Being Frugal is hard…when you are a shopaholic!

I do my best to be completely honest here on MSM because there is no point in being anything but!  I am who I am & I hope I make you laugh at my crazy ideas sometimes and make you think about how you spend and save money. I hope you learn from my mistakes and enjoy your saving successes.  I hope you remember that it is much more important to focus on what we spend rather than what we save.

Here’s my confession for today:  Being frugal is HARD.  I am a shop-a-holic.   I like buying things- from shoes to drapes to kitchen items…it really doesn’t matter I like buying it.  I like to bring the items into the house and put them up.  Whether they hand on the wall or sit on the floor- it doesn’t matter I like buying it.  It can be from amazon.com , Macy’s, Target or Goodwill.  It can be a yardsale or a online sale.  I just like buying things.  Probably why I LOVE being a strategic shopper- I can get a ton of food items (and household goods and personal care products) for pennies.  So I get to shop without breaking the bank!

Luckily I realized quickly that I had this problem and work hard every day to not let it take over my will power.  If you are like me- I hope that some of the things that I have tried to do may work for you in curbing the shopping cravings.  Now,I am not talking about obsessive/complusive shopping- I am just talking about liking to buy things.  There is a difference- one may require professional care and the other requires just a little more will power.

1. Have a reason:For us we want to pay off ALL our debt.  We want to chip away at this debt so we don’t have to write another check to Chase Bank or Mastercard.  Happy to say that the debt isn’t due to my shopping but rather lots of circumstances that just collided together and it’s not unbearable just something we want gone!
2. Take little steps- but celebrate them! Today we paid off our 2nd vehicle.  We are now car-loan free.  It’s a glorious feeling!  We all stood around the computer together and cheered as we transferred that last  payment from checking to a loan payment!  Now, be careful not to celebrate with a fancy dinner or buying new furniture but the simple things can be a celebration.  We hollered “It’s ours! It’s ours!” and jumped around my office. It’s a little step – that last payment was the same amount we’ve been paying for 6 (yes SIX!) years.  Now w have a few hundred dollars in our budget each month to roll onto another payment due!  Start with one small mission- pay off that credit card, pay off that furniture or whatever it is – but pick one thing that will make YOU jump around and holler!
3. Write it down: Having a goal in your head is too easy to change.  I almost didn’t pay off my car this month.   It wasn’t due to be paid off and I could have skipped the next month without penalty.  If that goal was in my head it would have been easy to say, “Oh I will pay it off next month” but since it was on my calender in BIG bold letters with plenty of !!!!! after it- it was like something I HAD to do.  Being accountable to ourselves is easier if it is there in black and white.
4. Know that it is ok to splurge: It’s ok to buy something every once in a while.  It’s ok to spend money.  Pinching pennies every single day does nothing but cause cramped fingers.  Sometimes you have to let go.  It makes me appreciate what I do buy so much more.  Again, being accountable to ourselves is important.  For example, I really needed some new clothes. I set a budget for this and went shopping.  90% of the stores I went into I found something I LOVED.  But I walked away and went back around to it- it wasn’t so wonderful on second look.  I ended up spending under what I wanted to and got some really great pieces because I went back to them and still loved them that much!  Grabbing something and heading straight to check out is a disaster for me- I end up hating the item or just keeping it because I already bought it.
5. Re-do what you have: Sometimes I want to buy something just because I am bored with what I already have.  That side table may be perfectly fine but I am just bored of looking at it.  So I start daydreaming of my dream side table.  I try to curb that impulse by rearranging the furniture or moving my pictures around.  Maybe simply painting it a different color makes me see it differently.  Taking stock of what I have and moving things around helps me realize I don’t NEED a new side table and that I am just as happy by moving my living room lamp into the bedroom and putting the bedroom lamps in the living room.  Voila!  I feel like I got something new without spending a penny.  It’s all about perspective.  Maybe hold a swap?  Get some friends together to bring things they are bored with and trade them.  You get a new perspective and that ugly fish picture gets a new home!

Do you like to shop? What tips do you have to help others curb those craavings?