How to prevent myself from buying things I don't want
We all buy stuff from time to time that only satisfies us for a short time. I was able to locate a few expenses that fall under that category. I see a lot answers that focus on not getting these things. I'm going to tell you how to at least attempt to have your cake and eat it too. If you can get these things without paying for them, or by paying pennies on the dollar for them, you'll no longer want to buy them at full price. Begin by making a list of the items you can't stop thinking about.  Go to your local library and look for relevant items that are on your list. If they are not yet available, request that the library purchase them, and reserve them for when the items come in.  Yes, libraries are usually tax-supported, but to give back, if you can't afford to contribute to the Library immediately, you can still promote their fund-raising or book/media-drive efforts. If you don't mind buying things that may be second hand, thrift stores and garage or yard sales can have anything. The ones near you may have one or two items on your list of things you were looking for - for pennies on the dollar.  Other items might be things you can share with friends. Borrow or swap things until you get bored of them. If you don't have a network of friends with shared interests, there may be a local freecycle or relevant meetup group you can join.  The key here is to try to contribute more than you take (and you probably have things you don't need that you can start with trading), and don't keep careful score. The upshot is you'll not only save money but make friends while doing it. You can sometimes have your cake and eat it too. These recommendations can get you the short-term happiness you were looking for, without spending the money. And when the happiness is gone, you won't feel like you need to hang on to the item indefinitely - you can pass it on for others to enjoy. I found the best way to do this was to make a spending plan at the beginning of the month with someone else. If you're married or in a relationship where you pool resources, then this is a natural way to sync up on your expectations. If you don't have a relationship of that nature, it's still good to have a friend that you talk to about things you are planning on buying. If I don't allow myself to buy things on a whim, if I have to take the time to justify my purchases to someone else, then I have to first think about the purchase and justify it to myself. Often the actual process of thinking it through is enough for me to talk myself out of it. Consider the tactics of car salesmen. Each time you attempt to leave the lot, to think about it overnight, they sweeten the offer to try to get you to buy before leaving. They know that if you leave the lot, you are much less likely to decide that you must have that car. You should have a policy of sleeping for one night before making any purchase over an arbitrary dollar amount say $250, or $500, or $1,000. Having that rule, and following it will save you a lot of buyers remorse. As an aside, I've had my eye on a 35mm prime lens for my camera for over a year now. I was ready to pay ~$500 for a nice lens that was discounted by $100, and I was a little sad that I missed the discount. However, I am very deliberate in my shopping, and I didn't want to buy until I read enough of the reviews to be certain about it. It turns out that the lens has a fatal flaw for landscape photography that most reviewers didn't notice because they were using it for portrait photography. I finally concluded that the lens I really wanted was an $800 lens. I looked at resale prices on my $600 lens and they are in the $350 range. So instead of missing out on a $100 discount, I missed out on a $150 loss trading up to the lens that I really want for the long term. To me the key is a budget.  Each month, before it begins, decide on what to spend on each dollar that you earn.  Money should be allotted for normal expenses such as housing, food, transportation, and utilities. If you have any consumer debt that should be a priority.  Extra money should go to eliminate that debt. There should be money allotted to savings goals (such as retirement, home down payment, or vacation home).  Also there should be money set aside for clothing and giving.  Giving is an important part and often overlooked part of wealth creation.   Somewhere in there you should also give yourself a bit of free money.  For example one of the things I spend my free money on is coffee.  I buy freshly ground coffee from a really good supplier.  It is a bit expensive, but that is okay as it does not preclude me from meeting other goals. If you still have money left after all of that increase your giving some, your savings some, and your free money some.  You can then spend that money without guilt. If your budget includes $100 of free money per month, and you want something that costs $1000, save up the $1,000 and then buy it.  Do not borrow to buy free money stuff!   Doing those sorts of things will make you weigh purchasing decisions very carefully. If you find that you cannot stick to a budget, you should enlist a friend to be your accountability partner.  They have to be very good with money. "One of the most effective tools we have to keep ourselves from doing things is procrastination.  Most of the time procrastination is a bad thing because we use it to avoid doing things we should be doing.  But it's equally effective at keeping us from doing things that are not good for us, like overspending or overeating. How do we procrastinate things like this?  Put it on a big, fat, TODO list somewhere that you seldom look at.  That will get it out of your head...your subconscious will not keep bugging you about it because it's not worried about forgetting it.  Save the discount code in the list so you know you will have it if you ever want it.  Put other things that you are unlikely to do any time soon on that same list.  