Twelve Tips for Spending Less

These are tough economic times, and lots of people are feeling the stress. I found these useful tips (as a former Shopaholic I know about this stuff!) at realsimple.com If you’re trying to cut down on your spending, try following some of these strategies:

1. Pay cash. Studies show that people find it much easier to spend money when they’re using a cash substitute (they also find it easier to cheat or pilfer!). Keep yourself in touch with cost, by using cold hard cash.

2. Focus on small items first. When you buy an expensive item, it’s easy to toss in unthinkingly a lot of smaller items alongside it – items that you might have otherwise have spent a lot of time considering, and which add up to a lot of $$$. So pick out smaller items first, then the larger item. Buy the software, the mouse, the mousepad, and the other bits and bobs, then choose the computer.

3. Don’t buy too much at one time. If you’re buying too many things, you stop paying attention to what you’re getting. Any one item seems insignificant. I call this “shop shock” or “drive-by shopping.”

4. Don’t buy anything at a bargain store that you haven’t bought before at full price.

5. Before paying, review each of your purchases with a skeptical eye. Don’t buy anything you’re not sure you want and can use – this is particularly important with clothes. I often ask myself, “Do I feel like wearing this tomorrow?” Sometimes, I realize I’ve picked something out because I can “use” it – but really, if I don’t love something, I almost never end up wearing it, no matter how useful it might be.

6. Don’t tell yourself, “I can always return it”; remind yourself, “I can come back if I decide I need it.”

7. Make a list and stick to it.

8. Don’t buy anything that needs to be a specific size unless you KNOW the measurements you need.

9. Don’t shop when you’re hungry. Even for non-food items.

10. Don’t shop as an activity with friends. It’s easy to spend more than you intend, or to buy something you don’t really need or want, when you’re distracted by conversation. Find something else to do with your friends. Have coffee, go for a walk, run errands together (in high school, my friends and I used to do errands together all the time, and it’s a great way to turn a nagging task into something fun).

11. Be very skeptical of anything that’s on sale.

12. If you don’t shop, you don’t buy. Stay out of stores.

One other strategy I learned long ago: leave your purse (or wallet) in the car if you're at an "optional" shopping opportunity like flea markets, antique stores, outlet malls, etc. Finding something you want badly enough to go all the way back to the car for your money means it might be a worthwhile purchase.

Have a lovely cool and gray week here in Central Arkansas - and watch out for the Urge to Splurge!!

Becca

For more life simplifying tips go to my website

Hot Tips for a Hot Month

It's August and heading over 100 degrees, so let's talk about some life simplification tips. Most can be practiced indoors!

Your Stuff

1. Books are often a clutter issue because they hold special value and memories for people, but they take up a lot of space and most are never re-read by the owner. Here's a great way to literally "put it back in the Universe". Try BookCrossing a really cool product or service or website or something. There you'll register a book and then "release" it by leaving it somewhere (like a park bench, airport, hospital waiting room, etc.) for someone else to pick up and enjoy. They can go online and record the travels of your registered book, which is tracked on maps on the website. This is especially cool for kids since their book has a life that they can follow and the website is clever and fun using terms like "catch and release" and "into the wild".

[Thanks to my dear client and friend "RAN" for this tip about one of her passions - books!]

2. A different way to think about clutter is that it is anything unfinished: unfiled documents, broken jewelry, incomplete hobby projects, unloved stuff to be donated, or even unfinished conversations. Ahh...now that's interesting...think how the "I wish I'd said that" and "I really should call them" and even "we never had closure" thoughts can clutter your mind and keep you awake at 1AM.

Your Money

1. Gas prices have eased a bit, but it's still painful to fill up. Go to GasBuddy to find the lowest price in your area on any given day. It's so easy -just type in the nearest zip code and it lists the stations with prices from the lowest on up along with the posting date for the price.

2. Skip the drive thru lane - go inside instead to make your deposit or pick up your burger. Idling your car for 1 minute uses the same amount of gas as starting it, so a wait of over 1 minute is needlessly burning gas at 0 miles per gallon.

3. Watch your speed. The website FuelEconomy (the US Dept. of Energy site) reports that each 5 mph you drive over 60 costs $.30 per gallon extra.

4. Use cruise control on highways (but not in mountains). It greatly reduces rapid acceleration and braking and saves fuel.

5. Fill up during the week (prices usually go up on weekends) and earlier in the day when it's cooler. Heat expands the vapors so you get less gasoline in your tank later in the day.

Your Time

1. Avoid distractions - I know, easier said than done - but a 2004 study found that office workers are interrupted every 3 minutes, and it takes about 23 minutes for people to get back and focus on the task they were working on.

2. Multi-tasking is not that efficient. Turns out, we were wrong in the 90's in thinking that multi-taskers get the most done, were the best employees, etc.. See #1 above, plus doing more than one thing at once (typing on the Blackberry while talking on the land line sound familiar?) creates the perfect storm of possibilities for miscommunication, misunderstandings, and mismanagement.

That's it for now. Contact me at bclark99@sbcglobal.net or go to my website at CreativeConvenience for professional organizing help for your home or office.

Make your life simple and convenient and have more time for the important or fun stuff!