Here’s How to Spend Less Money and Still Live a Life You Love

She Makes Money Moves is a new podcast from Glamour and iHeartRadio. Hosted by Glamour editor in chief Samantha Barry, the podcast shares intimate, unscripted stories from women across the country along with advice from financial experts to help guide those women—and women everywhere—forward. Download a new episode every Tuesday, then visit glamour.com/money for an article like this, with more insights from that week's expert.

Take a look at your calendar: not the appointments and calls, but the fun stuff. Weeknight drinks with coworkers. A dinner reservation at a new restaurant. Brunch (more than one?) with friends. Our free time is precious, and it makes sense to want to spend it on social activities. But all those meals out come at a cost, and it can be hard to know which occasion is worth the splurge and which you're attending only because of a flagrant case of FOMO. On this week's episode of Glamour's She Makes Money Moves, "I Love My Life—But I Can't Afford It," one woman shares her account of the times FOMO won out. (So much so that she had to get a side hustle on top of her full-time job to keep up with her expenses.)

The good news is, the solution isn't to swear off having a social life. But there are certain things she (and you) can do to maintain your budget and treat yourself to a night out. Here financial expert Stefanie O'Connell shares how people can take a more thoughtful approach to social spending.

Consider the big picture.

It’s so easy to get caught up in what’s in front of you that you forget to zoom out every so often to consider the bigger picture. That is, "What do you want your money to afford you?" And not just now, but 5 or 10 years from now. The more clarity you create around your five-year goals—whether it’s getting your own place, moving, starting a business, or paying for a wedding in cash—the more clarity you’ll have around what you need to prioritize financially in the present. While the future you want is free to imagine, it’s expensive to build. And if you don’t want to settle for less than the future you’re dreaming about, you need to prioritize managing your money in the present. That’s not to say you can’t splurge on anything in the moment, like that brunch. But you should remind yourself of big-picture goals—like a home you’re saving up for—so that when those temptations to spend come up, you consider the trade-off. It’s not about sacrificing everything today for the sake of tomorrow, and it’s not about saying YOLO at the expense of your future. It’s about making financial decisions with equal consideration for both.

Track your spending.

It’s really hard to make a plan for how to get to where you want to go if you don’t know where you currently stand. So start taking a few minutes each week to sit down and face the numbers. Reviewing your spending and seeing the numbers laid out in front of you forces you to get real about where your money is going and to confront bad money habits. The kinds of habits that perpetuate cycles of financial stress—like living paycheck to paycheck and digging deeper into debt. Tracking your spending helps break these cycles by bringing mindfulness to your day-to-day financial habits. It can also help you identify serious spending issues, like spending more than you make, and allows you to see whether your actual spending is aligned with your priorities.

Ask: Does it spark joy?

As you review your spending, take a moment to evaluate each of your expenses and assess whether you’d like to keep them as they are, reduce their frequency, renegotiate them, or eliminate them altogether. When you question each expense, it forces you to consider how much value it actually adds to your life and whether it’s enough to keep, adjust, or cut altogether.

For example, if you’re able to renegotiate your cable bill for a monthly plan that’s $20 cheaper, that gives you more room to spend on other luxuries or save toward big-picture goals. Questioning each expense also gets you to think about your expenses as choices, rather than just asking "Can I afford it or not?" You may find that you can’t afford the luxury of getting your hair cut and colored every six weeks, but that you can go for a cut and color every 10 weeks. It’s a small shift that can make a significant difference in your total spending. Approaching each of your expenses with creativity and flexibility can open the door to new opportunities for saving.

Digitize your bills.

Automate good financial habits. Whether it’s paying your bills or contributing money to savings, one of the best ways to make good financial habits a priority is to automate them. If you don’t see the money sitting around in your checking account, you’re less likely to think of it as money that’s ready and available to spend.

According to a survey by Fidelity, the sponsor of She Makes Money Moves, 80% of women aren't talking about money with the people closest to them. Today Glamour invites you to the conversation: Subscribe on Apple Podcasts in the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us as we help women raise their voices and make money moves.

Originally Appeared on Glamour