No dessert with this post.

Everyday I try to highlight easy, relatively painless ways to save money on Future Think Dollars.

This post is not going to sugar coat it.

Trying to save money sucks!

It is incredibly hard to not think about everything you would rather be spending your money on than trying to set up that Roth IRA, or start your 401k, or get yourself out of debt. It is also incredibly hard when it seems all your friends/family/acquaintances want to help you spend your money. It is simply not the "coolest" thing to hang out and watch movies, play some old school board games, or catch a cheap sports event. Now it seems that anytime people get together, the goal is to go spend money. Spending money has been incredibly well marketed as buying happiness by everyone that stands to profit.

The goal of this post is not to stop spending all money. Although that would be fantastic for your savings, it would be horrible for your life.

Instead, this is meant to encourage some reflection upon whether those nights out on the town, or shopping trips, or major purchases are indeed making you happy.

Don't spend money just to spend money, because you are only delaying the start of your financial life. This is your life, and you should be thinking about where you want to be in 5, 10, 20, 30 years. I don't think you will really wish to be back at the age you are now buying all of the things that are literally costing you a fortune over that time frame.

Some of the best days of my life have included days where I spent a decent amount of money.

Many of the best days of my life have been days where I only realized afterwards that we'd spent a pittance compared to the good times we had with a great group of people.