Personal budget: 5 methods how to raise money for your dream

Record and analyze your costs
I take a clean envelope for each new month. Ordinary mail envelope. I write down all my expenses on it and I put all the receipts inside. At the end of the month I spend several hours to summarize: I analyze how much money I spent on necessary things (for example, I can't live without toilet paper, rice, fresh vegetables and fruits, oatmeal, shampoo, toothpaste, lenses etc.), how much I spent on connection (internet, mobile), how much I spent on entertainment (cinema, cafes, museums etc.) and how much I spent on things for the soul (chips, chocolate, Nutella, wine, 21st blouse etc.). Yes, I always know when and where I spent the money and why they evaporated from my wallet [1].

Ask yourself: "Do I really need this thing?"
This item is very related to the previous one. Sometimes when I see the list of things that I bought for the soul, I got depressed. First of all, these things don't improve my life qualitatively (quite the opposite: to eat chips when I have pancreatitis is the way to a slow death). Secondly, I spend a lot of money on such unimportant and useless things while I don't have enough money to fulfill my dreams.

Since I started writing down and analyzing my expenses, I have become more reflective on the role of things in my life: Do I really need what I buy? What is more important - a chocolate bar/jar of nuts/another trinket or the opportunity to fulfill my dream? Yes, I still buy myself all sorts of unnecessary things (pamper myself!), But I do it less often than before.
You might be thinking: “Oh, well, how 1 euro for a chocolate bar which I will not buy today will save my dream? I need much more money!”. But one chocolate bar every day is 7 euros per week, 30 euros per month, 365 per year.

Make a shopping list before going to the store
Supermarkets are planned according to consumer psychology. Have you ever noticed that when you go there to buy a pack of salt you leave supermarket with two bags of products? Of course, it doesn't contribute to savings. If you don't want to fall prey to marketing manipulations, make a list of what you plan to buy in advance. As a result you will set yourself up to buy just what you need and you will be able to estimate the amount of money which you need to spend. The most important rule is to look around less and to refrain from impulse purchases [2].

Prefer cashless payments
For me trip to the bank is an achievement. And I'm deliberately withdraw only small amounts of money. When it is empty in my wallet, I don't want to go shopping at all. Yes, of course, in the 21st century I can pay with my card almost anywhere, but there are still a lot of places where you can't do without cash. Therefore, the desire to keep a few bank notes in the wallet and the dislike of going to the bank save me from unplanned purchases [3].

Remind yourself of your dream
If you want to avoid ill-advised and unnecessary expenses, constantly remind yourself of your dream. Visualize it, hang images with your dream all over the house, imagine how you will feel when you will reach it, it will inspire you to succeed. And know that everything will work out, all you have to do is to make an effort!

[1] https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/how-to-save-money/

[2] https://www.thebalance.com/save-money-on-groceries-2385713

[3] https://muchbetter.com/all/5-reasons-going-cashless-will-save-you-money/