Then move on with your life and enjoy your freedom from useless and expensive clutter. I use online TODO lists (also google docs) for keeping track of things I'm supposed to be doing.  One of my lists, ""long term purchases,"" contains a bunch of expensive stuff that I have wanted at some point but not gotten around to purchasing.  I think the list has saved me a lot of money.  Stuff stays on that list a long time.  Ultimately most of the items on the list either become cheap or I lose interest in them. There's a reason salesmen push you to buy NOW NOW NOW.  They know if you procrastinate the decision, you are much less likely to buy." Nathan's answer was a +1 from me. The answer is not always simple. Having the money available is surely the first step. Using Pete's process aligns with this.  Another thought is depending where you are in your finances, delay by a day for every $100 in cost. e.g. For a $1000 purchase, sleep on it for 10 days. Adjust the number for your circumstance. "Since these are specific items that you don't really want to buy, it might help to figure out what you could spend that money on that you DO really want. It sounds like right now you are thinking ""Wow, I can get this widget (that I don't really want) for so cheap with this discount code!"" Try changing your thinking to something along the lines of ""This widget is pretty cool, but I could buy this doodad that I really want instead"" or ""This widget is nice, but if I don't buy it, I could have a latte every other day this month."" I've found this to be a very effective technique-- and I often don't end up buying the doodads or lattes either. It's just a good way to put the cost of your purchase in perspective. The other thing I do when I want something is to write it down and revisit it a week or so later. If I still want it and I still have the budget for it (and especially if I've skipped other purchases to save up for it), then I buy it. That advice doesn't sound like it will work for you though, since it sounds like you've wanted to buy these things for a long time. So... are you REALLY sure you don't want them, or do you just not want to want them?" I use cash exclusively. I go to the cash machine once a week and withdraw the money I want to spend in one week (so I have to plan if I want to buy something expensive). Otherwise I leave the card at home. As bonus you get anonymity, i.e. big brother cannot track you. Make a deal with yourself. You can buy the things that you want, but only after you've read three books on behavioral economics. You should probably start first with Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational, which will help you understand why the discount makes you covet the products even more than you would without it. Then find and read two more high-quality books from the same genre.  If you gain self-awareness from this, you will begin to understand why you are conflicted (hint: you really don't want the things you think you do). And you probably won't purchase anything in spite of the fact that you kept the first part of the bargain. There are a lot of good answers above, all of them will probably work for you in some way or another. One point to note (from the procrastination theme) is that you could invest your free money that you have currently in some investment instrument which would require you to do some paperwork etc. to get out, this way the immediate cash flow is decreased and also invested. Now from each montly budget save a small amount for the things that you would like to buy. Give this small savings some months to accumulate so that you can afford only one of the items that you want to buy or target an item that you want to buy. After the money is accumulated, if you still want to buy the item, then you probably should. One point of note is that budgeting is also important on a monthly basis, Pete has provided excellent suggestion in this regard. "Remember where they said ""Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?  That is the essence of this problem.  You have freedom including freedom to mess up.  On the practical side, it's a matter of structuring your money so it's not available to you for impulse buying, and make it automatic.   Have you fully funded your key necessities?  You should have an 8-month emergency fund in reserve, in a different savings account.  Are you fully maxing out your 401K, 403B, Roth IRA and the like?  This single act is so powerful that you're crazy not to - every $1 you save will multiply to $10-100 in retirement.  I know a guy who tours the country in an RV with pop-outs and tows a Jeep.  He was career Air Force, so clearly not a millionaire; he saved. Money seems so trite to the young, but Seriously. THIS. Have auto-deposits into savings or an investment account. Carry a credit card you are reluctant to use for impulse buys.  Make your weekly ATM withdrawal for a fixed amount of cash, and spend only that.  When your $100 has to make it through Friday, you think twice about that impulse buy.  What about online purchases? Those are a nightmare to manage.  If you spend $40 online, reduce your ATM cash withdrawal by $40 the next week, is the best I can think of.  Keep in mind, many of these systems are designed to be hard to resist.  That's what 1-click ordering is about; they want you to not think about the bill.  That's what the ""discount codes"" are about; those are a fake artifice.  Actually they have marked up the regular price so they are only ""discounting"" to the fair price.  You gotta see the scam, unsubscribe and/or tune out.  They are preying on you.  Get angry about that!  Very good people to follow regularly are Suze Orman or Dave Ramsey, depending on your tastes.  As for the ontological... freedom is a hard problem.  Once food and shelter needs are met, then what?  How does a free person deny his own freedom to structure his activities for a loftier goal?  Sadly, most people pitching solutions are scammers - churches, gurus, etc. - after your money or your mind. So anyone who is making an effort to get seen by you and promise to help you is probably not a good guy.  