Do You Have Spending Guilt? This One Move Could Help You Overcome It

It's a problem for a lot of people, actually.

There was a time in my life when I didn't have an easy time spending money on myself. And even these days, I sometimes feel a twinge of guilt when I buy a sweatshirt I don't really need because it has a cute picture of a dog on it, or when I treat myself to a takeout meal because I'm too busy to go to the supermarket for groceries or too darn tired to stand in my kitchen and cook.

It's a good thing to be mindful of nonessential spending. But it's another thing to feel downright guilty every time you spend money on something that's supposed to make you happy or make your life easier.

A lot of people struggle with spending guilt. But if you make one key move like I did, those negative feelings might start to go away.

It's easier to spend when you know you're meeting your goals

You may have certain financial goals for the year. Maybe you want to add $5,000 to your savings account. Or maybe you want to add $6,000 to your IRA account.

Every time you spend money on something nonessential, it takes you one step further away from meeting those goals. So it's easy to see why you might feel guilty about that type of spending. But if you automate your savings, those guilty feelings might start to disappear.

At this point, I'm pretty set with emergency savings (though sadly, many Americans are not), but I'm trying to fund my retirement savings and my kids' college savings pretty aggressively. What I do, though, is set up an automatic transfer so that money leaves my checking account at the start of the month and lands in the accounts I have earmarked for those goals. That way, I know I've made my contributions, and the rest of my money, aside from what I need for essential bills, is technically mine to spend.

Now, this doesn't mean that if I'm left with $800 a month after all of my essential bills are paid, that I'm going to spend that much on clothing, takeout, and other nonessential purchases. But I might feel less bad about spending $60 or $80 of that, knowing that I've already met my savings goal for the month.

Also, by automating the savings process, it gives me one less task to think about and keep track of. There's a value in that, too.

Automation could work wonders for your guilt

When you work hard for your money, you deserve to spend some of it on things you simply enjoy, or things that buy you more free time, like a cleaning service for your home. But it's easy to see why feelings of guilt might creep in when you're spending money on things you don't need rather than putting your money into savings or toward your key goals.

If you do what I did and automate your savings efforts, you can spend with a clearer head. And that might help you better enjoy the money you push so hard to earn.