Emma Edwards

discretionary spends how much value you got out of them how aligned are they to your goals how joyful were they and you know rank them on a scale of one to ten or color them in with highlighters if that's your vibe um and that gives you a heat map really of how much mileage you are getting out of your money

And it can be quite confronting, I think, especially if you, it's really helpful if you are one of those people that feels like they earn good money and have nothing to show for it, because it will be those, you know, wines you didn't really want.

And two identical transactions can have completely different backstories.

And if we're not looking at the context and we're not thinking about whether we enjoyed it or whether we really needed it or whether it was bringing any value to our lives, things can slip under the radar because we go, oh, $21 for two Pinot Noirs.

You know, they're two identical transactions.

But one, you're catching up with a colleague you haven't seen since pre-COVID and you're having the best time.

And one, you just kind of got stuck there because you don't have any boundaries and you're a people pleaser and you couldn't leave.

me sounds specific could I be talking about myself um or you know you could have you know there was just an alternative available to you um and so I think that that helps you discern the difference between

spending that should stay in your budget if it can and spending that can come out.

And that's when you get the most value out of reviewing your spending because you literally free up money that you didn't want to spend in the first place.

So you're not giving anything up.

You're just reallocating money to somewhere else.

It's going to be review your spending because, and review it in detail as well.

You know, you might want to add things into what I've said or take things out if they don't resonate with you, but just get really clear on where your money is going because

I think that, you know, even me who reviews my spending most weeks and publishes it online, I still learn something new every week.

And I still, you know, you learn things about where you can free up money.

You learn things about how your money is a symptom of other things.

Especially if, you know, I think it's probably more relatable to people that have struggled with money on a capacity level in the past, whereas some people haven't and therefore they don't think that their money is ever a...

a symptom of anything else because there's always been, you know, enough.

So you don't really think about it, but I think that everybody can learn something for looking at where their money is going in the context of their lives.