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Do you have a hard time sticking to a budget? Here are simple personal spending guidelines to help you restrict your spending.

Buy Gift Cards
Decide how much you can afford to spend each month on food, gas, clothes, movie rentals, your cell phone minutes and other frequently occurring expenses, and then buy a gift card to a store that sells each of these items.

If you decide that you can afford to spend $10 a month on movie rentals, you’ll need to buy a $10 gift card to a rental store, and then use that card to cover all of your rentals for the month.

If the card runs out before the end of the month, you’ll just have to wait until the following month to rent more movies—no adding money to the card, and no using cash.

Set an Account Limit
If you have a tendency to spend as long as there’s money in your account, try setting an account limit. Take a look at your overall finances, and make it a rule that you can only spend money when you have a specific amount in your account.

This limit could be based on the minimum that you need to pay all of your necessary bills in a month, or it could be based on the amount of money that you like to have as an emergency cushion. Either way, this strategy will force you to think more about your spending and to realize that not all of the money in your checking account is spendable money.

Shop With Cash
If the idea of restricting your spending seems like a punishment, try allowing yourself to spend instead. Decide on a certain amount of money that you can afford to spend each month on incidentals, and make this your allowance. Withdraw your allowance at the beginning of the month and spend it until it’s gone. If you’re not used to carrying cash, this money may disappear quickly at first; but within a few months you should be able to make your allowance last until your next withdrawal.