How to Overcome a Scarcity Mindset With Money

6.12am, and your phone buzzes: your pay is in. Before you've even opened the app, your chest squeezes.

You open it anyway. The number is fine. It's the number it always is, the one you knew was coming. And still you're lying there thinking, this won't be enough. Something's going to go wrong. Hold on tight, or spend it fast before it disappears.

If that sounds familiar, you might have what people call a scarcity mindset. And there's usually a very good reason for it. If money has ever been tight or hard to predict, you learned to watch every single dollar, and that was a smart thing to learn.

The tricky part is that you keep watching even when the pay is in and the rent is covered. So what helps is proof that the money's really there: something you can check at 6.12am, and again at 11pm, and get the same answer both times.

Still in bed: check which bills are already covered

Stay with the app for ten more minutes and do two things:

• Write down the bills due before your next payday, with the amount beside each one.
• Tick every bill that already has its money sitting in the account.

For example, say you have $400 in there, and $250 of it is going to bills.

That's why writing it down helps. Check it at 7am or 11pm and nothing's changed. So if you're lying awake at 11pm feeling that squeeze again, look at the list, and there it is: the bills are covered and $150 is left.

And if one bill turns out to have nothing set aside for it, you've found out on payday morning. That's so much easier to sort than finding out on the day it's due.

Your first $15 money cushion

Now take a small bite out of the $150. Fifteen dollars. Move it somewhere you won't tap by accident and give it the label "just in case". That leaves $135 for the ordinary days.

Fifteen dollars is small on purpose. You'll hardly notice it's gone from your everyday account, but it's real money you can see every time you open the app.

So the next time you feel that squeeze and you're sure there's nothing, you can look at the screen and see $15 sitting there, tucked away. For a lot of us, that's the first little bit of proof that there's more there than we feared.

For some of us, leaving money alone feels weirdly risky, like it'll vanish if we don't use it. If that's you, make your cushion $5 and leave it there for a week. If it does get spent, that's ok. Pop $5 back on your next payday and carry on.

And when you'd like your cushion to grow, my post on emergency funds made simple takes it one small step at a time.

Friday at the counter: spend on one small yes

When you're watching every dollar, even a small treat can feel like a mistake. So while you've still got your phone in your hand on payday morning, choose one small yes for the week ahead. Maybe it's a $6 coffee on Friday, or a paperback from the second-hand bookshop.

Then Friday comes. You're at the counter, the barista's waiting, your card's in your hand, and there's that familiar squeeze again (of course there is!). But this time you decided on payday morning, with your list in front of you and the $15 already tucked away. So buy the coffee, and enjoy every sip without apologising to yourself.

If you still feel a pang, my post on why spending can feel so loaded goes into where that comes from.

Easing a scarcity mindset, one week at a time

• Pick one day of the week and look at your balance for two minutes.
• Say the number out loud and check it against your list.

If it's where you expected, that's one more bit of proof the money's there. If it isn't, you've caught it early, with days to sort it out.

Miss a week? Just look on the next day you remember.

You might still feel the squeeze on payday for a while. You've had years of practice at watching every dollar, so it'll take more than one morning to feel sure, and really trust, that the rent is covered.

Until then, open the app each payday and look for your $15 first.

Every week you look, the list still matches and your $15 is still sitting there. And one payday, not too far away, your phone will buzz at 6.12am and you'll realise your chest didn't squeeze at all.

This is general education, not legal, tax or financial advice.