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How to fight the temptation to spend money you don't have

I'm fighting the urge to buy new carpeting.
(Merelize/FreeRangeStock.com)

When I did some online research on this topic, most of what I found involved impulse buys in a department store — handbags, dresses, and shoes. Those have never really been a problem for me. I avoid overspending on those items by avoiding the department store altogether. Problem solved.

Well, almost. I do still have to fight the temptation to spend money I don't have, but it's on more pricey items than a new handbag (well, the kind of handbags I'd buy, anyway). No, I have to fight the temptation to upgrade my computer or smartphone. When I find out we might have a little extra cash coming up, rather than thinking, "Hey, we can pay off X credit card!" I think, "I wonder if that's enough to replace the living room carpet."

Don't get me wrong. We could use new carpet. My husband and I have lived in this house for nearly 16 years, and we've never replaced the carpet. Also, our kitchen floor is very dated, too, and has a few holes in it where the previous homeowner had dropped a hot pan or two. But both items, while not the most attractive, are in OK shape. I've seen a lot worse.

So what's the best way to fight off the urge to splurge?

Among other tips, Dave Ramsey recommends:
  1. Make a budget, and stick to it. 
  2. Put a little "fun money" in your budget. Allow yourself to make a few fun purchases to minimize your desire to go crazy.
  3. Don't shop when you're emotional. I've done my share of shopping to feel better. It never works but for some reason, I think it will help in the moment.
  4. Don't join a bunch of email lists. This is no problem for me, even though I'm on tons of email lists. I just never open them. I get far too many to really care what's in them.
  5. Stop comparing yourself to others. I've definitely been guilty of this, though as I get older, the bouts of doing so get fewer and far between. But it's still there on some levels. For instance, I want new carpet because what I have is old and dirty, and I don't want people who stop by for a visit to think, "Wow, that carpet looks awful." It has more to do with what others think than really making comparisons.
U.S. News & World Report lists a few apps that can help curb impulse spending online. One example is Ice, a Google Chrome plug-in that converts the buy button on 500 or so major retail sites to a button to put the purchase "on ice" for three days to a month.

The U.S. News article says financial behaviorist Jacquette M. Timmons, the author of Financial Intimacy: How to Create a Healthy Relationship with Your Money and Your Mate, recommends what she calls "roll call." In this exercise, the consumer looks at each purchase to see which items were unplanned and unnecessary. Then he or she converts the dollar amount for those purchases into a year's worth of spending. For instance, if I spend $30 in a week on crap I don't need, that's the equivalent of spending $1,560 in a year's time on crap I don't need.

I think the "roll call" method could be worth trying out. Perhaps looking at it that way could help me make the more frugal choice between cooking dinner at home or buying something on the go. The biggest problem will be sticking with it.
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