Hanging out with friend can be good for your social life, but the habits can be counterproductive to your financial life. Women, particularly millennial, often lose control when hanging out. Statistic data show that almost 40% of millennial overspend when going out with friends. In fact, most of them feel regretful after realizing the fact that they overspend to keep up with friends. So, how to avoid overspending when hanging out? Forbes contributor – Joshua Becker – shares some tips.

How to Avoid Overspending When Hanging Out

Set Your Budget

This is the first thing you can do as a way on how to avoid overspending when going out with friends. Set the budget by means of a spending plan. Make sure to include must-have things like dining. You may set tolerable extra spending out of the budget, say for instance, 10%. Do not bring more money than the estimated budget plus extra allowance. Then, stick to your plan.

Keep Your Big Goals in Mind

You certainly have big goals for your life. Keep them in mind when hanging out with friends. The main goals in your life can a good control as how to avoid overspending. For instance, if your goal is to be free of any type of debt. Staying focused on it will prevent you from using credit cards for shopping at the malls.

Tell the Truth

When hanging out with friends, everything looks great. It always looks that your friends and your are financially healthy. In fact, your friends mostly feel the same way you do. They also have big goals in their life. So, why not telling the truth? Tell the fact that you will go into debt if you keep the same lifestyle for a year to come. This is the time to break your friendship habit by initiating conversation about the truth.

You may need to speak openly your reasons to cut spending. Tell them why being free from debt is important in your life. Tell them that you are working hard to pay student loan or that you are saving money to buy a house. By telling the truth, may even inspire your friends to do the same.

Suggest Less Expensive Alternative

It seems to be a gold standard that group of friends always find the best things, the most delicious foods, branded fashion items, or exclusive area in restaurants, when hanging out with friends. It is okay for sometime, but not always. The next time you go out, you can suggest less expensive alternative to cut the spending. For instance, you can order cheaper drinks or skip snacks while watching movie.

If entirely changing your friends’ lifestyle is not likely, you can cut the costs elsewhere. Begin it with yourself. For instance, you can but fewer clothing items or less expensive dress. Minimalism can mean many things to prevent you from overspending when going out with friends.

In the end, keep in mind that life goes on. If you cannot spend much money this time, there will be another opportunity for it. The most important thing is sticking to your targets. If, after telling the truth, you friends do not accept your reasoning, it’s okay to lose them.