Yeah, I know. Analogies are no fun. But they do illustrate a point.
If you want to lose weight and gain lean mass, what do you need to do? Consume fewer calories. What's one way to do that? Eat light or diet foods instead of the
full-calorie versions, delicious though they may be. Of course, you'll also need to exercise, but you really need to do both.
If you want to lose debt and gain wealth, what do you need to do? Spend less money. What's one way to do that? Use coupons to reduce the cost of the things you already buy, even though it's more convenient to skip the coupons and just buy it. Of course, you'll also need to find ways to increase your income, but you really
need to do both.
See how incredibly similar they are? And to top it off, neither one is particularly easy to do. It can be hard to find low calorie versions of food that you actually like, and it can be hard to find the coupons that match up with what you already buy. You might need a bigger shift in what you eat for your diet to be effective, and you might need a bigger shift in what you are purchasing for your budget to be effective. Neither one is exactly palatable for a lot of people.
Come to think of it, they both share similarities with analogies too! All three are often no fun at all!
But, that doesn't mean that it has to be a grind to find coupons. Try turning it into a game! Search for coupons, trying to find the biggest discount possible. Then, next week, try to find an even bigger discount. If you're always striving for finding a bigger discount, it can actually start to be fun to look for coupons, especially as each time you pull it off, you get to feel the excitement of winning!
It's even better if you have more than one person in your family. Have everybody look for coupons, and whoever finds the biggest discount on something you were going to buy anyway wins for that week.
As the competition heats up (either against yourself or against your family members), try expanding the rules. In addition to coupons, add things like finding things on sale, finding a cheaper brand, or finding a cheaper store. Add all of the discounts up, and see which single purchase saved the most money. See if you can beat your personal record, or see if you can keep beating the rest of your family members!
That's one thing that diets and budgets don't have in common. It's easier to make coupon-hunting fun than it is to make eating less-delicious foods fun!
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written by: Jeff Manors
