I’ve caught myself getting into a nasty habit lately – spitting.
For some reason, any time I’m near water of any kind (sink, bath, shower) my body automatically wants to unload the saliva in my mouth as if I’m in a spitting competition with the world’s feistiest llama.
It’s been going on for a few years now, but yesterday for whatever reason I decided I finally wanted it to stop and had a weird thing happen the second I had the next urge:
I literally told myself – out loud – to just “don’t do it” as if that would magically do the trick. And it worked! It just came out of my mouth without thinking and I haven’t slung spit since!
Of course, 24 hours is way too early to tell if I’m cured or not (and more than likely, it’s only working because the physical act of saying the words out loud prevents me from spitting in the first place – hah), but it reminded me a lot of shopping and how it’s actually pretty easy to just stop that too and start saving if you really wanted to.
As my friend Derek Olsen likes to say (who recently stopped blogging – dang you!), it’s pretty simple figuring out how to save money: just get rid of the “how to” ?
Silly, yes, but effective. In order to save money all you have to do is not go out of your way to spend it! A lazy person’s wet dream! In fact, “going out of your way” might even be an understatement.
Here’s a list of what’s actually involved any time you pick up something from a store:
- first, you need to go out and earn enough money to buy the thing (factoring in 30%+ on top of the purchase price since your paycheck is after-tax)
- then, you need to research the thing and find out where the best deal and quality is
- then you need to drive to the place to pick up this best deal/quality thing
- then you need to find the thing in the store
- then you have to wait in line to purchase the thing
- then you need to drive all the way back home to unwrap the thing
- and then, finally, you get to enjoy the thing!
For 5 minutes…
- then you have to maintain the thing
- and then forget about the thing as it transforms to clutter
- then get annoyed by the thing as it turns to emotional clutter
- and then, eventually, sell/donate/trash/box up the thing where it’s finally gone from your life forever!
Until you pick up the next thing.
Or, you could have just not bought the thing in the first place and saved the hassle & money ?
A simplified breakdown, yes, but something to think about if you’re serious about stacking cash.
What if you just stopped shopping? What would change? How would you feel? What would your bank account look like?
If it’s too much to ponder for the long term, try it out for a day. For the next 24 hours don’t buy a single thing and see what happens. If you succeed, try it out for another day and keep going until it stings!
This money stuff really isn’t that complicated. Sometimes the answer is literally just doing nothing.
