Is This the Secret to Cutting Spending Permanently?

If you're hoping to cut your spending, this advice could help make it happen.

If you're like most people, you have several savings goals you hope to accomplish -- but you may not have the money you need to meet all your desired financial milestones. If that's the case, then cutting spending could be necessary.

Unfortunately, reducing your expenditures for the long-term can be really hard to do. 

Even when you make a budget that slashes your spending, sticking to it can be a major challenge. The good news, however, is that there's one technique that could actually work to help you permanently reduce your expenses so you can save more money to accomplish big things. 

Here's what it is. 

This trick could make all the difference in helping you make a lasting change 

When trying to reduce spending, the most common technique people employ is making lots of little changes. For example, you might try to eliminate one restaurant meal a month, cancel a streaming service, skip your daily coffee, and cut your clothing budget.

The problem is, when you chip away at your budget and eliminate a lot of small things you enjoy spending money on, you can easily start to feel deprived. If you feel like you've stripped a lot of the fun out of your life in your efforts to save, it's really hard to stick to your plan and not end up giving up and going back to your old habits -- or even giving in to the urge to make a big splurge because you're tired of sacrificing. 

The other issue is that you may need to cut out a lot of little things in order to make a noticeable impact on your budget. Eliminating just one latte, for example, probably isn't going to be the ticket to accomplishing your goals -- you'd have to cut out your coffee every day, which can feel like a huge lifestyle change if you're used to your current habits. 

Instead of trying to cobble together more money by making a lot of little changes that impact your quality of life, there's a different approach that's much more likely to pay off. You should consider making just one or two big permanent changes instead. 

Why making one or two big changes can be a better plan for cutting spending

When you opt to make one or two big lifestyle changes to save more, this can be a lot more effective in helping you accomplish your financial goals. 

This approach has the benefit of changing just one or two aspects of your lifestyle, instead of requiring you to alter many of your habits over the long-term. You can get used to this one change and become accustomed to your new normal much more easily than you can get used to depriving yourself of lots of different things you like.

The single big changes you make can also have a more noticeable impact on how much money you actually have available to save -- and they can be harder to undo so you're more likely to stick with the plan over the long-term.

For example, some of these big changes could include switching to a cheaper used car, getting rid of a vehicle altogether, downsizing to a less-expensive home, or getting a roommate. Each of these changes is done just one time, and you're much more likely to stick with the new status quo for years to come so you can save a lot more over time.