If keeping your home clutter free is not a good shopping strategy for you, read on for my top 3 strategies (tried, tested and true) that have helped me many a time to stop a purchase.
I have used them individually or in combinations to reason out my purchases.
1. Cost-Per-Use
Price of item you want to purchase / # of times you are going to use it = Cost per use
$500 Toaster / # 365 times a year you are going to use it = $1.37 each time you use it, daily.
Then ask yourself: is your toast really worth $1.37 each time you pop it in, for a year, or will a $50 model do quite nicely?
2. The 7-day Trial Period
Make a mental note that you’d like to buy it.
Go home, and wait 7 full days.
168 hours for those of you counting the time.
If after 7 days you’ve forgotten about it, then you don’t really want or need it.
Take the time to reflect upon the item.
- Can you find a substitute that will do just as well?
- Does not having the item detract from your quality of life?
- Will it enhance your quality of life?
Calculate the true cost-per-use, and review your daily life to see if it’s reasonable.
Go back and buy it, if you really must have it and have cooled down your hot impulse to purchase immediately.
More often than not, I forget about the purchases.
3. Review your financial goals
If we all had the money to buy anything you wanted in the world, we wouldn’t need to control our impulses to stop shopping.
Heck, we’d just buy a second home to store all that stuff we bought!
Kidding, kidding. (Although, not so funny, because it’s starting to be true.)
To gain some perspective, sometimes all it takes is a quick review of your top financial goals which usually comprise of the following:
- Getting out of debt
- Saving money in an emergency fund so you won’t have to put it on credit
- Saving money for retirement so you won’t have to eat cat food
- Saving money for [insert dream here] — vacations, a home, a new car, etc
- Sticking to your budget
- Having a sense of financial security (comprising of some or all of the above)
A minimalist focuses on what is important to her lifestyle, and what her real priorities are.
By doing so, she can buy & spend less to stay financially secure so she can afford to work less if and when required (retirement, unemployment & health problems come to mind).
Tweets that mention 3 Strategies to help you Stop Shopping | The Everyday Minimalist -- Topsy.com
on Dec 7th, 2009
@ 6:15 pm:
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Everett Bogue and Vehmas Assembly, Greg Walsh. Greg Walsh said: RT @tweetmeme 3 Strategies to help you Stop Shopping http://bit.ly/6c8gej [...]
Greg
on Dec 7th, 2009
@ 6:19 pm:
I like the 7 day trial period, you generally find that this is plenty of time to realise, “you know what? maybe I dont need that …….. after all”
Cheers
Greg