Americans are addicts. They are addicted to one thing. Spending money.
Most people don’t even know they are addicted. But go a week without spending money. Plan out your meals, go to the grocery store on Sunday evening and buy everything for the meals that week. Then don’t spend another dime until the following Sunday evening. That means no trips to the mall, no little “I deserve a little break/treat/etc” pastry, no Starbucks. You can pay your bills (gasoline/transportation too) but pay for nothing else.
Now some people are saying, “Oh that’s easy.” Fine, try it out. If you can do it without a problem then you win and we can move on to the next step. But try it. You need to try this and you need to start this Sunday. If you have never gone on a spending diet, a spending vacation, then this coming week is the week to do it. Don’t worry when you find yourself midweek jonesing to spend. Just see it as a sign that this is going to require more attention. If you fall off the wagon, just get back on.
4 comments:
You're projecting man. Too many trips to the mall and look what happens. You shouldn't let the holidays get to you like this.
You got me there Matt, I am a mall rat. (And a poet too.)
That is an excellent idea. It is like fasting. Cleansing. You can help the process by taking just about all the cash out of your wallet. If you're not going to spend it, you certainly don't need to carry it. Yeah, its a crutch, but as one who has gone for weeks at a time with no cash, lemme tell you how much easier it is: you do NOT but a paper, or coffee on a credit card, so all the small shit is just out of the quesiton.
That leaves you with big ticket items only.
Zero balanced budgeting, eating, news... the secret is in the zero.
We spend, we eat, we shop: we are bored.
You got food in the house, a musical instrument, books, radio, shoes and a coat to go outside... spend nothing.
One more thing: you can go to the mall all you want: look at it as a museum. Beautiful, but it's silly to buy. There is nothing you need, not this week.
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