This is NPR's Life Kit. I'm Lauren McGockey.

If I were to turn my credit card statements from the last few months into a cliche buzzfeed

listicle, it would read like this. March, sweatpants, April, sweatpants, puzzles,

May, cookbook, aspirational, roller blades, aspirational on the extreme, June, yeast for obligatory

bread making. July, a postal service costume for my dog. Totally worth it. August, somehow,

inexplicably, more sweatpants. So I realize I'm really lucky to be in a position where I can buy

anything at all right now. But the tricky thing is, is that money actually is tight, and I really

shouldn't be spending much money at all. So why can't I stop buying stuff? We in whole shop,

because it feels good in the moment, right? It's like the bandaid, it's the cool glass of water

on a really hot summer's day. That's Tiffany Leechay, better known as the budget Nista.

She started as an early childhood educator, and nowadays she teaches folks of all ages

about being smart with money. And she says, and these tough times, we're all tempted to do a little

comfort shopping. And that's okay. As long as you're not leaving your long-term saving schools by the

wayside, money is there to enhance your life. It is a tool to build up your financial life. And part

of that is enjoying some of it as well. I just want you to create a plan where all of those things

can happen in harmony. Unnecessary spending looks different for all of us, but regardless of your

financial situation, we could all stand to stretch our dollar a little further. In this episode of

LifeKit, learn to spend and save smarter.

In some ways, it seems like Tiffany Leechay was destined to become the budget Nista.

Growing up, her dad was a CFO with an expertise in accounting.

So the attitude towards buying things in our household was, do you need it?

Well, because I'm one of five daughters. And so my dad was by force pretty frugal.

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