This trick for spending less doesn't cost a dime. Just a few seconds and a couple of thoughts …
As Americans, we have so many opportunities to spend money on things we don't really need.
Thankfully, though, there's no shortage of ways that we can trick ourselves into spending less, like putting up spending roadblocks that make us hesitate just long enough to think twice.
A whole lot of converted money
A post from Becoming Minimalist showed up on my Facebook feed. One of those short statements with a picture background.
This was the short statement (which I promptly posted to my Facebook page):
Look around. All that clutter used to be money.
Ouch, right?!
It's so true, though. By global standards, most of us are very rich indeed. An embarrassment of wealth, really.
And we have stuff. Lots of stuff, also known as clutter. Although I've gotten way better about not going whole-hog at auctions, yard sales, and so forth, there's a lot of things in our house that I wonder why I ever spent good money on it.
With so much of this kind of stuff, we don't need more. Yet, we continue to get more.
Pause, and reflect
Over the weekend, I installed the Curiosity.com app on my phone to give it a test drive. (It serves up five interesting articles a day on a variety of topics that can be consumed in a few minutes each.)
This article has as its centerpiece a result from a recent Rice University study that examined the shopping behaviors of about a thousand adults when subjected to various mental exercises during the shopping: If the participants reflected upon times they used their personal belongings, they were less likely to purchase on impulse.
In other words, if they had thought about what they already had, they were unlikely to purchase more.
During the study, the participants were in one group or another, of course, and things were orchestrated. But the idea posed in the article is that thinking about what one already has can have a calming effect after the impulse purchase presents itself.
Put it into practice and spend less!
Here are some examples of how to put this into practice, and spend less:
- Tempted by new clothes? Is it really true that you have nothing to wear? Maybe there's some combination of a top and bottom that hasn't been tried yet.
- Some accessory looks just perfect in the store mirror? See above; there's got to be some other combination that can work
- Eyeing a new book? Have you read everything in your collection already? No? Then once you've read everything you have (or finally made the decision to get rid of what you know you won't read), then it's time for something new.
- Or the tools section? Sometimes there really is a best tool for a particular job, but not always. Can you get the job done safely with something you already have?
All of these involve just stopping and thinking about what's in your library, closet, or garage already. The study suggests that, just by doing this, you'll blunt the impulse to buy whatever is capturing your attention.
Yet one more trick to put in your bag to spend less.
What other kinds of purchases could this be applied to?