Though, Napoleon Hill managed to pry some remarkable knowledge from Andrew Carnegie in his book ""Think and Grow Rich"". Tony Robbins is brilliant, but he lets his staff sell expensive seminars and kit, which make him look like just another shyster.  Don't buy that stuff, you don't need it and he doesn't need you to buy it." "To me, your question emphasizes something I've heard many times before: personal finance is as much or more about behavior than it is about mathematics or ""head knowledge"".  Sure, you know you shouldn't be wasting a lot of money on something you will use very infrequently, but how do you make this behavior stick?  Here are a few tricks that might help: The other aspects of your question really touch more on psychology than finance.  But getting yourself into a discipline habit with money will help.  And realizing the full cash price of items in relation to how much your disposable income is will help you get control of your impulses, as you review your budget monthly, and keep limit yourself using the envelope system.  But honestly, everybody wants stuff they don't have, it's human nature.  The key is finding ways to put physical limits and guards on yourself to keep you from obeying the self-destructive impulses." "I believe that your dilemma comes from not having clearly defined consequences of buying it. On one side you want it and you can afford it, but on the other side there is nothing solid. Just some vague dislike of spending money and guilt of buying something ""useless"". You're basically guilt tripping yourself into not buying it, and guilt tripping is always bad. What you need is clear-cut consequence. Something like ""I can buy X but then I won't get Y and Z"". And for that you need a clearly laid out budget, just to know how much you can spend. Money that go into things that are absolutely required, money that go into various saving plans, etc - and after that you're left with some clear amount that should be spent on making yourself happier. Making yourself happier is not something you should feel guilty about, it's actually one of purposes of life. Making yourself happy is only bad if it's hurting other areas of your life (and even that is relative, because there is always some extent of degradation you're willing to accept or you have already accepted). There is absolutely no point in saving every single penny you can, because that will make you live long and unhappy life and die without enjoying your riches." My approach won't work for everyone, but I keep a longer list of things I want in my head, preferably including higher value items.  I then look at the cost of an item vs the amount of benefit it gets me (either enjoyment or ability to make more money or both).  If I only had a few things I wanted, it would be easy to buy them even if the payback wasn't that great, but because I have a large list of things I'd like to be able to do, it's easier to play the comparison game in my head. Do I want this $50 thing now that will only give me a little bit of enjoyment and no income, or would I rather be able to get that $3000 digital cinema camera that I would enjoy having and could work on projects with and actually make money off of? (This is a RL example that I actually just bought last week after making sure I had solid leads on enough projects to pay myself back over time.)  For me, it is much easier to compare with an alternative thing I'd enjoy, particularly since I enjoy hobbies that can pay for themselves, which is really the situation this strategy works best in. It might not work for everyone, but hobbies that pay for themselves can take many different forms.  Mine tends to be very direct (get A/V tool, do projects that pay money), but it can also be indirect (get sports stuff, save on gym membership over time).  If you can get things onto your list that can save you money in the long run, then this strategy can work pretty well, if not, you'll still have the overall saving problem, just with a longer wish list. That said, if you are good about saving already and simply want to make better use of your disposable income, then having a longer list may also work to let you seek out better deals for you.  If you have funds that you know you can healthily spend on enjoyment, it is going to be difficult to choose nothing over something that gives enjoyment, even if it isn't a great return on the money.  If you have alternatives that would give you better value, then it's easier to avoid the low value option. "There's a reason that you get a discount code: to make you feel like you're getting a deal. A deal is what you get when there was something that you were already going to buy, and you got it for a lower price than you were going to originally spend on it. If you learn to look at ""rewards"" as a marketing ploy that is designed only to get your business, then it's easier to ignore them. But if you really do want a thing, and is is a thing that you are going to use, then by all means, go for it! Buy it, and use those rewards and enjoy them. Otherwise you're just giving your money to someone else for no good reason. And if you want to do that, you should just give it to me. At least I'm honest about it :)" "Long ago, a friend of mine shared with me the ""Lakshmi rule"" which can be used for managing one's spending:  1/3rd: Save, 1/3rd: Donate, 1/3rd: Survival. Survival refers to primary needs like food, clothing, shelter, medicine, family and priority needs like travel. The word ""Lakshmi"" comes from the Sanskrit language and is often used to denote money, wealth or opulence. Its etymological meaning is - to perceive, understand, objective, observe, to know etc. As per ancient thought leaders, wealth is to be used wisely and with great care. Carelessness and misuse of it means havoc not only in one's own life but also on a community level. Rather than seeing money as a source of one's own happiness, it should be used as tool for the larger good. This will give proper fulfillment in life and helps one shy away from spending on those little things which only give temporary happiness. Having a deeper perspective to our everyday actions and situations, can help develop beneficial habits that easily helps control one's impulsive urges and distractions." One approach is to control your budget more effectively. For example work out your essential living expenses things like food, rent and other bills you are committed to and compare this to your regular income.  