If and when you must pop into your local Bed, Bath & Beyond, Anthropologie or other store environment, remember that retailers are professional spending seducers.Įvery piece of the shopping environment, from layout to lighting is constructed to maximize your spending – that’s why random things you’d never voluntarily put on your shopping list suddenly become so appealing.
Better yet, use your list to search each item online and have it delivered straight to your doorstop, no walking through aisles of temptation or aimless internet browsing. If you have to make a trip to Target, make a list and stay laser focused on it. If you have to walk across town for an errand, take the residential route rather than the main street lined with cute boutiques. The easiest way to stop yourself from buying stuff you don’t need is to avoid temptation altogether.
Avoid it by choosing alternate, non-budget-threatening ways to unwind – a walk in the park, a visit to the library, a potluck with friends, etc. If you know you have a tendency to splurge on non-essentials, don’t tempt yourself with window-shopping or trips to the mall for leisure.Īimless wandering leads to aimless spending. So today, I’m offering my top tips for addressing it….ġ0 Ways to Stop Buying Stuff You Don’t Need Overspending, budgeting, impulse buying and the general overconsumption of unnecessary crap was by far and away the most commonly cited financial struggle among my readers. What did, by a significant margin, was something far simpler, something we all know to do, but struggle to execute – live within our means. What did surprise me though was that none of these three major monetary struggles took top spot. In fact, the responses were split evenly between these three financial challenges – not too surprising considering my millennial reader base. I’ve been asking this question of my readers for the past month or so and the results are in…