Attitudes we must posses to save money?

[Year7Class1]

This may be my first post in this thread.

I am from a poor (not really) family. And sometimes I cannot relate to this forum because they are all talking about Pokemon X and Y. I don't have a Nintendo Ds, 3ds or a Gameboy Color. I only have a phone and an emulator. Anyway, I just want to ask something about saving money. Any tips on how to save money (because when I try I always end up spending it for nonsense things.) or something that I have to control? Please don't hate me for doing this thread.

 

[Lucid]

Don't date me.

 

[£]

he's just a poor boy from a poor family, spare him his life from this monstrosity - Chapter 7 Verse 23 George's Childhood

1 - don't impulse buy
2 - don't socialise
3 - live on a diet of supermarket own brand junk

your funds will improve but you'll be miserable. I would suggest breaking rules 2 and 3 occasionally.

 

[Bellsprout]

well when it comes to buying things i think of two things.

1. do i really need it
2. do i LOVE it

now i hate spending my own money so i literally find myself having to convince myself to buy things sometimes (so bizzare i know) but we're going to ignore that aspect of me for the sake of giving you good advice.

so anyway i walk into a clothing store in my tattered rags because i forced all my clothing to go as long as it could without spending another penny (this is where the we really fucking need it comes in) and i'll find like 10 shirts i would love to wear most likely 3 from clearance because before i looked at anything i said to myself "CHECK CLEARANCE" the rest about 20 or under minus one or two that i really like but are so overpriced they must of been made in america. already i am having a panic attack inside because here are all these things that i like and they're probably going to be so much money altogether.

step 1. use your phone to look up coupons for the store, if you dont have a smartphone ask the lady at the desk, if you have too much social anxiety to ask pray some coupons came in mail or check the trash barrel in or around the store.

step 2. look through all your items and judge them HARSHLY. Not only will you try it on and of course stand up in the dressing room mirror you will sit, make daily motions that you typically do, and imagine scenarios while wearing this item. Does the item pass all if not almost all of your scenarios? does it still look good? and most importantly DO YOU LOVE IT. I swear to god if you buy something and in the mirror you're just like "meh yeah it looks okay i think it will pass" YOU WILL REGRET IT SOON AFTER. IT WILL ROT IN YOUR CLOSET AND YOU WILL LOSE THE RECEIPT.

now this is just one scenario, but if you do it with everything you too will have the four figure bank account that you so greatly desire. also keep in mind if you don't buy that stupid thing you want at the store you will go home and promptly forget about it and still have that 20 dollars to buy some other stupid thing. the rush and excitement of a purchase only lasts up until the time you use it/wear it and then it becomes bland like everything else.

 

[Nolafus]

It really just comes down to self control and your ability to not impulse buy. It can be hard sometimes, but the more you refuse, the easier it'll get. I was never a huge spender in the first place, so maybe I don't have the best advice, but keep focused on that goal.

 

[Somewhere_]

Keep it in a safe place, where it isn't readily accessible. Like under idk...something. So if you want to buy something on impulse, you will have to work to get to it.

Just practice limited spending and maybe give yourself a budget. I dont place too much importance on physical objects, so I dont feel obligated to buy everything I see.

I dont spend my money on things too often, so I guess its sort of easy for me to save. Hopefully this helps...

 

[Meganium]

I'm one of the guilty ones who impulse buy. I buy things and immediately regret it afterwards. I blame having a social life outside the internet world.

But anyways. if you are serious about saving money, open up a savings account at your local bank. It's literally the safest way to do so. All the money you save up will earn interest overtime, and when the time comes when you *desperately* need the money for something super important or in an emergency, you'll be prepared.

 

[Bounsweet]

Something that has helped me a lot is to convert the amount of something you're tempted to splurge on into the hours you worked for it. So, say you make $10/hr, and you see this game you've sorta been interested in that's on sale for $30, originally $40. Even though the sale price might be tempting, do you think it's worth 3 hours of your hard work at whatever job you have?

Another good tip, take 25% of whatever you make per week and put it in savings. Don't look at it, don't acknowledge it, pretend it doesn't exist. Don't count it towards your funds, either. Whatever you have leftover after you deposit the 25%, that's what it is. Paying yourself before anything else will help a lot, even if you can't do 25%, even if it's just $10/week, you'll see it start to grow quickly enough.

Also, no fast food. I could write a full essay about how to budget grocery shopping while eating healthy, but cutting back on fast food alone will start to make a difference.

If you don't have a savings account already, definitely get one. I really, really prefer my state-wide credit union so much more over a national bank, and they offer a "super savings account" to college-aged students who get a monthly interest instead of a quarterly interest and such.

 

[Alexander Nicholi]

Just be patient. Wait for worthwhile things to buy, and enjoy buying them when the time comes.

 

[Rogue planet]

you can pinch every single penny as much as you like, but the bottom line is the only way to live comfortably and get the things you want is to work a lot

 

[Evening]

satisfaction will always get to you. get rid of that.

 

[Dedenne1]

You can try to stay away from places you like to shop...and not go on amazon...
But theres really no way to do it just work hard enough that you can get what you want and the things you wanna save up for.

 

[Sylphiel]

Ask yourself "do I really need this?" when it comes to non-essentials, or at least "can I wait to buy this?" - and also limit the amount of money you have available to you at any one point. I've found that limiting myself like that...doesn't curb spending habits entirely, but it did dissuade me from buying every cool thing I set eyes on. Oh I only have this amount of money on hand but I'd rather spend it on food, I better wait to buy this then, etc.

Also, I second being really lazy, I'm pretty sure I've had a few impulses of mine staved off because I couldn't be bothered going to get anything ah ha.

 

[Kanzler]

A lot of things have been said already so I'll try to keep this short.

Sometimes I play mindtricks on myself to encourage myself not to buy something: for example, assuming and telling myself that I'll buy it later. Most of the time I feel like it satiates my impulse, and if it doesn't, then I'll think a bit harder about the reasons for buying said item because there might be a legitimate reason. I think it works because it appeals to my procrastination, so it might work for a lot of people as well. It really helps for steam sales lol because they come so often so I can just keep pushing it off to the next sale, hopefully by which my interest in a game dies.

I second all the advice about choosing where you eat. Eating out and snacking will always be overpriced compared to their value. You could probably eat a lot healthier if you restrict restaurant, fast food, and snacking, since they're not the best places to eat, nutritionally speaking. And restaurants that make a point of being healthy places to eat are simply overpriced to high heaven.

Also this might be a weird one: don't be afraid to spend money. Sounds counter-intuitive but hear me out. I think there's a time and place to spend money: on things you use a lot and could possibly last for a long time. I'm not saying buy the most expensive item available, but consider something's quality and the value it might bring to your life and whether that might be worth the extra money. I think not being afraid to spend money could also change your outlook on spending in general. It forces you to consider more deeply the value of the things you buy and leads you to give the more important things priority and reduces the urge to impulse buy. For example, if you're in school and you need to print a lot of paper, you might consider spending good money on a quality printer that'll be reliable, prints quickly, and saves you money on ink. While you're thinking about how much money you're spending on the printer and how much value it would bring into your life, all those extra wants seem almost silly in comparison.

that's all i have