Living within your means, Eating “within your means”
What food tracking has taught me about money, intuition, and why using a system doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong.
Ooh boy — I’ve been wanting to write a blog post about the similarities between managing money and managing our health — specifically as it relates to food — for years.
There are so many similarities between struggling to live within your means financially and struggling to do the same when it comes to eating and taking care of your body.
And just to say this upfront: you can track without being extreme, and you can be mindful without being controlling. Sometimes it’s simply about paying attention, being honest with yourself, and staying flexible.
Let’s dive in.
First: What does ‘living within your means’ mean?
When it comes to money, living within your means means not spending more than you bring in, while also saving for your short and long-term needs.
Said another way, if you have $80K of take-home pay per year and spend it all each month, you’ll have a hard time when things like vet bills, car repairs, or vacations come up.
Let’s say you’ve made a super-thorough plan for your $80K/year that includes everything you can reasonably estimate your money needs to do- Once you’ve accounted for all of that, you’ll have a certain amount left for discretionary spending — per year, per month, or even per week.
And that’s where one of the day-to-day parts of “living within your means” comes in:
Not spending more than you have agreed with yourself to spend on discretionary/fun things.
Now, let’s talk about how this correlates to eating and our health.
I’m 5'1" and 42 years old, and there’s a certain amount of sleep, water, movement, protein and food I need to help my body feel the way I want it to feel.
If I consistently eat more than my body needs to support my goals, or sleep and move less than I know I need to feel good, I’m not really ‘living within my means’ health-wise.
And the same way that spending more money can sometimes be really fun in the moment, eating more food can also be really enjoyable in the moment!
Wanting something doesn’t necessarily mean there is room for an unlimited amount of it.
So what can we do when we WANT to be living within our means?
Two things come to mind:
Focus on habits.
Track your progress so there is no mystery.
Let’s talk about habits first.
When it comes to my health, I know that if I can get in 3–5 long walks per week, lift weights three times, eat around 30 grams of protein with each meal, go to bed by 9:30 or 10:00, and remember to drink water… I’m doing pretty well.
Focusing on those actions obviously goes a long way toward helping me feel healthy.
These are pretty synonymous with the agreements you might make with yourself about your money: making your own coffee in the morning, only booking vacations when you have the money first, or automating your retirement savings.
Any habit you can identify that makes it easier to be successful is wonderful, and, sometimes habits aren’t quite enough.
When someone might benefit from tracking their spending or eating
I personally struggle with “living within my means” when it comes to eating. I’m a petite woman, and I love food.
Left to my own devices, my natural tendencies and habits alone do not always set me up for success when my goal is to feel agile, strong, and comfortable in my body.
And I notice that when I consistently eat more than works well for me, I feel sluggish and tired — and my weight creeps above where I feel best.
It’s no different with money.
Even if you’ve gotten lots of great money habits down, you may not naturally live within your means.
Maybe your income is $80K/year, but left entirely to intuition, you naturally spend more like $100K/year.
That extra $20K has to come from somewhere. Maybe it ends up on credit cards or a HELOC. Maybe you repeatedly pull money out of savings and then wonder why your savings never seems to grow.
This doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with you.
It doesn’t mean you are failing because your intuition doesn’t naturally lead you to spend in a balanced way.
It may simply mean that you are someone who benefits from having a good system for tracking your spending.
We use calendars because our brains aren’t particularly good at remembering 30 different appointments, and we use GPS because we don’t expect ourselves to intuitively know the best route everywhere we go.
Why do we expect our brains to somehow know exactly how much money we can safely spend without giving them any information?
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought to myself, ‘I should know how to eat in a way that works for my body. I shouldn’t have to track what I eat. It seems silly when it’s mostly so healthy!’
If paying attention and tracking helps me feel more confident and make choices that actually support my goals, then why wouldn’t I use that tool?
How tracking benefits you
Knowing what I’ve eaten so far helps me know what dinner can look like — maybe another 30 grams of protein and a certain amount of food.
I don’t track macros perfectly, and I’m not trying to hit some exact number every day. But I do focus on getting what I’ve determined is a healthy amount of protein and food for my specific body and goals.
And then I know when I can enjoy an ice cream bar or a drink with confidence that it still fits comfortably into what my body needs that day.
The tracking removes the mystery.
And that is exactly what happens with money.
The Magic of Tracking Your Spending
Only people who have experienced this can tell you how good it feels to know exactly what your money is for at any moment.
To know how much you can spend — guilt-free — right now on a vacation. Or a gift. Or a dinner out. Or even a large purchase for yourself.
When we leave all of this up to intuition, we are literally asking our brains to look at how much money is sitting in our checking and savings accounts and somehow come up with a number that is safe to spend on travel — while simultaneously accounting for upcoming bills, car repairs, medical expenses, vet visits, holidays, home repairs, taxes, retirement savings, and who knows what else.
That is a lot to ask of our intuition.
Tracking isn’t punishment, and it isn’t proof that you are “bad with money.”
And it doesn’t mean you should have been able to figure this out without a system.
Sometimes tracking is simply the thing that allows you to stop guessing.
And when you stop guessing, you get to make decisions with confidence.