Right there with you. One trick I've been using as of lately is pre-paying my rent by paying for 2 months each month. That way the money isn't available for me to spend uselessly. I'm still spending it, but on a bill that I'd hav to pay anyways. I'm up to 3 months of pre-paid rent and feels good to know that if something happened to my job, at least I won't lose my apartment.

This is good but you are better putting this in a GIC instead and then pay rent from there. Ladder GIC's or a HISA account.

If you pre-pay rent, which is good to have it paid and not worry about, you aren't earning interest with that money which can add up, suppose you get to saving 12-months rent in advance.

Good point, very true. The issue I struggle with is discipline - if I have any way to access the funds, I will end up spending them, doesn't matter how many accounts I have to transfer through. Hence why I went with the pre-pay rent route - it's technically already "spent" and I can't simply take it back or acccess if after that. The goal is to recalibrate my spending habits after paying double rent for some time, and then begin to reallocate that monthly budget to better investments as you have mentioned.

Get a savings only account at a bank far from you. Throw the bank card out. Set automatic withdrawal to that account. This way you have to go to the physical bank to withdraw money. This may work for you. Good luck, it is really a challenge.

That’s a solid idea, thanks for the tips!

I'm not sure what GIC and HISA are, but it sounds like they may be US-specific? I'm in Europe, not sure what the equivalent is here if any.

GIC is a guaranteed investment certificate. HISA is a high interest savings account. They may be named alternatively in Europe. I am not familiar with EU banking.

You might have to research it further with your bank for GIC and look for online only banks for the HISA option.

The best way to do this, IMO, is to have automatic withdrawals from your account into another account.

You are correct! It is a fully time tested method that can work for anyone.

I do have automatic withdrawals, but unfortunately I often end up taking some of that back into my main account. I also have 10% being kept from me each month by my employer as part of the Employee Stock Purchase Plan - it is my one bit of savings that I literally cannot touch until the shares are actually purchased. The next purchase period is in February and my plan is to immediately pay off my thankfully fairly minor debt and then learn not to touch the rest.

If you are able to move it back easily, then you did not move it far enough away. Have the auto withdraws go somewhere harder to access. A mutual fund or something. Or a bank with a saving account where you need to GO to the bank to get the money back out.