10 Secrets To Curbing Your Appetite For Stuff

If I gave you a sheet of paper and asked you to list all the things you really wanted right now, how many could you come up with? Five? Ten? None? Chances are there are quite a few things on your spending radar. Some of the things you need, but most of them you want. It’s OK; you’re human.

We all sort of walk around with an idea of things we like to replace, or upgrade, or add to our lives. If these things add value to our lives then planning for their purchase is not necessarily a bad thing. It is the impulse purchases of stuff that get us into trouble.
Secrets To Curbing Your Appetite For Stuff

1. Unsubscribe to catalogs. A friend of mine in college griped incessantly about being broke. He also subscribed to every catalog under the sun. In any given week I bet he received 10 catalogs on sportswear, hunting and fishing gear, golfing equipment, etc. And then he would salivate over the things he saw in the catalog. Easy fix; cancel the stupid catalogs.

2. Get a TiVo and skip the commercials. When I bought my TiVo a couple years ago I felt a twinge of guilt over the purchase - after all, DVR is still kind of a luxury. But now I’m convinced it has actually saved me time and money. Not only can we motor through a half-hour show in twenty minutes, but we can skip all the commercials, too.

3. Ignore unreal media examples. While on the subject of television, ignore examples in the media of entertainers living lavish lifestyles without putting in an ounce of real work. I’m always amused by soap operas where the main character is depicted as a policeman or detective and lives in a multi-million dollar home. I have family members in law enforcement, and I can tell you that they are grossly underpaid for the work they do, and there is no way they could afford such a lifestyle.

4. Don’t hang out with materialistic people. Friends influence purchasing decisions more than any amount of corporate advertising ever could. For this reason, avoid hanging out with people wrapped up in their clothes, their cars and their expensive homes, or you will start to feel the need to keep up with them. Better to let the “Jones” keep up with themselves. For the other 6 secrets.