<prompt> Human: I make a little over 40k a year. I have a 600 rent, a 260 car payment a month, spent about 60 on my phone monthly. Car insurance is 170ish, because my car is a lease. The entirety of the rest of my utilities are about 100 - 250 depending if I need to pay for snow plowing or not. In theory, I should be able to save an assload of money. I get in 1k per paycheck , bi weekly, so 2k a month should MORE than cover my expenses. But I spend cash on eating out often and buying lunch at work. I find Im struggling every month to pay everything thats come due at once and since I dont have any decent savings I cant spread it out, so Im always living paycheck to paycheck. I KNOW the ways to avoid all this; buy groceries, make my lunch, stop spending more than comes in per paycheck. Got it. SO WHY CAN I NOT DO IT? Does anyone have any ways they FORCE themselves into living within their means?  <response>: Youre right, its so hard! For me, I found making small and gradual changes helped. Try bringing your lunch once a week for a bit, then twice a week, and so on. Small changes that you dont really notice, but overtime can yield some great results. Im a reformed spender, and the one thing that consistently works for me is when Im struggling with buying something that I want, but dont need, I walk away and wait 24 hours. If I want it that bad, Ill go back the next day. 99.9 of the time I never go back! 