Monday, November 12, 2012

Avoiding spending: It's all about timing.

It's easy to get sidetracked when shopping, and that can lead to overspending. Avoid that trap by setting a time goal.?

By Trent Hamm,?Guest blogger / November 10, 2012

Watching your time in a store can help you avoid unnecessary spending, Hamm says.

Tim Kimzey/The Herald-Journal/AP/File

Enlarge

As I?ve mentioned many times before, when I walk into a bookstore, I can easily get distracted and find myself with my nose in one book or another. I?ll walk in, intending just to spend a few minutes, and find myself an hour later sitting in a reading chair surrounded by books.

Skip to next paragraph Trent Hamm

The Simple Dollar is a blog for those of us who need both cents and sense: people fighting debt and bad spending habits while building a financially secure future and still affording a latte or two. Our busy lives are crazy enough without having to compare five hundred mutual funds ? we just want simple ways to manage our finances and save a little money.

Recent posts

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

I dawdle. I browse. I find interesting new books I just can?t live without. Often, I?ll leave the store with more books than I ever intended to buy when I went in there.

Obviously, the best strategy for countering this is to?have a very specific list when I walk in the door.?In other words, don?t walk in the door unless you know exactly what you?re looking for.

That doesn?t always help, of course. I?ll be in the cookbook section looking for a particular title, stumble upon something interesting, and before I know it, I?m buying a book I didn?t plan to buy when I went in there.

Of course, I?ve also noticed that?if I go into a store with a list and a tight deadline, I tend to dawdle a lot less.?I head right for the item I need, don?t stop even if I see interesting things, and try to get out of there quickly.

Of course, you can?t always shop with a pre-existing deadline? but you can always make your own.

Whenever I find myself walking into a store of any kind, I try to set a ?time goal? as I approach the door. I review what I need, figure out roughly how long it will take if I head straight for that item and then get out, and then set a deadline for myself to get back out the door.

How do I ?enforce? that idea? I try to think about all of the things I have to do that day besides this shopping trip. I think about the things I?could?get done if I get out of there quickly.

In other words, I put the idea that I have more important (or better) things to do in the front of my mind. This makes it much easier to stick to my time goal.

Then, when I enter the store, I get down to business. I keep an eye on my watch as I look for the items I need and, since I?m so conscious of the need to take care of business quickly, I don?t dawdle.

The end result? I walk out the door with just the items I need and with time to spare, time I can use on something else in my life.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on www.thesimpledollar.com.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/g2x0Xqpkzgo/Avoiding-spending-It-s-all-about-timing.

anne hathaway mike brown earthquake bcs rankings jay cutler applebees jeff gordon

No comments:

Post a Comment