Jul 18th, 2008
Basics: Tricks Help, but Discipline is Still the Key
While working on yesterday’s post on Costco coupons, I was eating lunch at work sitting next to one of my friends who asked me if I was making a list for a Costco run.
“Not really, but kind of,” I replied.
“How often do you make shopping lists?” she asked.
“All the time.”
“Do you follow them?”
“Yes, definitely.”
“How often?”
“100% of the time.”
“Really? I’ve tried to follow them, but I never can, so I stopped making them.”
Just like a budget or a spending log, a shopping is only a tool; a plan, if you will. It’s a hack, a trick, a way to get you to limit your spending by only getting you to purchase certain things. It can be a great, highly effective trick, but that’s what it is: a trick.
It’s easy to defeat the trick by simply walking around the store more and picking random things up, or grabbing that pack of gum or gift card as you’re in the checkout line. It’s just as easy to go outside your budget or not use your spending log; all of these things are just ways to help you get a better handle on your finances, but in the end, you must have the discipline to follow your budget, use your spending log, and buy only what’s on your list. The tricks may help you build the discipline, but you will absolutely need that discipline in order to get your finances in order. I can’t speak for everyone, but I will use every trick in the book to spend less, and that includes the shopping list. I couldn’t go to the store without it!
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Spot on. I use a list to bulk shop effecitevely as I recent wrote about. In order to manage impulse buys I also suggest having 10% or so of your shopping budget as “fun money”, so spend on whatever you want. Also taking only the cash you can afford to spend is a good way to ensure you don’t overspend.
My list has worked great. Def stops random buys