Trying to Spend Less Money Never Worked for Me. Here's What I Did Instead

My financial situation used to be pretty unstable. I didn't make much money, I lived paycheck to paycheck, and I even had credit card debt for a little while. Even though I'm extremely happy to be in a better place now, I'm also appreciative that I went through those challenges.

Because I've been in that situation, I know a lot of the typical advice about money is out of touch and unhelpful. I would frequently read articles about improving your finances, and most of them gave the same basic advice about reducing spending. With so many people recommending this, it seemed like spending less was the most important thing in the world.

I tried to follow that advice, but it didn't work for me. Fortunately, I found a much better solution to my money problems.

Why spending less isn't always a good financial plan

Every time I tried to reduce my spending, I'd go over my expenses. What I always found was that I just didn't have many places where I could cut back.

I was living in an affordable one-bedroom apartment. My car was paid off. I bought cheap groceries. I didn't go out that often, and when I did, I didn't spend much. It's not as if I was living in a luxury apartment, leasing a car I couldn't afford, or buying bottle service every weekend on my credit cards.

Therein lies the problem. Reducing your spending doesn't work if you're already on a tight budget, like I was. And even if it works in the beginning, it's not a sustainable long-term solution. There's only so much you can cut. You'll eventually reach a point where you either can't or don't want to keep cutting back.

If I had really wanted to, I could have lowered my spending more. I could've moved into an apartment with roommates instead of having my own place, gone on a rice-and-beans diet, and stopped going out at all, instead of every now and then.

But each of those changes would've had a big impact on my quality of life. When I thought about how much I'd save compared to what I'd be giving up, it clearly wasn't worth it. Who wants to survive on the cheapest food and never go out, just to save another $100 or $200? Even if you can do it temporarily to save some extra money, is it a strategy you'd want to follow for the rest of your life?

I wanted to improve my finances without ruining my life. The more I read about personal finance, the more I knew that earning more money was the only good solution.

How I increased my income

Spending less was a swing and a miss for me. Increasing my income was what completely changed my financial situation. It has allowed me to build my savings and invest in stocks, which I could never do when I was living paycheck to paycheck.

I realize that making more money is easier said than done. It definitely didn't happen overnight for me. But I have been able to significantly increase my income, and I'm going to share what worked for me:

• I applied for new jobs every day. When I was working for peanuts, I constantly looked for job opportunities. The vast majority (probably over 99%) didn't pan out. But I found a few that did, and they made all that job hunting worth it.
• I've worked hard to improve my skills. I'm always looking for ways to do my job better, which has led to more opportunities for me. I also try to see how I can work more efficiently. Since I'm a freelancer, being able to work more efficiently means I can get more done and increase my earnings.
• I built my network. When I was starting out, I used LinkedIn to add contacts in my industry. One of my first good gigs came from messaging with one of these contacts. That network continues paying dividends. Even though I'm not very active there anymore, I've still gotten job opportunities through LinkedIn.

There are some situations where spending less is worth it. If you're spending too much on things you don't need, then tightening up your expenses could be a good solution. But if you're already on a tight budget, then you're much better off focusing on raising your income.