The Price Isn’t Right: How to Stop Overspending and Stay Debt-Free

NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast

NerdWallet Personal Finance

Business, Education, Investing, How To

4.2 • 665 Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Break free from debt cycles and rethink your spending habits with tips on no-buy challenges and financial therapy. How can you stop falling into a cycle of paying off debt, only to rack it back up again? What is a no-buy year, and how can it help you control your spending? Hosts Sean Pyles and Elizabeth Ayoola discuss strategies for breaking unhealthy spending patterns and staying out of debt for good. They begin with a conversation about the benefits of a no-buy year with NerdWallet personal finance writer Amanda Barroso, who shares tips on setting clear spending rules, resisting impulse purchases, and tracking progress to reinforce financial discipline. Then, Sean welcomes co-host Sara Rathner and personal finance Nerd Melissa Lambarena to dive into a listener’s struggle with recurring credit card debt. They discuss the psychological factors behind compulsive spending, the benefits of financial therapy, and practical steps to curb overspending, including strategies for budgeting, limiting credit card use, and practicing delayed gratification. Read NerdWallet’s write-up of the best no balance transfer fee credit cards to help you compare your options for ways to climb out of debt: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/best-no-balance-transfer-fee-credit-cards In their conversation, the Nerds discuss: credit card debt, how to stop overspending, no-buy year, budgeting tips, financial therapy, money habits, debt cycle, breaking bad money habits, impulse spending, debt-free living, financial discipline, how to stop using credit cards, saving money strategies, debt management, mindful spending, financial goals, spending freeze, personal finance tips, credit card traps, emotional spending, how to budget, debt repayment, how to stay out of debt, no-spend challenge, frugal living, debt-free journey, saving money on shopping, financial accountability, budget planner, financial self-control, spending detox, credit card debt help, how to stop living paycheck to paycheck, best budgeting methods, overcoming debt, financial self-awareness, debt-free motivation, and how to track spending habits. To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email [email protected]. Like what you hear? Please leave us a review and tell a friend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Do you ever find yourself doing something you know is bad for you, but you just can't seem to stop?
0:06.1	And what if that something is harming your personal and financial lives?
0:10.7	This episode will help you break that bad habit for good.
0:19.3	Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast. I'm Sean Piles.
0:23.0	And I'm Elizabeth Ayola.
0:25.3	This episode, I'm joined by Sarah Rathner to answer a listener's question about how to stop a debt spiral from blowing up their life.
0:32.3	But first, we are going to talk about what you can get from doing a low or no by year. So here to talk with
0:38.9	us about this is NerdWallet Personal Finance writer Amanda Barroso. Amanda, welcome back to Smart
0:45.0	Money. Hi there, Sean and Elizabeth. Thanks so much for having me back. All right, Amanda. So to start,
0:51.6	can you lay out exactly how a no or low by year works? And what's your goal?
0:57.5	So the gist of a low buy or no buy is to create, you know, one or more spending goals for yourself
1:04.0	and to stick to those goals for a certain period of time. So it could be a year like what I'm
1:08.5	trying to do here, but it could also be shorter, like a month.
1:11.6	If you're anything like me, your social media feeds were full of people doing low-by or no-by
1:17.1	challenges in December, at least sort of setting up their challenges for the new year.
1:21.2	As I was scrolling through those videos, it really got me thinking about my own spending habits
1:25.9	and what goals I wanted to set for myself
1:28.1	in the new year. Cutting back on areas of overspending and encouraging more mindful consumption are
1:34.7	my two main goals, but there are others that you could pick too, like reducing clutter or making
1:40.5	more ethical consumption choices. So it seems like the overarching goal of a low or a no-buye,
1:46.0	however you want to do it, is to really reset kind of from the ground up how you are thinking
1:51.3	about your spending habits. That sounds right, yeah. What are the specific rules guiding your
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NerdWallet Personal Finance, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NerdWallet Personal Finance and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.