negative-balance

[negative-balance]

a guide on how to stop impulse spending, by me, someone who literally made their first impulse spend of the year this morning.

these are all things that helped my adhd brain to learn how to reduce the amount I buy. remember that people with adhd usually need rules to be enforced from something outside of themselves because that’s just how our brains work! if you can work with that, rather than against it, you’ll have more success.

try to forget that you have a credit card. or don’t have a credit card at all. in fact, I just have a debit card, which means that I physically cannot spend all my money

talk to your bank about having a percentage of your weekly earnings automatically put into a savings account that is not accessible by card. that way, you’ll always have some money set aside just in case

spending limits!

if you’re buying something online — get into the habit of setting a timer on your phone for half an hour (or preferably more) before you click through to payment. if you still want it after that time, the chances are that you actually want it. I have abandoned many online purchases this way.

write lists before you go into a shop. a lot of supermarkets have online shops now. don’t use those online shops to actually shop — use them to work out how much you’ll be spending on your groceries. then withdraw that amount of money (+ a little extra) from the ATM. now you only have enough money for the list you wrote.

physical money in general is good. this is because we experience loss aversion — handing over something physical makes us feel a pain, as if we are losing one of our possessions. this compels us to spend less. for some reason, credit cards etc just don’t have the same effect

bring a friend with you when you go to the mall. preferably a friend with loads of self control. an accountability buddy, if you will

try to avoid online shopping if you can possibly help it. those sites are designed to get us to impulse purchase. there are chrome extensions and the like that can block websites for you within a set time duration — so maybe at least consider installing one of them, and blocking online shopping in the late evening and early morning (when your self control is at its lowest)

self control wears down over time. there have been experiments with choc chip biscuits and the like — the longer you try to control yourself, the more likely you are to “binge”. so let yourself buy little rewards every couple of weeks or so. it’ll stop you from impulsively getting those big ticket items.

that’s basically it.

the only other thing I would say is that current budgeting theory says you should keep your money in three “mental buckets”: save, spend, and emergency. keeping to a budget isn’t about stopping yourself from spending money or from having a good time.

it’s about preparing for those things ahead of time so that you still have some money set aside for that holiday or home or car or whatever it is you’re saving up for.

if anyone has any other tips, feel free to share!

[negative-balance]

My Budgeting Tips. #1

Groceries

  > Places like Joe Vs and Aldi Are great places to shop, Have some of the freshest groceries at a low price. Personally, I like Aldi more, so even though I live right next to a joe vs I drive the extra time. Though When it comes to meat I recommend Joe vs, Where for better products I recommend Aldi. There fruits and veggies seem to be fresher.

2. Garden

  > Okay this is a complicated one. I recommend an actual flower store, for your plants but for materials, the dollar store for dirt is a big one. As for tools, I search clearance and sale racks at home depot, sears, sometimes I can find good things at the amazon outlet.

3. Home Decor

 > Honestly my favorite, So definitely recommend Marshals, Home Goods, Tj Maxx And At Home, you can find some unique things at a very low price.

4. Home furniture

 >Though me and my Husband still had to finance furniture. The best Prices I found Were often at AFW. They had furniture from normal furniture stores (Ex. Ashely Furniture) For very low prices. Another store is BEL Furniture, Prepare yourself though, they don’t have the biggest selection.

5. Clothes

 > I don't feel like Many people will relate to me on this one but I Frequent Boy clothes. I do have my girly outfits for occasions but I’m pretty much a relaxed fit person. But Some of my favorite places to shop are Tj max and Marshals, I Cant stress how cheap the Men's clothes are there. so I wear men's shirts but my jeans are woman’s I used to get my jeans from Hollister but I have to change that up because I am Not paying $50 for Jeans. So I frequently go find used jeans which help give me that homely look I go for. I stretch my Allowance for shoes just because I rather buy shoes that’ll last me a while like my steve madden combat boots have lasted me 10 years now.

These are my current tips, there constantly changing so when I get updated, I'll make sure to pass it along.