Knowing your weaknesses — what makes you pull out your wallet — is one key to spending less.

By necessity, I’ve deactivated many of my “fun” spending triggers:

• The library has replaced book stores.
• A $10 monthly subscription to E-music has replaced CDs.
• Good old Walgreens has replaced the spendy gift store for greeting cards (sorry peeps who love nice cards as much as I do).

(Not that we should never spend money to have fun, but that’s for another time.)

What’s left?

The stock-pile syndrome. If I’m distracted in the grocery store (say, by towing along a kid or two), I’m much more likely to go off list, or buy more of what’s on my list than we need for a week.

• To combat this, I remind myself that we have a regular weekly shopping day, and that I won’t miss whatever it is I’m looking at.
• Bringing a calculator helps, too.*

(*Although one day I did this, and I wrote down the price next to each item, because I didn’t trust myself not to hit the wrong key on the calculator and wipe out progress along the way. On my very last item, I’m not kidding you, I looked down and my list had disappeared! Dear reader, I’m not proud to admit this. I burst into tears. A woman trolled the aisles with me to help me find it, to no avail. At least it’s such a gigantic store that odds are I will never see her again. I was within $9 of my goal.)

Anxiety. Ahem. Ya think? This trigger will make me spend more on a gift or dinner party food than is necessary.

• I try to remind myself that less is more.
• I remind myself of all the times I’ve overspent.
• I remind myself that I am creating a perception of this event in my mind that no one else shares. Think about it — when you go to someone else’s party, do you have any expectations? You’re thrilled with whatever is there, right? You’re not thinking about what’s not there.
• I remind myself that anxiety is about me, and to get over myself. No one but me is worried about what other people will think. They’re too worried about what other people are thinking about them.

Try this. It really works.

Perceived time savings. Much more likely to spend money to save myself time, like fixing something that can wait, or that maybe doesn’t need a professional at all. For instance, I had our computer serviced awhile back because Web surfing has really slowed down, but the tech didn’t find anything he could actually fix. I probably could have saved money by doing some more front-end digging first. This is maybe my toughest trigger, because it also combines anxiety over what I don’t know. To tackle this one, I’m going to try:

• Assigning a deadline to dig around more first about the problem.
• Devoting 10 to 30 minutes a day to said digging.
• Asking around. Friends are smart and like to help.
• Shopping around if professional help really is needed.

Here are a couple of tips I learned last night in a women and money seminar:

1. Yes, use cash, when you can. Stats show we spend 30 percent less when we use cash than when we use cards; a no-brainer, since when cash is gone, it’s gone.
2. If you’re thinking about buying something, carry it around the store with you for awhile, then put it down and say, “Maybe tomorrow.” Possession even for that short time may satisfy your itch to have.

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Tags:   anxiety · stock-pile syndrome · time savings1 Comment