Other day I went to the basement of a house which was comprised of two small rooms and a big central hall. As you stepped down and entered the basement, you could not find way easily to go forward because both the rooms and hall were totally packed from different things. These things included extra clothes, utensils, bags, trunks, old books, electronic devices and many more things. Even there was present a tread mill which was in a good shape. These things were neither needed nor extra. If one picked up something and announced to throw it away or give it to someone, at once someone shouted and termed it to be necessary. Anyhow, this showed that we purchase so many things in our daily life which are not much needed or we are not much efficient in using them properly.

This situation also affirms the theory of shopping psychology that many of us buy different things without considering their need or our economic strength to purchase them but just to satisfy our desire of buying something. Such heedless habit takes away thousands of our preciously earned money that could have been used for other necessary things or occasions or could have been saved for our future financial requirements.

There is a famous saying that, ‘When you will buy unnecessary things when not needed, you will have to sell necessary things when you will need to buy the necessary ones’.

Today’s man is very worried about the financial problems. Be it a poor or a rich society, its members complain of not earning enough to meet the requirements of himself and the family. This has created numerous psychological, emotional and moral problems. People now work at many different places to meet the requirements and some are forced to accept bribe or resort to other unethical or immoral ways to earn extra money. Similarly, almost every adult male and female is concerned about the economic problems and is the main issue of which he thinks the most.

In a very interesting and fascinating movie, ‘The gods must be crazy’, people are shown who live in the jungles of Africa. These people are very simple, innocent and absolutely free of any kind of desire. They don’t know about the money or worry about hoarding things or of eating more. When they are presented with the money for their service, they look at the currency notes and start laughing. In fact, their serene, contented and happy life has not been polluted by any kind of greed, desire or lust.

The solution to this problem doesn’t lie in earning more because we have seen that in most of the cases, desires and needs also grow with the increase in the income. Our elders have emphasized time and again to be efficient or economical in our spending. This is the only solution that can easily and conveniently free us of all the financial worries.

There are many people around us who spend heedlessly and unnecessarily and then keep complaining of financial problems. A person, whom I know personally, was having a good business but instead of his handsome earning, he suffered a lot from the financial problems because he was in the habit of gathering his friends frequently and spending on these gatherings uselessly. This is not limited to this habit only. There are people who are in habit of buying more and more clothes and other similar things, there are people who sell their old mobile phones and buy new models, some can afford to buy new models of cars and there are many more similar but destructive habits.

Being efficient and economical in your spending brings a lot of comfort and benefits to us. It saves you of the shame of begging (as heedless spending has led many a rich to be beggars or if not, their children suffered a lot of their father’s bad habits), saves you of the financial worries and there may be many more which need to be explained in a bit further detail.

There are many families where a lot of money is spent on food and where a variety of dishes are cooked at the same time. In majority of such cases, it has been found that people develop non-healthy habits of eating and become victim of many diseases associated with excessive eating. While a balanced and controlled diet not only cuts your expenses but also keeps you physically fit.

My uncle tells us that almost 50 years back when they were very poor and lived in a village where routine food was bread and tea or vegetables and meat was cooked once in a week or in some cases, once in a month, children really enjoyed the meat and cherished it. Now days, when we see that many different kinds of foods are cooked at the same time, we are unable to take full taste from them. It is according to the laws of economics as well that shortage of something increases its worth while the excess of a commodity makes it less important.

In this regard, first thing to be done is to make assessment of our desires and needs. Whenever a need arises and you think of arranging money to meet this need, you should develop a habit of asking question from yourself, “Is this very essential? Can we manage without buying this thing? How was I managing before when this thing was not present here?” You will see that in most of the cases, your answer would be ‘NO’ and you will free yourself of worrying to arrange money and buy the thing.

Then, we need to be economical in spending or using our present things. I have noticed many a gatekeepers who are having meager salaries and who always complain of the financial problems, talking on phone uselessly. This habit of spending uselessly is found on different levels, each according to his level of income. A friend of mine, who is having very handsome salary, is often found worrying about the shortage of money. He has the habit of going to the expensive restaurants and spending money in a single meal that could have, otherwise, sufficed for 15 days’ kitchen expenses of the whole family.

This may be the observation of many of us that when we go out and see any good perfume, shirt, shoes, sunglasses, or sweaters, we at once buy them. Let’s try to shrink this scenario to the perfumes or body sprays only. At home, I have 3 perfumes which are my favorite. If I use them properly, they are going to be sufficient for an year or at least nine months. Now, if I see a good perfume and get attracted towards it, I should ask myself this question, “Do I really need this?” and most definitely, the answer would be ‘NO’. This would definitely save me a thousand or more Afghanis in a year. If you keep saving like this, you would see that you have saved a huge amount of money at the end of the year.

The above said points are not difficult to be followed and also they are there to sustain our dignity and save us of the shame of looking at others for financial assistance.