Being intentional means doing things on purpose and being deliberate about what we spend – or don’t spend our money on! 

If you want to be intentional with your hard-earned cash, then you can start with these three steps:

Start tracking your cash

You need to be aware of what you are spending your money on. It’s hard to be intentional when you don’t know where your money is going, so first you need to know where your money has gone!

I recommend having a little notebook or an app on your phone and write down everything you spend for a month. You may be surprised with what you discover! Does your monthly income cover what you spend? If yes, then you know that you are in a good place and can move forward.

If not, then you need to either find additional income or stop spending so much. 

This is where creating a budget really helps. Read my blog on creating your own budget here. 

Create a goal

The good news is that it’s never too late to set a money goal. Get together with your spouse and create a goal for something that you both desire. It could be getting out of debt, building up your emergency fund or saving money for a holiday. When deciding on your goal, write it down and plan to make it happen.  Consider what you can save a month, could you go without anything to increase your savings? Could you sell anything? Can you get a side hustle to help you? 

Book a monthly money date with your partner!

I cannot tell you how important this is! My husband and I really need to sit down, and plan where are money is going BEFORE we get paid. The months that we haven’t created a budget for have been terrible and we really have been wondering where our money has gone!

One of the things that we have found most helpful, is that we pay ourselves first. This means setting aside as much as we can to either clear debt or put some money into the savings account. This means that we are intentional about our current goal. We are not putting whatever is left away but we have a clear plan, a non-negotiable if you like. It’s our top priority! Reading ‘The Automatic Millionaire’ by David Bach really helped us to develop this habit! 

Since becoming intentional with our money, we feel better and are in more control with our finances. We believe this is the only way now and would never look back. Are you intentional with your money? What do you do to keep intentional? Please do leave a comment below!

Thanks and God bless, 

June xxx