After reading this article you will learn How to Spend Less and Save More Money When Shopping.
You’ve just received another salary and your hands itch. The next thing you want to do is to start spending the money.
If at all you must buy things you need, let’s both look at how to spend less and save more money.
Another Black Friday season is here.
There are great deals everywhere and we all have the urge to shop for almost everything.
I can see 50% discounts or more on almost every product in stock.
But that is not enough of a reason to empty your bank account and get broke.
Meanwhile, it would be hard for me to tell you what to buy and what not to buy since I don’t know why you need what you want.
To avoid being broke when Black Friday is over, you need to properly prepare a budget to control your spending.
In view of this, I want to show you how to spend less when shopping.
It’s very possible for you to spend less than you earn and still make more great deals.
Black Friday shopping, for example, isn’t about the discounts but how much you’re able to save when the season is over.
When you have the urge to spend your money, it might be hard to hold back and do nothing.
That is why most people with this spending habit need this guide.
The aim is to guide you on how to spend less and save more money when shopping.
You can’t be too sure that money will keep coming.
In the last few months, we have seen so many people losing their jobs unexpectedly.
No one likes this.
But when it happens, you must go on with life.
For this reason, it won’t be a bad idea to save and invest your money to prepare for any uncertainty.
Even if you never get broke, you’re going to find great tips to shop less in this guide.
This can help you grow your wealth.
Table of Contents
How to spend less and save more
There are many ways to improve your saving habits and start spending less than you earn.
So, in this guide, you’ll discover the best way to spend less than you earn and also know how to invest your money so it won’t just be in the bank taking the fresh air.
This includes five good strategies to overcome the urge to spend your money unreasonably and invest in something more profitable.
Limit your access to funds
Limiting your access to your money gives you the ability to spend less than you earn.
This strategy can equally make you save more money in your account.
Denying yourself access to your money doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pay your rent or put food on the table for your family.
It will curb you if shopping is your hobby.
Failing to provide for the family can cause another problem that you don’t want. So, I’m not teaching you to be stingy.
In my childhood, my dad would tell me that I was extravagant.
To instill this “spend less and save more” idea into my orientation, he seized my passbook and restricted me from having access to my bank account.
I wasn’t happy with his approach until the day he told me he was only helping me to be self-sustained.
How was he helping me, when I couldn’t buy as many toys and excess school uniforms as my colleagues did?
When you don’t spend, the little you have doesn’t only remain in your account but also grows. Said, my father.
At the end of the year when I checked my account balance and saw how much I was able to save in just six months, I realized my dad was actually helping me.
However, saving your money and denying yourself access to it isn’t a bad Idea.
When some people want to show off, they spend lavishly and never mind emptying their bank accounts.
They get it wrong if their definition of a rich man is someone who has money now and after a moment has a zero balance.
That’s why you would see someone borrowing money to throw a party and after the party he is broke.
You can’t eat your cake and have it.
The money you save is yours, not the one you spend.
You can’t compare someone who spends his money to the other who invests his and at the end of the day has more.
Rich people are determined by their net worth or their accumulated income.
This doesn’t mean rich people don’t spend.
The difference is that while one spends, the other invests.
And from the profit that the latter makes, he buys things he needs.
What the rich people do is to first deny themselves of something they need and invest their money in a business.
And when the business yields profit, they use the profit to get luxuries for themselves.
So, if you deny yourself access to your fund, you’ll have enough money to invest.
And from the business, you’ll have a recurring profit with which you can buy all the things you need later
This is one of the secrets of how rich people grow their fortunes.
Apply the Boots theory
Out of my curiosity, I came across the boots theory by Captain Samuel Vimes, who broke the top secrets of billionaires.
The reason that the rich were so rich, was because they managed to spend less money. Samuel Vimes.
The boots theory is a theory of unfair spending, which suggests that buying quality over quantity can help reduce spending habits.
In a save more, spend less strategy, the theory reveals the ways and manners we overspend while trying to economize.
Assuming you and your friend go shopping and each of you buys a pair of boots.
If you go for a cheap boot at $20 and your friend goes for the quality boot at $50, you’ll be the one hurting yourself.
