232 | How to Create a Joy List That Keeps Emotional Spending From Derailing Your Budget

Are you spending money to feel better? Just sit with that question for a second before we dive in, because if you had to answer it honestly, the answer is probably yes. And that is not a bad thing on its own, but what I want you to think about today is whether the spending is actually delivering what you are looking for when you reach for your wallet. A few weeks ago I had one of those stretches where the weather in DC was gray and rainy for seven days straight and everything felt harder than it needed to be. A friend invited me over, we ordered DoorDash, I spent $80, and the next morning I woke up feeling like that was some of the best money I had spent in a long time. Not because of the food, but because I changed my environment, reset my mood, and got exactly the connection I was looking for. That $80 worked because I was conscious about what I was actually buying myself and it was not something I do every week on autopilot. That is the difference I want to talk about in this episode, because a lot of our spending habits started out of emotion and then became routine, and once something becomes a default we stop asking whether it is actually giving us what we need. In this episode I am introducing something I call the joy list, a simple two-sided tool that gives you something to reach for when you are having one of those days so that you can honor both your emotions and the financial goals you have already committed to. In this episode you'll learn... \[00:04:30] Why so many of our spending decisions are emotional even when we think they are rational, and why that is not the problem we think it is \[00:08:15] How spending from emotion becomes a default habit and why we stop evaluating whether it is actually giving us the relief, connection, or joy we are looking for \[00:12:40] What the joy list is, why it has two sides, and how building one gives you a different outlet to reach for when you have already decided where your money is going this month \[00:17:20] How to figure out what actually fills you up that costs money versus what fills you up that is completely free, and why the free side of the list is harder to build but more important than you think \[00:21:45] How to use your joy list in real time so that the next time you are about to spend to feel better you can pause and ask yourself whether this is actually the best way to get what you need right now Tune in to this episode of Money Files to learn how to create a joy list that helps you get what you actually need in the hard moments without letting emotional spending derail the financial goals you have already set for yourself. Get full show notes and the episode transcript: https://wealthovernow.com/how-to-create-a-joy-list-that-keeps-emotional-spending-from-derailing-your-budget/ **Links mentioned in this episode…** Set up a call | Financial Coach Washington, DC | Wealth Over Now Download my FREE spending plan