In what ways do you guys control your spend? I have thought numerous times of just cancelling all but 2 or 3 of my cards so that I can better control my spend and won't go out of my budget. Recently I've tried to stop using my cards and only use my debit card but then I think of the savings I could have if I was to use my credit card and get the cash back. I constantly find myself spending more than I should and digging myself a slightly bigger hole month by month or maybe not dedicating as much money as I should towards my debt. Any suggestions? Thank you all for the help.
As of 11/28/2018
Several posters will likely offer you options to think about. To start you off, I had to sit down and prepare a real life budget with house mortgage/rent, car payment, city utilities, heating fuel, electricity, telephone/smart phone, cable/netfix or whatever, doctor appointments, food, gas, renters/homeowners insurance, auto insurance, recreation, subscriptions, other. Purpose is to see what I have to pay every month and take my income and minus the costs just mentioned. Then what was left could be allocated to an emergency fund, investments, vacations, fun things.
Likely some of the posters could offer you sample worksheets to make it easier to use and track. Best of luck as you get spending under control
Understand your challenge as I had the similar challenges. 
@Anonymous wrote:Several posters will likely offer you options to think about. To start you off, I had to sit down and prepare a real life budget with house mortgage/rent, car payment, city utilities, heating fuel, electricity, telephone/smart phone, cable/netfix or whatever, doctor appointments, food, gas, renters/homeowners insurance, auto insurance, recreation, subscriptions, other. Purpose is to see what I have to pay every month and take my income and minus the costs just mentioned. Then what was left could be allocated to an emergency fund, investments, vacations, fun things.
Likely some of the posters could offer you sample worksheets to make it easier to use and track. Best of luck as you get spending under control
Understand your challenge as I had the similar challenges.
+ 1million.
OP, until you know what’s coming in (income), you’ll never know what’s going out (expenses).
I created a basic spreadsheet which lists all my paydays for all of 2019 and all of my expenses. And, like Dinosaur, I live by it religiously.
For the last 3 years, I’ve also been using a free app called Checkbook. It is my lifeline, my bible so-to-speak. I dont care what I spend, the moment I spend it, it goes in that app. I’m serious! You may have read my post earlier this week where I had to charge 1cent on a CC. Yep, that $1cent went into my checkbook app. I did upgrade recently to Checkbook Pro for $2.99 and honestly I see no difference 😂🤣
You’ll be amazed that once you get in the habit of doing it, not only will it become second nature, you’ll start enjoy tinkering with it and fine-tuning it. You’ll see.
GL2U
OP, I feel your pain. I’ve been there. Honestly, the only way I was able to gain discipline over my spending was by putting the credit cards away. When you’re dealing with real dollars, avoiding a balance of $0 is a good motivator to not overspend!!
The first thing I recommend echoes what everyone else here has already said, which is to create a budget (if you haven’t already). After all your bills and expenses are accounted for and you’ve set some money aside for savings (10-20% if you can afford it) the rest is your spending money. Keep tabs of your spending and use only your debit card. Once you have the hang of living within your means (I’d give it 6 months), you can reintroduce your credit cards. Always stay within your allowance, and try not to go over. If you do, plan ahead how you’ll pay it off and reduce your allowance every week until it’s paid off (so essentially, you’re borrowing from yourself). I keep track of everything on a spreadsheet and log everything I spend and payoff so I know how much money I actually have (instead of just relying on the balance I see in my account).
The first thing I recommend echoes what everyone else here has already said, which is to create a budget (if you haven’t already). After all your bills and expenses are accounted for and you’ve set some money aside for savings (10-20% if you can afford it) the rest is your spending money. Keep tabs of your spending and use only your debit card. Once you have the hang of living within your means (I’d give it 6 months), you can reintroduce your credit cards. Always stay within your allowance, and try not to go over. If you do, plan ahead how you’ll pay it off and reduce your allowance every week until it’s paid off (so essentially, you’re borrowing from yourself). I keep track of everything on a spreadsheet and log everything I spend and payoff so I know how much money I actually have (instead of just relying on the balance I see in my account).
+1 on the having a budget and sticking to it. I'm not perfect at this by any means, but what I do is use the cards for stuff that I would normally just write a check for or use the debit card to buy( Gas, Groceries, etc..). With those purchases once a week or so, I will add them all up and make a payment for the amount. This keeps my utilization low and it also allows me to see money going out of the checking account. I get paid once a month so this works for me, but I also pay all my recurring bills at the beginning of the month regardless of the due date. This process allows me to know how much disposable income is in the account and as the balance gets lower I just instinctively spend less on everything.
If there is something that I want or need and will need to push over several months then I may buy it on the card, but then I figure out what the payment for that should be an I'll make another payment for that amount at the beginning of the month.
This all comes down to choices and if you can't be disciplined enough to not make impulse purchases, then I would say just get rid of the cards altogether. I know I got into trouble with cards before and it came down to making impulse buys for stuff that I did not need and sometimes even really want. Marketers are very good at getting you to make these types of purchases and the government wants you to be a good little consumer. Resist them for your long term financial health.
I budget. Specifically, I use a budgeting app called YNAB (You Need a Budget), and I was budgeting/cash only before getting cards, so I haven't had as much of a problem. I admit that it's sometimes tempting to whip out the plastic and buy stuff I want before thinking about how much I really need it.
And even though I have cards with healthy limits and 0% financing I still follow my budget and save up to buy the higher ticket items and then charge it - I treat my cards like debit cards but with the added bonus of 2-6% cash/points back. I did finance a new sewing machine I'd been wanting to purchase for a couple of years (at 0%) and that makes me twitchy, so I can't see financing anything else (the car on top of everything was bad enough 
).
I *hate* debt. And there's no reason, with a good budget, I can't keep my debt down (to just something like a car note or mortgage)
