutely need to spend.  Don’t buy a snack in the afternoon, bring it in instead or hold out until dinner.  Don’t hit up Amazon.com or eBay.com because you’re bored.

At the end of the week-long diet you’ll be tremendously proud of yourself.  You’ll also have a little extra cash and a new perspective.  You’ll realize that some of your impulse purchases would have been wasted money.  You’ll realize the places you cut back which did impact you. 

When I went on my first week-long spending diet I was able to better prioritize my expenses going forward.  I knew which little expenses really meant a lot to me psychologically and which ones I could do without.  Guess what I did after that?

Yep, I cut out the stuff that didn’t really add any value.  Snip.  Gone for good.  Now those former expenses have been transformed into an increased stream of cash into my investment account.  All this because of some stupid spending diet experiment.  Not so stupid afterall, is it?