Since it is believed that a $20 boot is inferior to $50 in most cases, you might have to replace your cheap boot every four months and at the end of the year spend $60 in total.
Hence, buying fake products can make you spend above your budget in the long run.
In order to spend less and save more, boots theory holds that when you buy quality, you’ll save more money.
And only then, you can improve your spending and saving habits.
Buy things you need
Often times when we shop while there are ongoing bonanza or sales promos, we end up buying more than what we need.
Take for instance, if you go to a shop and discover you could buy three pairs of socks and get one free, you’ll be tempted to opt for the offer when you only need a pair of socks.
That means you’ll spend more than what you have on your budget. Hence, your finances will be negatively affected.
Things you need can negatively affect your well-being if you don’t get them, but things you want don’t.
In this circumstance, you don’t have to take the bait and buy more than what you need.
If you buy things you don’t need, soon you’ll sell things you need. Warren Buffet
So, you need to set your priorities right.
Prioritizing your needs can help you focus on your needs rather than your wants and reduce your spending habits.
Sometimes, spending on your needs can cost you more than you want at a time.
But because your needs are met based on priority, you’ve not made a wrong decision.
In the long run, your annual expenses won’t tear your budget.
Don’t be a brand loyalist
Having a soft spot for a particular brand can be costly.
That happens when you see a Microsoft product that has the basic specifications for your needs but go for Apple.
If you really want to know how to spend less and save more money, you won’t have to be a loyalist to Apple.
Most popular brands only improve on names, they don’t offer more value than their counterparts.
You could be fooling yourself by showing interest in a popular and expensive brand just to flaunt.
There are several brands in the market that match the expensive ones.
Just because some of these products are not popular doesn’t mean they’re inferior.
Do a good comparative analysis of all brands in the range of the product you desire and buy the one that has the basic features you need.
Pay attention to sales promotions
Paying attention to sales promotions is another best way to spend less than you earn.
When sales go down, most companies offer sales promotions to motivate consumers.
Sales promotions usually happen during the festive periods, most especially towards the end of the year.
Showing interest in this kind of offer can also help you save more and spend less.
To know if there is an ongoing bonanza or promotion in your area, you have to pay attention to news and advertisements both online and offline.
There’re different types of sales promotions that can benefit you greatly.
These include:
- Discounts
- Gifting
- Coupons
- Recurring promos etc.
Discounts – This is the most common sales promotion. You can get a lot of this online.
Next time you want to shop, ensure the store you’re patronizing has something good for you.
Gifting – This is offered during festive periods like Christmas and New Year when people desire to exchange gifts with family and friends.
Companies also apply these tactics to strengthen customer relations.
Coupons – This is used when companies realize that their prices are too higher than normal.
Instead of bringing down the prices, they offer sales coupons to their potential customers. Thus sales coupons are a form of incentivizing the customers.
Recurring Promos – This includes promotions that recur regularly.
They’re such that customers are already looking out for them as the period is fast approaching.
These include Cyber Monday, Black Friday, Back to School Sales, and so on.
Other sales promotional services to help you minimize your spending habits include “buy one and get one free”, “cash back and rebates”, exhibitions, trade fairs, exchange offers and free trials, and so on.
To get the most out of a promotional offer, you have to be prepared for it. You can delay your shopping activities until the season is on.
This will make you buy a lot of things at a very low rate.
Conclusion
There’s nothing happening in your life that has no effect on your finances.
If your lifestyle makes you spend more than you earn, you’ll definitely have problems with your finances.
To improve your saving habits, you now have the best tips to spend less and save more.
In this guide on how to spend less and save more, we have discussed how companies incentivize their customers.
Leveraging sales promotions is a good way to spend less when shopping.
But if care isn’t taken you might end up being broke when the season is over.
I have explained five good “save more and spend less” strategies that can help you reduce your spending habits, live a normal life and grow your wealth tremendously.
If you can find a way to implement these strategies, no matter how small your income is, what makes sense most is to see it grow.
Based on these strategies, the rich save and invest their money in businesses while the poor spend theirs on luxury and live on loans.
Consequently, the rich become richer and the poor become poorer.
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