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Feel Good Without Spending Money
Published: 07/08/2010
The real trick to spending less is to figure out how to feel happier about not spending money. We see people in advertisements looking beautiful, young, sexy, and happy while using various products – and we want to feel that way too. Effective ads are so good that they often leave us feeling inadequate if we don’t spend the money and buy the product. This is a big trap that many of us fall into – we begin to feel sad if we don’t spend money.
Here are several techniques to use to bring about positive feelings about being frugal.
Remind yourself of your goals as often as possible. For me, I’m saving money so my wife and I can retire early and travel. We went on a wonderful honeymoon to England when we were first married and I long for us to be retired so we can do more international traveling. I realize that every time I don’t spend money and instead save it, we’re a step closer to this dream. So, I’ve posted pictures of the dream everywhere: pictures of places that I want to travel to, along with pictures of our honeymoon to London. I used a few inexpensive techniques to make these pictures into home decor, so that they remind me in multiple ways of positive feelings related to my commitment to saving.
Keep visual reminders of your progress, not of how far you have to go. I check the balances of my savings and investment accounts daily – and I enjoy watching their balances go up. Every once in a while, I’ll print off the balance of my savings in huge, bold numbers and post it somewhere where I can see it regularly. I also like to print signs that say “In the last month, I saved $780 by not spending money.” It’s a visual reminder of what I’m doing that’s positive – and a constant reminder that I don’t need to spend money to feel happy.
Ask yourself why. I do this in two ways. First, I ask myself why I want to buy something. It is almost shocking how often I can’t come up with a real reason – the truth is that I’m being compulsed to buy the item due to an advertisement. Second, whenever I see an ad, I ask myself why it’s put together that way. When I make myself consider why an ad that could be attractive to me actually is attractive to me, the power of it just seems to disappear. I often find myself laughing at (and on some level admiring the skill behind) advertisements that used to sway me to buy.
Turn to what you already have. When I have a desire to buy a new book, I go look at my bookshelves at the books I already have and pick up one of those. When I want to buy a CD, I shuffle through my music collection, find an old favorite CD or one that I’ve not listened to much, and listen to that instead. When I want to buy a new geek toy, I go play with some features on my laptop that I haven’t explored yet. This scratches that itch and gives me a happy feeling as I’m discovering (or rediscovering) something great.
Do fun things that are free (or close to it). For me, I’m lucky: I have a nonstop source of fun in the form of my one year old son. I also derive a lot of joy from the act of writing. Find those things that make you feel good that don’t cost anything and spend your spare time focusing on those things. Not only will you be happy simply enjoying what you like, but you’ll feel good later realizing that you didn’t spend any money.
These are the most effective tactics in my repertoire in terms of deriving ways to find happiness from not spending money.