Frugal Simplicity

Advertisements are everywhere. No matter where you go, it’s almost impossible to escape advertising. There are billboards on the highways, magazine ads, newspaper ads, advertisements on TV, internet ads, even ads on clothing.

Companies know how to tempt people into parting with their money, and often for things the person doesn’t even really need. In buying things we don’t really need, we spend money needlessly. This can wreak havoc on our budget. There are ways to fight the temptation and not spend money.

At the top of the list is the grocery store. Unless you live on a farm and grow your own food, you have to shop for groceries. Once you walk into a store, the temptations are all over the place to buy this and buy that. First, never go shopping hungry. Eating beforehand helps us to not fall and buy more than we planned on purchasing. Make a shopping list and stick to it.

If you go to a mall to shop for something, buy only what you planned on buying. Malls are loaded with stores wanting you go shop and spend your money. If you have a hard time controlling your spending, take only enough money to buy what you went for. Window shopping is fun, but it’s also very tempting.

Leave the credit card at home. Taking a credit card is great if you have the item you are charging planned, but it’s not great to fall to the temptation to buy things that you can’t really afford and don’t need to begin with. If you must take a credit card shopping, resolve to use it only for what you intended to use it for.

Shop at home TV shows are horribly tempting. They show awesome products and they can convince the worst skeptic that they absolutely need so and so product. The problem is that these shows work only when the person watches falls to temptation and orders products. The shows are fun to watch, but they can cause you to spend money shopping for products repeatedly. Either resolve not to spend any money if you watch or simply turn the channel.

The holiday season is the absolute hardest time when it comes to avoiding the temptation to spend money. Saving money at Christmas can be difficult if we don’t practice self control and not allow advertising to sway us form our budget. This is the time to be more vigilant in sticking to a list and a budget.

Having a budget and making a shopping list are the two main ways to fight the temptation to spend money. There will always be something to buy, something that we want, something that the advertising companies will try to sell us. Shopping can be an enjoyable experience and we can save money if we don’t let the advertising companies sell us things we don’t need and keep our money in our pockets and not in the pockets of the advertisers.