Courtney L Sanders

Watch Video

Listen to podcast

$60. $70. $130.These are real amounts of money I used to spend every time I walked into Target. What would start off as a quick trip to pick up something basic — razors, toilet paper, hair conditioner — would turn into a 2 hour cruise up and down those brightly colored aisles as I loaded impulse purchase after impulse purchase into my cart.I don’t know what it is about Target — maybe its the racks and racks of OPI nail polish or the fact that they consistently feature smiling, curly-haired black women on all their in-store advertising — but that place HYPNOTIZES me! I would go in for a toothbrush and come out with jewelry, hair products, notebooks, underwear, candles, throw pillows, and scarves.It didn’t take long for me to realize this habit couldn’t continue. It was bad enough to spend money I hadn’t planned on spending but worst of all, I noticed I wasn’t able to afford the things I really wanted.Now don’t get me wrong — my bills were always paid and I didn’t have to dip into savings or anything. But my fun money — the $200 or so I had set aside until my next paycheck was consistently being eaten up by purchases I could barely remember!

Random Stuff I Used to Waste Money On

Here’s a small sampling of the random stuff I used to buy at Target and other stores, totally on impulse:

Decorative notebooks
Yoga pants
Nail polish
Candles
Nicknacks from Anthropologie
Shoes at Nordstrom Rack
Hair products at the back of TJ Maxx

All this stuff really started to add up!

Stuff I Wanted to Buy But Didn’t Have the Money For

What made matters worse was I was continually out of free money for the month and couldn’t afford to buy the stuff I really wanted. Some of the items I either missed out on or took forever to finally buy were:

Needed wardrobe items (like a winter coat)
A new printer/scanner combo
Plane tickets to visit out-of-state friends
Needed software for my Macbook
Blogging courses

Putting an End to Wasteful Spending

After finally getting sick of not having enough money for the stuff I truly wanted, I came up with this very simple and practical idea:

Keep a wishlist and stick to it.

In other words, I refused to spend my “fun” money on anything that wasn’t on my wish list, and I was ruthless about making sure my wish list contained the things I genuinely wanted only.Now before I get into how to make and use wish lists, a few ground rules:1. You should already have a budget and an allotted amount of free money every month. If you don’t have a budget OR you don’t really have any free money because you’re trying to get out of debt, then don’t worry about any of this. Just focus on getting your financial situation together for now.2. You should already be saving regularly. If you don’t devote a significant portion of your income (at least 10%) to a savings account every month, then you really don’t have extra “fun” money. Devote any free cash you have to building your savings account for now.3. Do not spend more than your allotted amount of free money on your “wants” in a given month. The tips I’m about to share are not an excuse to go out and buy a ton of stuff you want but can’t afford!Remember, these tips are to help you focus your “fun” money on items that truly mean something to you versus junk. Okay, here’s how to do make and use wish lists to stop wasting money:

Keep a Wishlist and Follow It

Keep a running wish list for all your major “wants”. I keep my wish list in the workflowy.com app, because its easy to keep track and make changes to your lists, but you can just keep track in a notebook if you want. The point is to capture all the things that, if you had the money, you’d want to spend it on. Some things currently on my wish list are:

Dark denim skinny jeans (I wear mine to death and get these awful holes in the crotch)
Weekend getaway trip to Austin
Tickets to a conference this summer
Perfume
Converse sneakers
Professional wash and detail for my car

Be careful not to add random things to your wish list that you sort of want but don’t really care about. Be relatively selective — only add things that you would be willing to save up for. (More on that later.)Prioritize each item on the list by how bad you want it. Next, go ahead an prioritize everything on your wishlist by most to least wanted. For me, that looks like:

Tickets to a conference this summer
Dark denim skinny jeans
Converse sneakers
Professional wash and detail for my car
Weekend getaway trip to Austin
Perfume

Order your list by what you genuinely want most, don’t worry if it makes sense to other people. It’s your money you are spending and this list is for you. Be honest with yourself.MOST IMPORTANT STEP: When you get free money, do not spend it on anything other than the first item on your wishlist!If you don’t have enough money to purchase your wish list item, save your "fun" money every month until you do. This is the key to eliminating spending on things you don’t care about — only spend your free money on the things you genuinely want!

How to Handle Impulse Purchases

The genius in this little method is it eliminates impulse spending. By saving and devoting your fun money to items you actually want, you no longer have to worry about frittering your money away on junk.That said, there will be times when you see something really cute and you are on the verge of an impulse buy. When that happens simply do this:

Don’t buy the item
Add the item to your wish list

Even if it’s something trivial like a bottle of nail polish, add it to your wish list versus buying it on impulse. When you see it listed next to something you really want — say a nice handbag or a weekend getaway with the girls, chances are you won’t want it that bad anyway.And if you genuinely, truly want that would-be impulse buy after a few days, simply move the item to the top of your wish list. Next time you get some fun money, go ahead and buy your beloved item. The point is to always devote your free money to what you truly want — only you can make that determination. The wishlist method just helps keep you on track.

***