It's all in the attitude!

I've been mulling over what to write next and decided that an article on attitude would be useful for me as it will help me to refocus.

There are times when stress kicks in, the bills pile up and the weather is horrible (welcome to winter in Wellington, NZ!) when it is hard to stay positive. These are the times, for me, when it starts to get hard to stick to the budget. The thought of dining out, running away for a few days or booking a holiday in a warmer climate becomes incredibly tempting.

We've made a commitment to hold off on spending outside of the budget until our nastiest debt has been cleared. So these are a few tricks I try to make sure I stay on track.

1. I bake and I cook. To me there is nothing better, on a nasty day when I am grumpy, than turning the oven on and cooking up a storm. There is something about the aroma of cookies in the oven and soup bubbling on the stove that lifts my mood immediately.

2. I look at how far we have come since our budget has been in place. I find it inspiring to see that we are managing to chip away at our debt, bit by bit. I like to imagine what life will be like once those payments can be routed into savings instead - that will be a wonderful feeling!

3. I read. I "do the rounds" of all the blogs I follow on the subject of finance and frugality. Often I will come across a post that provides me with the boost I need. If I come up empty-handed I will spend some time searching for new blogs or websites until I find one that gives me the inspiration I need.

4. I plan something. This may be an outing to the movies (using the vouchers I received for my birthday) or we might invite someone round for a meal or we might look at the budget for the next month and squeeze in something special - like a cheap night away somewhere.

5. I take some personal time out. On the weekend just gone, this was curling up in bed with a good book and having a snooze. Those who know me well will know this is completely out of character for me but it really did me a lot of good. My other way of escaping the world is to run a hot bath, make a cup of tea, apply a facial mask and soak for as long as I want.

These may all seem pretty simple fixes but they are do the trick for me. Deep down I know that we are on track to improving things vastly for our future so it's important we don't give up now!