Lynda Moore says being intentional with money is not about denying yourself things you enjoy. It's about making sure your spending still reflects your life as it is now, rather than the habits, intentions, or forgotten free trials of six months ago

It’s that time of year for me, where I go through and do a thorough review of my personal spending.  I track my spending against my money plan, and I do a cursory check at the end of each month. But I do like to do a deep dive a couple of times a year and see where my money has gone, and what (if anything) I want to change.

I take a slightly different approach to my spending than just slashing expenses because they are ‘wants’ not needs. I learned this approach from Sarah Newcomb (Director of Behavioral Science at Morningstar, Inc). In her book “Loaded”, she says everything we do is to meet a need, it’s easy to spend money to meet those needs, what we should do is look at the underlying need and what other strategies we could use that have a lower cost.  This is what I do when I review my money plan.

There are some areas that you can’t do too much about, your rates, your rent or mortgage. 

Other costs like insurances for example you can increase the excess or reduce the cover.  I am speaking to more people who are opting out of contents insurance, or life or medical insurance.  If that is a valid strategy for you, then that’s fine.  Just make sure you understand the consequences of not having some insurances in place. We can also shop around for power and play with your internet and phone plans, and although it takes a bit of time, it is worth doing.

Then of course there is the discretionary spending, these are the items that tend to end up in the ‘want’ category. 

This is where you find the little gems, like the extra google storage you thought you needed but actually didn’t.  The Apps that seem to have small regular payments all the time, especially if you have children who like to play on your phone.

For me, it’s my Kindle.  I can’t resist the emails that come through with the latest book recommendations.  I’ve been pretty good at buying the cheaper ones on special, but more expensive ones seem to have crept into the list and before you know it, I’ve happily clicked on a $9.79 book, instead of my usual $1.50.  I’m not going to stop buying books, I love to read and for me it’s an important part of the winddown at the end of the day.  What I am going to do, is take just a few seconds longer before I do the click now to decide if I really want the $9.79 book, or do I go to library and order it for free.  I’m not cutting out something that is important to me, I’m looking at the strategy, or options that I can use to still have what I want.

I took a long hard look at my wine club subscription, and of course I went straight into justification mode, it’s only once a quarter, the wine is a really good price, and I like the vineyard, plus it’s not readily available in either the supermarket or my local wine shops.  For now, it’s stayed in my money plan, but if I want to keep it, the strategy is no wine creeping into my trolley at the supermarket. 

If you have a subscription that you haven’t used in say the last three months, you can probably get rid of it without too much thought.  The ones that you have and use occasionally you need to delve into the need and the strategy and if you want to keep it, what are you going to trim elsewhere so you can keep it?

When you do this exercise, you will hit your non-negotiables, and if you are in a relationship, your non-negotiables may be quite different to your partner.  This is where conflict can arise.  In this situation the need becomes very important, we all have the same underlying needs, but we can meet them differently.  With your non-negotiables dig deep into the need, not just the surface, ‘it makes me feel good’ or ‘I deserve it” what really is going on for you, once you can explain that to your partner, the conversation changes, as they will have the same need but might be meeting it differently. 

Let’s get back to subscriptions.  They are everywhere. Streaming platforms, apps, cloud storage, fitness memberships, software, meal kits, news sites, book clubs the list keeps growing. Most of them feel perfectly reasonable when we sign up. But life changes, routines shift, and before long we’re paying for things we barely even remember subscribing to.

And the tricky part is that these payments are designed to fade into the background.

They’re automatic, predictable, and usually small enough not to trigger alarm bells. Which means they quietly continue month after month while our attention is somewhere else entirely.

It’s not necessarily about being careless either. Human psychology plays a role here. Once we’ve committed to something, we tend to justify keeping it. We think about the possibility of using it again rather than the reality of how little we do.

Gym memberships are the classic example. We don’t focus on the fact we haven’t gone in three months. We focus on the version of ourselves that might suddenly become motivated next Monday. That kind of thinking can keep money leaking away without us properly noticing.

I’m an accountant, so for me spending an afternoon going through my finances isn’t daunting, in fact the opposite, I love looking at numbers, what story are the telling me about what I intended to do and why, and have I done it or not. And what am I going to do moving forward.

But I get it, that’s probably not normal and fun for everyone.  You can do it without the deep dive, and the spreadsheets, and the analysis that I do to find the low hanging fruit.

Start with something very simple: set aside an hour and review your bank and credit card transactions line by line. Not skimming. Actually looking.

We tend to know about the larger payments, so for this exercise, pay particular attention to recurring smaller charges.  Those are often the easiest to overlook because they don’t feel significant in isolation.

Then ask yourself a straightforward question: have I genuinely used this recently? In the last month? The last three months? If the honest answer is no, it may be time to let it go. Don’t procrastinate, cancel it as you do the review. It can be quite hard to find the cancel subscription button; it never seems to be as large or as prominent as the buy now one.

Another helpful habit is setting reminders when signing up for free trials or new subscriptions. A quick calendar alert a couple of days before the renewal date can save a surprising amount of money over time. It turns the decision into an active choice instead of a passive default.

Some subscriptions absolutely do add value. If a service saves you time, supports your wellbeing, helps your business, or genuinely brings you enjoyment, that’s money well spent. But if something has quietly become background noise while still taking money out of your account each month, it deserves another look.

Being intentional with money isn’t about being tight or denying yourself things you enjoy. It’s about making sure your spending still reflects your life as it is now, rather than the habits, intentions, or forgotten free trials of six months ago.

If doing a full financial review feels overwhelming, start small. One hour. One set of statements. One honest look at what’s genuinely adding value to your life.

You may be surprised by what you find.

*Lynda Moore is a Money Mentalist coach and New Zealand’s only certified New Money Story® mentor. Lynda helps you understand why you do the things you do with your money, when we all know we should spend less than we earn. You can contact her here.