I’m sure you’ve heard about the Whole 30 or Paleo diet that is all the rage right now. They are “elimination” diets that take certain food groups out of meal planning to see if you feel better when they are gone after 30 days. Why not “eliminate” financial” aspects from your life to see how much better your money feels too? You should do the diet and the money diet together and get your body and wallet reset moving forward. Misery loves company!
The Whole 30 diet is meant to reset your body by removing bread, rice, dairy, sugar, alcohol and anything fake like preservatives and you eat all the healthy things like meats, veggies, and fruits. We can apply this “natural” state of spending money and over 30 days “reset” the way you use and feel about money. By taking the “artificial” ways of spending and using money we can align with our money goals of saving, investing and shopping better! You will feel amazing after these 30 days! Here is how it works.
No Credit Cards: For one month take your credit cards and debit cards and freeze them in the freezer. Human society existed without credit cards for 2000 years and we are going to go back to that “paleo” way of spending money. We will trade a physical precious object (cash) for something that we want or need and if our paleo brains jump in and ask, “Do I really need this” or “let’s just keep that pretty $50 dollar bill instead”, then go with your instinct. We lose the connection that money is precious when swiping the card so lets reset just for 30 days!
No Eating Out or Bars: Living in a big city like New York City, most of my hangouts involves drinks or dinner. For one month invite people over to your place, go to the free gym in your building or go for a walk. You’ll save a ton of money and also see that you don’t need to have a $18 martini to be funny. Make dinner for friends and entertain like the good old days. Pop (soda water) and chip (plantain) parties are making a comeback and we all have 800 movies on streaming services these days. Your waist and wallet will thank you.
No Shopping: It’s so easy for us to login to online stores and order things while we are eating lunch at our desks or pop into a store on our way home and buy more stuff we don’t need. With our Whole Wallet 30 we are going to leave our cards in the wallet and see how much money we can save over 30 days. Many times it ends up being something we didn’t really need or want anyway. After we’ve been on social platforms or having a bad day is when we need a positive feeling boost through retail therapy even though it is short-lived. Go for a brisk walk or hit the gym and get a proper dose of dopamine.
No Social Media: This will probably be the hardest one to do buy it is directly tied to the “no shopping” rule. Instead of sitting on a social platform and looking at how much fake fun people are having we are going to grab a journal and write down our money goals and ultimate life. When we have an idea about something that we’d like to do – write it down. Spend some time mapping out our future and get excited about it. Year by year describe how we’d like our career, love life, babies, family, vacations, education, and business to progress. Get it all out of your head and into a diary and your wallet and soul will LOVE it.
Elimination diets will show you what sets off your stomach and the Whole Wallet 30 diet will show you what sets off your money. See how much money you save by cutting out credit cards, shopping, eating and drinking out and by lifting your spirit by journalling vs. Instagramming. Your whole self will enjoy the 30-day break and will reset you and your money moving forward. Love you and your money and you’ll have a great life.