How to stop wasting money on stuff you don’t need
We’re living in the most consumeristic era ever: we’re surrounded by impulses to buy stuff that we don’t even need or care about, and we believe that our lives would be empty without something.
Think about it: observe your surroundings, and see if you can identify someone who tends to make impulsive purchases, including yourself.
Ok, maybe you aren’t or don’t know anyone.
Then let me ask you this: did you need everything you’ve bought recently?
If you do, I’m probably the one that has to learn from you.
If you don’t, don’t worry, I’ve got some advice just for you, because, when I think about an impulsive buyer, I was probably the best living example: When I want something, I can’t wait to have it.
Of course, this was a very unhealthy habit for me and, of course, for my wallet.
So, how can I stop being an impulsive buyer and start to buy only the stuff that I need?
Here are some tricks that I’m following.
1. Wait it out
When you want to purchase something that you don’t need immediately, I recommend doing this: wait for about 30 days, during the while you’ll be doing those things:
- See if it fits in your budget.
- Let the hype die down.
- Look at reviews.
At the end of the 30 days, see if you even care about the thing you want to buy, and if you do, buy it.
This will help you to:
- Avoid buyer’s remorse.
- Prevent impulse purchases.
- Build more discipline.
2. Pros and cons list
Make a list of the pros and cons of the thing you want to buy.
Some cons will be obvious, like the loss of money and space.
Also, try to consider if what you want to buy will need regular maintenance or if it will make you more unproductive.
Making this list helps me out a lot when I get to choose if to buy or not something. It’ll be more useful if you do this during the first step. Doing this can reduce the time of the decision.
3. Unsubscribe and avoid temptations
We are constantly bombarded by advertisements and encouraged to make purchases through email promos, sales, personalized ads, spending trigger sites, and so on.
I remember that one time I was looking for a watch and for the few weeks after that my Instagram feed was full of ads for watches. I was so mad about this that I didn’t even buy that watch.
So what I recommend you do is to unsub from email promos, to avoid spending trigger sites and to stop visiting the sites where you’re more likely to spend.
If you want to don’t receive personalized ads anymore, I recommend you to use the private navigation or another account to search for the things you want to buy.
4. Find a hobby
If you don’t regularly do something that you like, you’ll be more likely to spend more on window shopping or eating.
Otherway if you start a hobby, yes it’ll probably require a little capital in the beginning, but you’ll be more busy doing what you like instead of wasting money on fast food or on things you don’t need.
Starting a hobby could help you make some money or get into shape.
So I think that it’s better to spend some money to start a new hobby than to waste a lot of it on things you won’t want anymore the next day.
5. Explore an affordable option
If you want to save even more money you can always look for a cheaper version of what you want to buy.
This thing can also become a challenge and be fun.
6. Consider your financial goals
I saved the one that helped me the most for the ones that kept reading until this.
Looking at my financial goals and watching my savings grow is the thing that helped me out the most: I realized how much money I was wasting and I started to like to put some of them into my savings.
The most interesting thing from this point is that you can also start to invest some of your savings and let the real fun begin.
These are the steps that helped me improve my buying habits.
Start doing this and trust me, in two months you’ll be unrecognizable.
Let me know in the comment if you found this helpful and if you’ll start doing some of my advice.
Also, let me know if there are more things that you do to avoid this problem.
I hope you enjoyed reading my article.
If you like to read about self-improvement, like how to deal with failure, check my account Zordy for more articles.
Hope you’re having a good day.
