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Once in a while, we will read an article that asks us to sell what we don’t need.  The benefits are obvious because we can get some cash for the items that is otherwise sitting in our house and taking up space.  While this is great advice, perhaps an even better advice is to stop buying anything that we don’t need!

Now, I know how hard this is as I’m a victim of impulse buying too.  We tell ourselves how much we really need it and eventually we end up taking it home.  Lately, I’ve started to do a combination of the following which seems to be helping.

Setup a Buy Period of the Month

When I really want something, I will tell myself over and over again why I want it and why it is so important for me.  I will go to a store and look at the actual merchandise, and I will end up really wanting to pull my credit card out.  Therefore, I’ve created a rule for myself where I’m only able to buy things over $75 on the first 7 days of the month.

I was amazed at how effective this was since once I let the decision sit for a few weeks, the urge to spend subsides.  What’s even more amazing is now that I know I can only buy in the first 7 days, I can usually get to the wait period even if I wanted something during the first 7 days to give myself more time to think about it.

Buy it on Sale/Coupons Only

Some items are on sale constantly while others can be bought at a store that always issues coupons.  Whenever I want to buy something that I know can be bought at a cheaper cost than what’s listed, I tell myself to wait until I see a coupon or sale from the store that carries it.  As with the beginning of the month rule, the idea is for me to wait.  Once I wait a few weeks, I usually don’t want to buy it anymore.  If I still end up making the purchase, it is much more likely that I will actually put it in good use.

As you can probably tell, both these tactics help because they require me to wait.  Once I can last a few weeks without the item I want to buy, the time I spent thinking about it lowers and my desire for buying it lessens.  This gives me much more time to determine whether it’s a real need or just a want, and it ends up saving me money.