The Starbucks coffee that never made its way to my hands
Earlier today, when a friend was leaving to run errands and pick up coffee, she asked my roommates and me if we wanted anything from Starbucks. I immediately started thinking about what I wanted to try this time – mind you, I’m not a coffee drinker. As I thought more and more about it, I realized something. If I don’t drink coffee, why the hell was I thinking about what coffee I wanted? Why would I want to spend money on something that I’d barely enjoy? I recognized that part of me wanted to get coffee because my friends were getting coffee. The other part of me just wanted coffee to keep my mouth busy. And yet, I couldn’t bear to part with my very limited money.
Why would I spend my money on things that bring little to no value to me?
With something as valuable as money, more thought needs to be put into how it’s spent. Asking questions like, “Do I need/want coffee…or do I just want to spend money?” “Am I spending money because my friends and family are?” are valuable because they draw light on why you are spending your money. Unless you have so much money you don’t know what to do with it, spending it “just because” is quite literally a waste of money.
Imagine how you feel after spending money on the little things, like little trinkets or snacks. Do you get that little voice at the back of your head saying, “No, no, Jennifer, you don’t need that. Put it back.”? That’s your subconscious telling you that you don’t care for those little things. Those types of purchases are impulse purchases – things you weren’t originally planning to buy, but now want to because it’s in front of you.
Below are a few things that have helped me counter that impulsivity to spend money willy-nilly.
- Make a budget. When you allocate your money ahead of time, you don’t have to think as much when deciding where your money goes later on. If by November 15th, you’ve spent $600 shopping and that’s all you had in your budget for shopping, then you don’t need to think when your friends ask you if you want to go shopping. No money left in the budget for shopping = no shopping trip.
- Remember your bigger goals. Part of budgeting includes considering any larger goals you may have, like traveling to Europe, buying a car, or saving for retirement. Getting excited about saving money for these things will make it easier to stop yourself from spending money on frivolous things.
- Figure out your values. Saying no to insignificant things means saying yes to things that matter to you. Your money is limited and if you continue to say yes to every impulse purchase, you won’t have room for the important things. If you value your daily coffee, then, by all means, get your daily coffee. But get your priorities straight so you have room for your daily coffee.
- Track Your Spending. Awareness is the first step towards understanding whether you’re spending your money as planned. Whether you do it manually or with Mint (a free financial management company), you can begin seeing the trends of your money inflow and outflow.
- Imagine you already have it. Picture your day-to-day life with the product. Let’s say it’s a stand mixer. Are you baking more with your new mixer, or is it sitting in storage, gathering dust? Do you have the space to store the mixer on your countertop? Do you already have a perfectly-functioning stand mixer that’s a few years old?
- Convenient isn’t always better. If everything could be done in a matter of seconds, what fun would that be? As cliche as it may sound, enjoy the journey and the small things. That being said, if something will allow you to spend more time and energy on things that truly matter, go ahead and buy the “thing”.
When you’re picky about what you spend your money on, you tend to be much more appreciative of what you’ve bought. You tend to put a much higher value because you’ve spent so much time researching and so much energy thinking about it.
Be more conscious of where your money is going. Be picky with how you spend it.