Then you can set up a regular automatic payment to a savings account so you limit the disposable income in your current account. If you keep a regular check on this balance it should make you feel like you have less 'spare' money and so less temptation to spend on impulse purchases.  Similarly   it may help to set a savings goal for something you really do want, even if this is itself  a bit frivolous it will at least help you to discipline yourself.  Equally it may be useful to set a fixed budget for luxuries, then you have a sense that when it's gone it's gone but you don't have to completely deny yourself.
Budget out the amount you save and owe per month. Make sure that amount doesn't stay liquid, invest it, send it out. Make it go away. Learn to live in the rest. If you still have some left over then enjoy the impulse buying (why not).   Second rule, try to payout your credit cards every month. I think you need to have the experience of over-consumption to realize that buying more stuff won't make you happy. And then when you see TV commercials and ads everywhere, you no longer will want the stuff.  When you do that, then you slow down and start to value spending time with the people important to you, doing stuff and going places with them. It's the experiences that count, and some of the most fun and memorable stuff you can do is free or cheap. You can't both enforce saving and have access to the money -- from what you say, it's clear that if you can access the money you will spend it. Can you find an account that allows one withdrawal every six months but no more, which should help to cut down on the impulse buys but still let you get at your money in an emergency? "First, you must prioritize what a ""need"" and what a ""want"" is.  This is different for everyone but generally, I think most people will agree that impulse items are ""want"" items.  Look at the item, hold it, put it back and wait 30 days.  Put the money that the item costs $x into your savings account (transfer from checking, straight deposit, etc) Come back to the store and hold the item again and as ""did I miss the fact that I didnt get it 30 days ago?"".  95% of the time, the answer is no.  You saved $x for 30-days, and received what is a tiny bit of interest for it. This is cause for celebration!  If you repeat this for every item you THINK you ""need"" or ""want"" then you'll be amazed at what you saved.  Dont waste this money on a vacation to the islands either!  Keep saving.   There will be plenty of rainy days when you'll have wanted to trade that island vacation (or the impulse items you bought that you used once or twice and are lost in your garage somewhere) to pay for some unexpected emergency.  Trust me on this!" "For me, it would be hard to leave all forms of money at home (cash, credit card, debit card.)  There are times when you simply need to have money on hand.  But, here's a simple idea I have that lets you bring your cards with you, yet still puts up a hurdle to curb impulse buying. When you're in a situation where you want to buy something, the card that's in your wallet/purse will be wrapped in your crafted ""reminder envelope.""  You'll see the reminder, which is hopefully enough.  Then, in order to make a purchase you'll need to tear it open.  That should get you to think twice. The one problem with the above is online purchases: If you have memorized your card information, add this rule for yourself:  No online purchases without the payment card present and visible.  (i.e. you also must tear open the envelope for online purchases.)" "In the end, this is really not a finance question. It's about changing one's habits. (One step removed, however, since you are helping a friend and not seeking advice for yourself).  I've learned a simple cause & effect question - Does someone who wants (goal here) do (this current bad habit)? For example, someone with weight to lose is about to grab the chips to sit and watch TV. They should quickly ask themselves ""Does a healthy, energetic person sit in front of the TV eating chips?""  The friend needs to make a connection between the expense he'd like to save up for and his current actions. There's a conscious decision in making the takeout purchase, he'd rather spend the money on that meal than to save .5% (or whatever percent) of the trip's cost.   If he is clueless in the kitchen, that opens another discussion, one in which I'd remark that on the short list of things parents should teach their kids, cooking is up there. My wife is clueless in the kitchen, I taught our daughter how to be comfortable enough to make her own meals when she wants or when she's off on her own. If this is truly your friend's issue, you might need to be a cooking spirit guide to be successful." Apart from what others have contributed.  Look at all your usual spendings. Can they be cheaper? (Telephone, Electricity, Gas, Car, Mortgage, Loans, Insurance...) Whenever you are tempted to buy anything, ask yourself: Do I need this? If the answer is 'Yes' go ahead and buy (food, basically). Otherwise, restrain yourself. Most things in life can be bought cheaper. Most things in shops are useless. For example, how many pairs of shoes do you need? You can drink water from the tab. You don't have to go to restaurants or bars, and if you do, you could budget yourself to some amount. If the restaurant is more expensive, walk. My 0,02€ When you're selling something through a provider, like Craig's List or newspapers, the only thing that may limit your choices is the provider. They may refuse your post if it's against their rules or the law. But luckily they usually don't limit or enforce certain payment choices.  