My friend called today to ask how I am surviving in this economy because he doesn't know where his money is going and he knows he earns far better than I do and I am not complaining. What my friend does not realize is that I have cut down most expenses. Most people don't know where their money is going and it is not as if they do not earn a good amount of money but their expenses are too high and the more income that they have the more the expense. They work day in and day out just to pay bills and don't even know they are in trouble, they struggle to do things in moderation.
To some of the smart people that I know, I don't even know how to manage money but I am not terrible either because I have always put my ego in check. I realized early in life that ego is the main reason people spend so much without even knowing it. Most big companies just find a way to massage our egos and trick us into buying 70 percent of the things we don't need. it happens everywhere from technology companies to the fashion industry. They try to tell us what we want and not what we need and Immediately you fall into the trap, you will find it difficult to live in moderation. 
Living in moderation is difficult when you want people to see you differently
The main reason why most of my friends struggle to live in moderation is because they care so much about what people will say and how people will see them. They care so much about the level of importance and social acceptance for instance, I don’t buy designer clothes most of my clothes are sewed local fashion store, sometimes when I tell my friends about doing the same, they disagree that how will they be wearing a cheap clothes and I have so many instances of things like that that we disagree on and this is where I realize that they care so much about peoples acceptance over their finance.
this kind of belief has put my friend Finance in a bad state just because they buy so many things that they don’t need like the latest things, go to different shows, and go out every weekend just to post on social media. They are doing this just to let people know how big they are and how much they are earning. They want to feel important and that is why people find it hard to live in moderation because they must maintain this level of spending all the time.
Emotion is the biggest enemy of moderation
Ever since the hike in the price of everything in Nigeria, i have cut so many expenses like my data subscription and my weekly petrol to power my generator because those are my biggest spending monthly. even though these two things brings about comfort for me, but I have to cut it because I don’t want to spend beyond my monthly budget and the price of everything has increased so for me to do this, I have to fit in my expenses into my budget.
most people know when to cut down their expenses, but they are not doing it simply because they don’t want to deprive themselves of the enjoyment or the feeling of importance they are getting from spending so much. We let our emotions get the best of us and living moderately becomes a problem. We must not let others opinion or how we want them to see us control our life.
Thanks for your time.