Welcome June! At least you haven’t come bearing the godawful heat yet, just the lovely sticky humidity.
So new month, new set of goals. I’ve paid off all my medical bills from last year (woohoo!) which has allowed me to shift my budget around. As always happens, I’m eyeing the extra money trying to decide the fanciest thing I can spend it on the fastest. Then once I buy whatever it is, three days later, I’ll be wishing I hadn’t. In the vast majority of these cases, I can’t return said thing. Typically it’s some iteration of “life coaching”, radical diet change program, or both. They don’t usually issue refunds. In fact, I’m often paying 50% more to break the contract. Not cool. I hesitate to call them budgetary rules. I still look at a rule as something to be subverted or flat out broken. Again, doesn’t make things very easy to stick to, does it? It’s the metaphorical bingeing and purging that once again rears its ugly head.
I’m sure I’ve discussed the amount of money I spent on Groupons, yoga equipment, and actual yoga classes before I admitted to myself I disliked yoga. When I added up just the purchases I could remember, that same sum would have allowed me to buy a plane ticket to visit my best friend in Virginia. I wrote down that number and came up with a list of other things I could have spent that money on. I saved it in my phone as a reminder every time I’m tempted to make another impulse purchase. A few years ago, the life improvement programs were a good idea simply because I didn’t know which way was up. Now that I’ve healed enough, I have a pretty good idea of which direction to go using only my internal compass. After all that nattering, my financial goals / guidelines / polite suggestions for the month of June:
- Write down the amount of recent impulse purchases. Make a list of other things I could have bought or saved for using that sum.
- Wait at least 5 days before making a decision to buy something more than $40 (read- the average cost of date night).
- If it’s a sale that ends before the 5 day period, be willing to spend the full amount.
- Do my best to avoid the hype. Buy!Buy!Buy!Now!Now!Now! is hard to avoid, but again, if I take the time to think, I should be okay.
- Walk into a store, be it Target or Gucci, knowing exactly what I want.
- Carry cash as often as possible & leave the debit cards at home.
- In the same vein as the 5 day suggestion, think about experiences vs. stuff: For example: Around this time last year, I was given the opportunity to go to an aerial retreat in Costa Rica this past January. I turned it down because I didn’t want to burn 5 days of my time off right off the bat. Now I’ve been promoted and got an extra week of vacation time as part of the deal. The same retreat is happening this year and I’m already setting aside money to participate this time around. It also happens to be 2 weeks after my 30th birthday. Hello present to me! I know I’ll get a lot more out of that experience that I ever would spending the same amount of money on a thing. Frankly, I’m not even sure what thing I could buy with the same amount of money.
- Above all – be patient with myself. If I do buy something out of sheer impulse, I’ll do my best to return or get a refund.
…And go!
XOXO!
Beautiful Scars 
I usually see shopping as an activity, and its just the act of browsing that I really want to do, rather than the purchasing. Once I recognized that, I changed some rules about impulse buys and evaluating wants vs. needs and it made a difference in my spending. I also do a ton of browsing on pinterest now because its like shopping but you don’t actually buy anything. You can pin lots of wants and wishes and if something keeps jumping out at you over several weeks or months and you pin lots of things like it, then make it is something work making a purchase on. I think you already follow me, but if not, send me an invite to connect.