3 Simple Ways to Save Money if You are an Impulse Shopper so You Can Stop Purchasing Items You Don’t Need to Save You Thousands of Dollars

Hello!  Welcome to Claiming Simplicity and if this is your first time listening, I am Monica H. Baker and I am so glad you are here!  I am very passionate about helping you find more simplicity and meaning in your life to truely live the most enjoyment every single day!!!!!!  

This was a super duper exciting week on our little farm as we added a newborn nigerian dwarf goat to our household!!!!  She was born a week ago and is it is like having a new born baby around again with bottle feeding every 4 hours! We had to really decide if we wanted to add another kid to the herd since I have some things for the business  in Utah next month and Colorado in October, but she will be old enough and thankfully we have some wonderful people that enjoy helping out!!!   She is so so loved and is our snuggliest goat yet adn her name is Mildred, but we call her Millie, so now we have Fern, Mable and Millie.  Im not a fan of having animals in the house, but we did have a box of hay for our newborn her first few days of life since she was only a few pounds and so tiny and I didn’t want her to be scared in the goat shed. I sure wish I would have known about goats years ago because they are my favorite animals I have ever had -plus, there is such a learning curve to goats that we want to learn as much as we can this next year and a half before we start milking them so we can make yogurt, sour cream, ice cream and cheese with all our own milk.  Life is all about the journey and I hope you are enjoying it as much as we are!

This week I want to give you 3 simple ways to save money if you are an impulse shopper so you can stop purchasing items you don’t need!  Have you ever purchased something and then a few days later wished you wouldn’t have?  I have done this a few times and when I look back, I had to really examine why I purchased this item.  As you know, I am not someone that has to have expensive things or brand names items or even care what brands are popular because I am just simply way too practical, but there was a short time in my life where I thought if I bought stuff to make me look good, it would make me feel better, but that is the absolute furthest from the truth!  Thankfully it didn’t last, we had newer vehicles with loans on them, a very fancy home that we built with all the bells and whistles we could afford and we were living paycheck to paycheck. I absolutely hated not having a saving and I hated having debt hanging over our heads and we were not able to travel and enjoy experiences with our family because we had too much debt!  And then my husband lost his job and it was very stressful.  He took another job sometimes working in other states, but we knew we didn’t want to live a life like that.  It was one of the hardest times in our life, but one of the best things that  could have happened to us and I thank God for that experience because we learned so much about what we valued and what we didn’t.  Once we put God first and knew our priorities, there was no need to impress anyone else.  You don’t need brand name clothes or anything expensive-that does not impress God.  We give all the glory to God in whatever we do as we live

for eternity now and know that everything we have is God’s, not ours.  Keep and open hand friend as it is not ours to clench.  As you keep your hands open to giving and receiving, God will give you more than you could ever imagine.  Make sure to give him the glory-there is not anything we can do on our own.  I seriously could not have even imagined this life we have even 10 years ago-listen to God’s Will and He will Provide-trust Him with everything!

Ok, so the first thing to do to save money is take your credit card number off of any online shopping apps.  It makes it way too easy for you to just put in your cart and pay automatically.  That extra step of having to go and get your card number could save you alot of money!  Also, if you do shop online, make sure that if you do put an item in your cart, leave it there for a few days before purchasing, so that you really have to think about if you want the item or not.  Is that item in your budget?

Second way to save money is to avoid going in the store when shopping.  Most stores allow you to order online and then pick up.  If you are going into the store, you will usually come out with alot more than just the items on your list and you tend to spend alot more.  It also makes it much easier to stay within your budget because you can delete items if you are over budget and rethink your purchases when entering them online.  Also, d

not use credit cards.  Most people do not pay off their credit card balance every month, so if you are purchasing items without paying attention to the allotted amount, you could be going over your amount allocated and can easily slip into way more debt than you want to.

And lastly, ask yourself if this is a item you NEED.  Is it something you could borrow?  Do you have a place for this item?  Is it in your budget?  Will it improve your life?  I think about our patio furniture.  We have an old table and chairs that we bought used several years ago.  It is comfortable and not broken, but it is very ugly!  I could purchase a new set and bring this to our cabin which could really use some more old furniture, but I haven’t put it in the budget because right now, we are building some little sheds for our animals and even though the furniture is ugly, it still works great and I certainly wouldn’t want to go in debt for it.  Also, when buying something, I do like to purchase quality items so they last a very long time, so I wouldn’t want to purchase something that we would have to replace in a short amount of time.  I have had my kitchen rugs that I purchased at a craft fair about 15 years ago-they are heavy duty weaved rugs that we can wash and they may just last my lifetime because they are very durable.  I usually buy a general color too instead of a fad item or color so I don’t have to try to keep up with having a modern home!  If I pay good money for something, I want to use it for many years!

I hope you enjoyed this episode and you can use some of these money saving tips.  Enjoy your week friend and really think about what is really important to you this week!  Remember, when you look at where your money is spent, that is your value!  Where are you giving your money? 

XOXO,

Monica

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