“Can I pick up anything while I’m out?” my brother-in-law kindly asks before walking the kids to school. Those eight simple words just might be one of the leading causes of tight budgets.

Think about your spending patterns. Do you spent too much or too often? How many times per week – no, per day! – do you pull out your wallet? And the most important question – how many of those purchases were planned?

Spending Too OFTEN

The joke’s on my brother-in-law, because unless Armande’s organic farm is open today, there’s nowhere he could just stop by on the way home. No quick coffee or muffin, no “we’re out of baking soda”, no blue-light specials in our rural neighborhood. Since moving to this area where almost every item in the store is more expensive, we’ve been saving heaps of money. We simply don’t have the opportunity to buy buy buy.

My family has also become hyper-conscious of the constant pressure to spend when in the city. Stores and billboards and restaurants are everywhere, calling for attention, beating down our budgetary defenses. The whole economy, media, and consumer culture is constructed to push us into spending – too much and too often. One local business association actually successfully lobbied to have traffic lights timed to make cars stop more often so that commuters would be more likely to notice and pull into the shops.

Planning Your Purchases

Back here in the country, instead of running to the store all the time, we have to plan. A full week of menu planning lets us know exactly what to shop for in one trip, reducing the opportunity for impulse buys. We also keep a list of needed supplies for crafts, house repairs, leisure, etc, so that when we do hit that thrift store or coop we again minimize the amount of unnecessary extra filler.

We broke our own rule yesterday by popping into the grocery store on the way back from the bank. $92 later we had bags of food to unload into our fridge and cupboards. All good organic foods, all things that we do eat, and much of it on sale. But – and here’s the big “but” – we didn’t need any of it right now. That yogurt was yummy this morning, but we’d already planned and bought supplies for good breakfasts all week, so the yogurt was an extra expense.

Yes, it makes sense to stock up on recycled toilet paper when it’s on sale. But in our house – and I suspect we’re not that different from most families – buying extra local cheese when it’s on sale just leads to more cheese consumption. We’re going to drink more milk this week than we needed to simply because we bought more than we had planned and budgeted for.

Four Simple Tips To Reduce Spending Frequency

1. Designate no-buy days. Start with just one day a week when you leave your money and credit cards at home. Notice what tempts you most – those are probably among the things that are draining your pocketbook.

2. Designate just one or two shopping days. This is just the next step up from the first suggestion. What if you only spent money one or two days a week? Imagine how much better you’d be about planning your consumption. And heck, you might even enjoy the experience a bit more. The rest of the time, spending is just not an option – if you run out of something, make do with something else and put it on the list.

3. Plan, and stick to that plan. The stores have “sales” because they want to sell you more. But if you buy those crackers you didn’t really need, you’re not saving 50 cents, you’re overspending by $2.50.

4. Enjoy your new-found freedom. The time and life energy you will save by reducing shopping can be redirected to family, books, exercise – some of the things that nurture you but you never feel you have time for. You deserve some indulgence more than you need that second latte. And enjoy watching your wallet – not your waist – get fat.

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