How To Spend Less Money
Let’s start at the very beginning.
The moment when we buy something. When money changes hands and we go home with that new item. The truth is that so many of us buy things when we barely even thought of buying them before.
The typical shopping experience, whether at a store or online is most often an exercise between crafty advertising by the company selling the product and simple mindlessness on our part.
So in this post I want to share with you 5 simple and easy tips to bypass this crafty marketing strategy and to spend less money.
01 - Be A Mindful Consumer
We want to be a mindful consumer. Not a mindless one. Someone who has his or her principles set firmly in place before shopping. This way we know what we want and we can sidestep what the crafty advertising is trying to accomplish.
If we walk into a store or start browsing their online website without a firm sense of why we are there, and what we need and want, we are basically inviting the forces of marketing to come and take our money from us.
I love shopping at Amazon. When I was growing up, if I wanted something I had to drive to the store to get it. Even if it was something small like a box of pens or a book I wanted. Now with a click of a button we can get literally anything we want at our doorstep within a matter of days. I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon starts selling cars online soon.
However, one of the dangers of this convenience is that it is so easy to fall into mindless spending with Amazon. Its convenience is also its most dangerous trait. When we are bored we can’t help ourselves but start browsing online and before we know it we are at the Amazon website to see what’s on sale. Or what new yoga mat is out. And I’m the first one to admit I’m the biggest culprit of it.
A way I’ve been able to be a more mindful consumer versus a mindless one has been to only go to the Amazon website when I have a list of specific items I need to purchase. It's only after I’ve clarified what I needed that I allow myself to enter the Amazon online store. Without this intentional effort, I often catch myself buying things I never even thought about before.
Be a mindful consumer, not a mindless one.
02 - Don’t Shop When Bored or Tired
When I was in the military, one of the toughest aspects of training wasn’t actually the physical or technical. Obstacle courses were actually quite fun to go through and I couldn’t believe that they would let a 21 year old like me fire big weapons. The hardest part was actually when we were deprived of sleep.
During field training, we often had to go through days with just a few hours of sleep. First couple days were ok, but after a week or so, it really caught up to us. And there was a specific reason why the military training was like this. They wanted to test our ability to make decisions when we were extremely tired and sleep deprived.
When we are tired, we don’t have good judgment and don’t make good decisions. And this is so true with spending money. When we allow ourselves to browse the Amazon website or walk into a retail store when we are bored and tired, we aren’t at our best selves. We buy something because we think it's a good buy. But later we regretted it because we realized our judgment was off.
But be extra mindful and aware of your surroundings and what you are doing. Most likely If you wouldn't buy it when you are well rested, then it definitely isn’t a good buy when you are tired. If you are bored or tired, avoid places where you might be tempted to spend money. That way you can save your money for really worthwhile purchases that you can really find joy from.
03 - Sleep On Big Purchase
If you are on the fence about a major purchase, take a pause and sleep on it. Most often a good night’s rest will allow you to take a look at your spending decision with a new light. With a clear head. And this new light might make you think twice about that purchase.
Studies show that a good night's sleep improve concentration and productivity. Sleep is very important for various aspects of brain function. Cognition, concentration, productivity, and performance are all negatively affected by sleep deprivation.
Studies on overworked physicians provides a good example. It found that doctors with moderate levels of sleep-related impairment were up to 50% more likely to report clinically significant medical errors. On the other hand, good sleep has been shown to improve problem-solving skills and enhance memory performance in both children and adults.
I have to often do this with new gear that I want to buy for my youtube channel and my business in general. I get all excited about a new camera or a voice recorder that will help me produce what I think is a higher quality video.
Just the other day I spent hours reviewing different drones on the market. There are so many cool ones these days and I admit I was so close to purchasing one. Ironically I start going down this rabbit hole when I am extremely tired or sleep deprived.
After getting a good night’s rest and a clear head, I get to my senses and realize that I run a personal finance youtube channel. Not a travel or lifestyle channel. Maybe one day I can make cool personal finance drone videos for my audience, but for now, I think I’m ok.
04 - Quality Over Quantity
Most often when we are focused on quantity, we are focused on price. Getting the cheapest item we can afford. However, when we focus on quality over quantity, we instead focus on the best value we can get for our money.
To be honest, growing up, I didn’t know the difference. I was ingrained with the idea that spending less always trumped spending more. I didn’t even know what the word value meant. This was evident in my shoe purchase habit growing up.
Whenever we went shopping for new shoes, my mom would take us to a Payless Shoesource. They always had deals and you could walk out with a decent looking pair of shoes for most times under $15. This habit carried over to my college days even when my mom wasn’t the one taking us to Payless.
I was running more often in college and these $15 shoes would just wear down after a few months, which really frustrated me. At the recommendation of a friend that ran with me, I one day decided that I would invest in a nice running shoe from Nike. Close to $100 for a brand new pair of running shoes. I had never spent that much money on anything at the time and was quite nervous. But I was tired of my cheap shoes constantly falling apart so I made the purchase.
Bu what a great purchase. Not only did this pair of running shoes last me the rest of college, it was literally the lightest shoes I had ever had. It was made specifically for runners and I knew I could never go back. And the best part was because I wasn’t shelling out $15 every few months for a new pair of cheap shoes, in total it actually saved me money.
When we focus on quantity over quality, we fixate on saving money above all else. We willingly sacrifice quality and their time to squeeze out every dollar we can from a purchase. In the case of my $15 payless shoes, I was willingly driving to a store half an hour away every few months to save what I thought was a lot of money in the long run. Where in actuality, I wasn’t only sacrificing time and quality, but money as well.
05 - Don’t Compare
Product marketing most often doesn’t appeal to our best selves. It actually appeals most to our weaknesses. Emotions like greed and fear. For marketing to be most effective, we as customers need to feel that we are lacking something in our lives.
My car looks outdated. My kids' clothes look tattered. My shoes look out of style.
And most often these feelings arise from comparison to others around me. My car looks outdated because everyone in my neighborhood seems to have brand new cars. My kids’ clothes look tattered because when I dropped them off at school, I can’t help but observe the clothes of other kids. And my shoes look out of style because I’ve been binge watching fashion youtube channels.
Driving a nice car isn’t a bad thing. And wearing stylish shoes is actually great. But only do it because it brings you joy not because you are trying to keep up with the Jones. We are all different individuals and all our money situations are also very different.
Our neighbor who has the brand new Audi might have actually made a lot of financial sacrifices to prioritize their car purchase. Because it is important to them. We just don’t know their financial situation and more importantly, your priority might be completely different. The world and history is full of people, myself included, who have bought things simply to keep up with someone else.
How much of the value of an item is merely the value of everyone else’s approval?
Don’t pressure yourself into buying something just because you feel like it’s the thing people should do or you feel lacking because of it.
