Here's a trick I've been using for the past year to control impulse spending.

[bryony]

I struggle keeping a long term perspective on my budget on a day to day basis. In the past this lead to making a series of large impulse buys without considering the month-to-month impact on my budget, resulting in me rapidly racking up CC debt. After several years of trying to pay down my CC debt before quickly racking it back up, I figured out a relatively successful method for controlling my impulse purchases. The caveat is that it only works when I remember to use it.

The method works by forcing me to view purchases as a series of monthly payments over different pay periods. I set up a spread sheet where I enter various information about purchases I want to make and it automatically fills in the cost per month I would need to commit to for 6, 12, 18, and 24 months if I were to save up. Screenshot.

Additionally, because the larger purchases rarely happen in isolation, I added the ability to group purchases together in order to see how they add up. I have a second set of columns that read in the group ID column and add together the info for relevant individual items. Screenshot

Obviously this isn't a new technique, but I wanted to provide it as a tip for people like me who struggle with controlling impulse buys and keeping a long term perspective day-to-day. I've provided the formulas for the two sets of columns below:

Individual items formulas​

...
H
...
K L M N 3 Amount
...
6 12 18 24 4
=E4*G4
...
=($F4-$H4)/K$3
=($F4-$H4)/L$3
=($F4-$H4)/M$3
=($F4-$H4)/N$3

Purchase Group Formulas​

...
R S T U V W X 3 Total MSRP Total Price After Discounts Total Spent 6 12 18 24 4
=SUMIFS(E$4:E$200,A$4:A$200,$P4)
=SUMIFS(F$4:F$200,$A$4:$A$200,$P4)
=SUMIFS(J$4:J$200,$A$4:$A$200,$P4,I$4:I$200,"Yes")
=$S4/U$3
=$S4/V$3
=$S4/W$3
=$S4/X$3

 

[soap94]

@bryony My problem is spending on dining out and bars with friends/families. If I would just be a lot more frugal and eat out once or twice a week I suspect I can save 200-250 a week

 

[bryony]

@soap94 I still struggle with this. For me the (imperfect) solution so far has been a combination of the following:

• Meal prep. I'm lazy as hell, so I do as much meal prep as I can force myself to do. Usually that involves making a big batch of crock-pot chilli since that involves the least amount of work. In a 6-quart pot I can make enough food for 10-14 meals. Just making food for lunch saved me an enormous amount of money.
• Rounding up on my food bills. Everytime I go out, when I'm looking at the prices, I just round everything up to the next multiple of $10. This helps me mentally keep track of approximate costs before ordering, but also reminds me to pick cheaper food items.
• Monthly Dining Budget = (# of times I want to go out)*(average cost of dinner & drinks). I figured out that the average cost of dinner and drinks with friends in my city (1 entree + 2-3 drinks) is about $35-40 after tip. So when I set my dining budget for the month, I say I want to go out twice a week this month, so dining budget should be $320. Then when I go out I just say "This is my 2nd time going out this month, so I have 6 left" which is way easier than trying to remember that I have $240 left to spend on dining.
• Being more flexible when dining out. My friends go out way more than my budget allows for, so a solution I've worked out is that sometimes I'll eat dinner at home and then meet my friends for drinks. Or I'll have a beer or two at home and then get a single drink at the bar. Or maybe eat dinner and have one or two beers at home before meeting friends. This way I can increase the number of times I go out without needing to increase my dining budget.

Obviously this is still a work in progress for me, but over the past two years I've gone from $1000+ per month dining out to under $350 without needing to sacrifice socializing with my friends. Hope this helps.

 

[richgsr7]

@bryony You could save a lot of money or go out more often if you stopped drinking.

 

[bryony]

@richgsr7 I agree. However, I'm a beer lover who lives in Portland, Oregon so it's unlikely I'll manage to cut back on the habit while I live here.

 

[smetm33]

@bryony Nor should you (unless you are in dire financial circumstances). Saving money is definitely a good thing but so is spending it (reasonably) on the things that give you joy. So cheers, from one beer lover to another!

 

[royalpoet]

@soap94 So cutting out buying a drink at dinner will save you tons, most of the time your drinks will cost more than your food. Order water instead no one finds it weird. Cutting booze from my diet has helped me save a lot (in drinks and late night food) and I feel better physically as well. Now I won't say I don't get drinks for special occasions but I always limit it to one and a water.

 

[jeancommunicates]

@soap94 My God. My household budget, including wife & kids, is $200/month on restaurants/eating out (that includes ALL eating out or coffee). Last month we missed the budget by $9. We're off track this month currently $150, but that's for several people, too.

 

[bryony]

@jeancommunicates Speaking from experience, if /@soap94 lives in a major city (NYC, SF, LA, etc) $200-250 on dining out is very, very easy to achieve. NYC is an especially egregious example, a single night at a mid-tier bar where you order 3 drinks and an appetizer can cost $50-60 BEFORE tip and taxi/uber/lyft costs.

 

[soap94]

@bryony I live in Playa vista, my rent is $2400

 

[bryony]

@soap94

my rent is $2400

You have my condolences. That area near the marina is really nice though.

 

[resjudicata]

@bryony Plus, notice that whether strict or spendy, everyone talks about eating out "a few" times a month. Is "a few" 2 times? 5 times? 6 times? People here tend to hand-wave it away because they still eat at home most meals but one of these "a few"s costs 3x more than the other....

 

[resjudicata]

@jeancommunicates I mean, I spend

 

[beforebabel]

@jeancommunicates Can we swap wifes? Before I put the brakes on things, ours was $1000 a month. Granted we don't have kids, but yeah...

 

[bendavison]

@bryony Here is an easy rule of thumb I try to follow. Think about a large purchase (and shop around) for 5 min/$50. So, a $100 purchase would require 10 minutes of comparison shopping/contemplation. A $500 purchase would require 50 minutes of asking myself, "do I really need this"?

 

[abbagirl]

@bendavison I like this! I would probably spend more than 10 min thinking about the $100 purchase but the general idea here is cool. A similar thing is to take a picture of a big ticket (or, somewhat big ticket) item when you're out shopping and tempted to buy. Then you can go home, look at the picture, think about it and decide if you really need it. If you're still thinking about how much you need it (rather than want it) after a night or two, then you can go back and purchase. But the idea is that that very rarely happens.

 

[bryony]

@bendavison This is fantastic advice as well. My problem comes from simply not considering the purchase price of an item in terms of its monthly impact on my budget. Almost all of what I buy has been thoroughly compared and researched by the time I buy it, but for some reason monthly budgeting is something I just have trouble thinking about.

 

[lienbkhost]

@bryony Have you tried using the envelope method to budget? I use YNAB for convenience, but you could easily put together an excel.

 

[jessefrank]

@bryony i struggle with food, i literally eat out every day. i spent $600 on food last month

 

[ruben145]

@jessefrank What drives you to eating out so much? I've gotten to a point where I don't enjoy it as I should - and that's when you know it's going too far.