The Ultimate Hack to Avoid Buying Shit You Don't Need - stop relying on willpower

[AngryAboutInternets]

Skill issue.
I keep tens of thousands of dollars in my checking account and spend it in increments of $40 at a time on groceries. Every time I pay for something it feels like I was just stabbed in the heart.
Surprisingly, I am 0% Jewish.

 

[#FreeRoss]

It's so easy to just NOT BUY ANYTHING. I only buy things online when I get gift cards; I don't have a credit card; I only use cash. It's that simple.

 

[Town Drunk]

Only buy something if its useful, or provides you entertainment. Wait a week for every 100 dollars on large purchases, if after that period you don't miss it, you don't need it.

First rule is within reason of course, do not nickle and dime yourself to death. If you buy 10 movies or games but you will never have time to play or watch them, it violates the useful part. Five dollars here, and five dollars there adds up.

 

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

Only buy something if its useful, or provides you entertainment. Wait a week for every 100 dollars on large purchases, if after that period you don't miss it, you don't need it.

First rule is within reason of course, do not nickle and dime yourself to death. If you buy 10 movies or games but you will never have time to play or watch them, it violates the useful part. Five dollars here, and five dollars there adds up.

At this point I refund games on steam not for lack of quality but knowing I'll have to invest time into it and I rarely want to. Worst case I'll see if there's any humble bundle games I'd want and then see the price at -95% on third-party key sites, meaning I can get decent games years after their release for basically nothing. It's a good way to moderate your games. Shit I don't recall last I bought a full priced game let alone one over $35.

 

[Pedophobe]

I used to be the complete opposite, I used to buy useless junk all the time

Like what, Funko-pops?

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

there was a stretch where I was mostly broke, I'd feel big by bidding a nickel on dozens and dozens and dozens of random little chinesium shit, and then I'd get neat little presents in the mail every other day for months for a total of like, six bucks

 

[likeacrackado]

Budgeting keeps most of my day to day financial decisions in line. The concept of "sleeping on it" helps with larger purchases. It's saved me from buying a bunch of shit that was not worth it in hindsight. The important part is getting past the initial emotional feeling, if you take a day or two weighing the options and still feel like it's a good idea it probably is.

Keeping cash in envelopes is only necessary if you have drug addiction tier impulses to spend. If you're at that point you have to treat it like youre in recovery and go scorched earth on your lines of credit.

 

[snowdunes]

This is going to sound mega autistic, but I made a list of all the shit I need and then made it a "wish list + inventory" spreadsheet out of it. I mean stuff I actually use at least once on a monthly basis, and then a category for yearly usage (example: car maintenance). I got column for "why I have it" so if I can't write a short description/reason for that, then I know it's bullshit item to have if I can't write something non-retarded. In this way, you literally got it on paper that you are retarded if you do buy it.

The best part is that you start to actually look for quality stuff and you might even question the things you have, such as PFAS in your kitchen equipment and clothes). Once you have such an item for each catagory, it's a pretty good logistics, you know what to buy in bulk and you don't have bunch of useless junk laying around too.

 

[milk]

Just become a cynical asshole that hates everything. Pretty easy after that.

 

[Jerk Sausage]

All purchases, paychecks, side-gig money, Ebay sales, money I got beating up a leprechaun, etc, goes into a spreadsheet organized by month and you better believe that shit is color-coded.

I also depend on spreadsheets for finances, but in sort of a reflective way. Once per week I just log what the value is for each of my financial accounts. Login to Checking, Savings, 401K, Investments, Crypto. Write the value down in one row, one column per account. I do not track income or spending at all.

From that data, I can calculate and graph all kinds of trends. My financial strategy is to just DCA weekly into everything and keep my checking account close to flat. So savings/investment graphs should grow (if the economy is flat or growing), and my checking shouldn't move much week-to-week or month-to-month.

If my checking starts shrinking, I'm spending too much. If it's growing, I am doing a good job being frugal. If it starts shrinking too many weeks/months in a row, I'm investing too much or overspending and just withdrawal some from savings to adjust for a big spend. If savings stays flat or shrinking month-to-month, I'm doing something wrong and assess my spending habits.

Works for me. I don't really need willpower to prevent myself from spending on dumb shit. Colorful growing graphs and green percentage changes keep me motivated. It also lets me extrapolate a retirement date, which is inaccurate since the market was doing pretty damn good since I started this (2022 when SP500/BTC was pretty low), but over the years it'll average out to tell me exactly when I'll be ready to live off of investments.

 

[Ruined by the Rain]

there was a stretch where I was mostly broke, I'd feel big by bidding a nickel on dozens and dozens and dozens of random little chinesium shit, and then I'd get neat little presents in the mail every other day for months for a total of like, six bucks

This is me with AliExpress shit. I have so many shoes and clothes I wear once and never again and I'm too retarded to sell them online

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

This is me with AliExpress shit. I have so many shoes and clothes I wear once and never again and I'm too retarded to sell them online

there's always your local thrift store / clothes recycling bin