Updated: September 15, 2021
If you want to lessen your expenses, one simple trick is to ask yourself, “Is this worth it?” before making any purchase.
Doing this prevents you from buying things on impulse. But more importantly, it raises the quality of your life because you’ll find yourself spending more on things that matter.
Avoid Impulse Buying
You’re in line at the grocery and you see the chocolate bars on the shelf beside the cashier. Your mouth starts to water and mindlessly reach out to pick one.
But before making your final decision, ask yourself, “Is this worth it?”
Questioning your spending will force you to come up with a good reason to buy something. And most of the time, if it’s an impulse buy — there will be none.
Staying on Budget
You’re at the mall and a shoe on a window display catches your attention. You go inside the boutique and ask how much it is.
Before requesting your shoe size so you can try it on, ask yourself, “Is this worth it?”
Immediately, you’ll think about your budget and see if it’s an expense you can afford. If you can’t, then saying “Thank you” and going out of the store won’t be that hard.
Getting Your Money’s Worth
One of the advantages of tracking your spending is that it’s easy to see where your money went. When I go through my list, I’d sometimes see an expense where I felt that it was not worth it.
For example, there was a movie expense that after consideration, I felt was unnecessary to watch on 3D because I would have enjoyed it even in an ordinary cinema.
And so after that, I became more careful and would ask friends who’d seen a particular movie first if it’s worth the extra money to watch it in 3D.
Meaningful Purchases
Perhaps the best reward when you ask yourself first if something’s worth buying, is that you’ll never spend money on things without a genuinely good reason.
Questioning your every spending does not mean taking out the fun in your life, such as buying that chocolate bar, purchasing that shoe, or watching a movie in 3D.
It’s making sure that your money is always spent on meaningful purchases – on things that give you more than just a fleeting satisfaction.
It’s about spending your hard-earned money, not on things, but investing it in life experiences that provide self-fulfillment and sincere happiness.
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Photo credit: omcoc
I love reading this new post of yours Sir Fitz. I think delayed gratification is related to this. If you badly want to have a new gadget, think first if it is worth to buy later when you have enough money. Chances are after delaying it for months, your interest on it will disappear. In other words, it is not necessary to have that item or gadget as it may belong to wants.
I also agree with your points here that we should question every spending we do as this will help us not just today but our future as well.To make it short, learn to invest those money to legit investments.
🙂
thanks for this post!!! 🙂
I can greatly relate to this. Lately, I’ve been delaying some purchases because I keep questioning myself if it’ll be worth it. It’s comforting to know that it’s really not a bad thing to do.
Just yesterday morning, I was having breakfast with my friends. We were discussing something about traveling then I remembered that I friend of mine invited me to join them in Cebu. It’ll just be an over the weekend escapade. Upon checking my finances, I know that I can really afford it. I just can’t help but voice out my hesitation from joining saying something about having more important things to do with my money.
Then I got questioned by one of my companions, “What is more important than traveling?!”
“Uhm, building an emergency fund and investing?” was my awkward reply.
Fortunately, my wits came back to me and I manage to add up something about having different priorities at the moment. I feel like a kill joy. I’m 24 and that person is already in her 30s.
We were long past having to ” pinch pennies” with six streams of income, that is until the COVID-19 crisis. I theorize that being thrifty becomes part of your DNA when you practice good spending habits over a lengthy time period. Our three local business ventures are hibernating until the lock-downs end and full reopening of the Philippine economy is underway.
Now, we were blessed that my wife, an academic writer, had assignments coming in much longer than anticipated in the early stages of the crisis. With many school openings delayed around the globe, her work has almost completely stopped. That leaves us with my two income streams.
Early in the crisis, my wife thought that NOW may be the time to concise building one more business. She had a desire for many years but a “brick and mortar” version never really looked like it could become a reality. The answer is building an on-line version of her life long desired business. We hope also that this business will be not only financially bullet-proof but also VIRUS proof! Humor interned on that.
I have retold this because we did reorganize some of our spending. We did prioritize witch equipment to purchase new, what to spend a small amount on to refurbish and what could be put on hold until absolutely needed for the new business. Each week at option expiration (when I roll out and sell new contracts) and with each SS check I was able to help my wife as she put together her plan and equipment. With careful planning and judicious spending my wife was able to build her new venture. She never sacrificed good quality food for the family, important to maintain your health and keep up immune system resistance.
NO WAY will we say we are thankful for the COVID crisis because so many people have suffered badly. We can state that because of the crisis and being forced to stay home so much, there was time to look over the facts, the needs and my beautiful Bride’s ability to provide for the demand she has seen. As I type this, a brand new business is in full launch mode but it would NOT have happened without budget and spending discipline.