These private business providers have the right to do so if they want. You don't need to be their customer. They may state their terms for using the service and even refuse service (before any payment is made).  The fun part is that you may do so as well. Just remember to state your terms in your post so the prospective buyers are aware of them. I've found it best to put payment and delivery terms in separate lines so that they are easily noticeable, for example: Nice victorian handbasket with gold embroidery, only used once. Signed by the original author. Comes with a certificate of authenticity. No delivery, only cash payments. If your goal is to make it harder for you to use to make impulse purchases then YES.  Having to always have cash for purchases will make you less likely to make impulse purchases you don't really need. Perhaps you take it a step further and go cash only.  Cash only will make it just another step harder to spend your cash. Also split your money into multiple accounts.  Checking that auto pays bills, a savings, and an investment account. You have to want to change to change.  Post a blog and public calendar with your expenses and that might make you think twice about spending your money.  If you don't want to tell everybody else, maybe you don't spend it. Perhaps see a shrink too.  You need help identifying patterns before you do them, and having insight into your motivations could help.  I am not saying go forever, but perhaps a few sessions or a couple of months.  You might be addicted to spending.  Join a group and talk about it. So I am in this position with my grandmother and she is in her late 90s and wants to give us some of her things. There are some items I would want, but there are a lot of other things that I don't want. So when she wants to give me things now, I have to be delicate about it. I don't want to be inundated with everything and the things I would want now she is still using so I will happily wait. I agree with the first poster- the first step is to measure your spending and put it down into raw numbers. Once you have the raw numbers, you will feel a natural inclination to improve on those numbers. Set yourself a daily target for cash / incidental expenses. It doesnt have to be a crazy target - just something you can achieve easily. Mark a 'tick' mark next to every day on the calendar that you meet that target (or spend less than the target). Gradually the momentum from the past few 'ticks' will automatically compel you to want to tick off the next day.  At the end of each week, lower the target a little. You'll find that when you start measuring your expenditure, you become more aware of how you might be wasting money. All too often we just go out and buy stuff we don't need without really thinking about it. Yeah, fuck those hippies, making you shop at stores you don't want to and buy products you don't want to.  Tip 1: grab from the back for perishables. Tip 2: pretty sure they'll do a refund or exchange on about anything for about any reason.  Never tried it, though I have also been burned by early mold. Since you ask.... How do I do it? My frugality doesn't come from budgeting or even half so much from keeping money away from myself (though mostly-one-way retirement accounts help). It's a matter of world-view. Spending and shopping for things you don't need is a vice. Limit your indulgence in it. I've also made wasteful purchases in my life. When I find myself considering buying something that I don't really need, I ask myself whether it will end up like... like the stupid eyeglass cleaner gadget from the Sharper Image that I used twice. Or the Bluetooth earpiece that spent 98% of its time lost and .02% of its time in my ear. Or the little Sony VAIO laptop which was great on the train, but probably cost 8 times as much as an EeePC and didn't do way too much more. (In my defense on that one, it was just before netbooks were really taking off... but I still felt bad about it the next year). I've also got two savings goals. The first is responsible and very big (financial stability: a year's expenses plus money for a down payment on a house. a California house. in a good neighborhood.) The second is personal and just medium-big (a large musical instrument). I've decided not to spend money on the second until I'm financially stable and I have enough money to take care of the first... so that makes me more willing to scrimp and save to pursue the first than I would be otherwise. Advice for others? Ask yourself: Why are you buying that thing? You can survive without it, can't you? You didn't need it a week ago, did you? Does the old one have holes in it or something? Or will you at least use it regularly, for years? Why aren't you buying the cheaper kind? Or buying it used? "There is also the very simple fact that cash is a *significantly* self-limiting thing: you are limited in amount you can spend on any give day to the cash you have on hand -- this along makes you either reticent to spend it, forces you to spread your purchases (or forgo one in order to enable another), and/or requires additional planning to spend larger amounts.  Conversely, most debit &amp; credit cards while they also have some limits on them, enable far more free spending.  So whether the spending of cash is a negative ""painful"" reaction, or really just an awareness that their available resource is being reduced, would be a better question.  After all, similar things are seen in other things that have short-term physical limits: smokers tend to smoke cigarettes more quickly at the beginning of a new pack, and tend to space out the intervals between them as the pack empties; likewise with other resources (food, beer, soda) within a home -- if/when the supply is abundant, we tend to gorge &amp; snack, as the available supply decreases, we cut back."