When my sister and I were little we used to have this wonderful game we would play. Mom would let us look through the Sears Toy Catalog just for fun. We would start at the beginning of the catalog and look at each page. I would place my finger on the picture of a toy that I wanted and I would say “that one”. Then my sister would select an item that she wanted and say “that one.” We would turn to the next page and each select our favorite toy again. Page by page we would go through the toy catalog until we reached the end of it. It was a great game, provided us with hours of entertainment, and didn’t cost a dime. It taught us an important lesson too, and that is you can want something but you don’t have to buy it.

Now that I am all grown up, I still enjoy looking at things without buying them. There are many ways to do this now, especially with all the resources of the internet. You can enjoy the picking out of something you would like, without actually making the purchase. If I had problems with impulse spending, though, I would not tempt myself.

Here are some ways I get rid of the shopping urge without spending any money.

Sometimes I enjoy shopping online, where I put items in the shopping cart but don’t purchase them. This reminds me of the game my sister and I played. It is also a great way to check prices including shipping fees and taxes. Often, purchasing items online is not cheaper once the additional charges are factored in.

I’ve also put items on Ebay on a “watch list”. I’ve done this several times while shopping for clothing for the children. I don’t let myself get caught up in the bidding and I’ve also found that sometimes looking at items again (or even a third or fourth time) makes me realize that I don’t really want those after all.

It’s fun to browse furniture catalogs to get ideas for how to arrange a room and to maximize accessories. Many times I’ve been inspired by a particular room layout and it’s allowed me to get a fresh look in my own home by moving the furniture around. Great way to get some exercise and not spend anything at the same time.

Reading the sale ads on the weekend with no intent of actually purchasing any of the items. It’s fun to keep up with trends, see what products are new, and identify items that look like they are heading for the clearance aisle.

If you liked this article, please
Subscribe

Share This

We recently cleaned out the garage and had been putting this chore off for quite a while now. It had become too much of a problem to ignore any more so we decided that we needed to address the situation. Toys that had been outgrown, clothing that no longer fit, and a hodge podge of other various and sundry items had been relegated to the garage and stacked in a haphazard and unsafe manner. Part of the underlying problem had been our thinking that we would save stuff up to have a garage sale or that we would list items on Ebay. But neither one of those things happened and the stuff piled up. When we could no longer fit one vehicle in the garage, we knew that the time had come to take action.

Feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of cleaning out the entire garage, we decided to take a multi step approach. Each of us would spend 15 to 20 minutes per day cleaning, discarding, and organizing the garage which would include determining items that we should keep and those we needed to get rid of. We found ourselves still having trouble getting rid of items because we kept debating “should we sell this on Ebay or have a garage sale?” However, after talking about it further, we decided that our overall goal was to get the garage cleaned out and not increase income, so we decided together that anything worthwhile would be donated. Once we made this decision, the cleaning and organizing became a lot easier. I was able to let go of a lot of clutter and now the garage is all cleaned and we can actually fit a car in it! We bagged up all the items that we no longer wanted and made a call to Salvation Army.

If you liked this article, please
Subscribe

Share This

Money For the Rest Of Us hosted this week’s Festival of Frugality. I’ve been in a very frugal mood lately, so I spent a lot of time reading all the articles. Here are some of my favorites:

The Simple Dollar discusses the bulk buying debate. We do purchase items in bulk to save money but it is always carefully weighed against how much storage space we have at the time.

The Digerati Life presents cheap ways to learn and feed your brain. Can’t beat the cost of the library (free) but be sure you return borrowed materials on time to avoid fines.

Saving Advice shares the 83 things you can do with a penny.

If you liked this article, please
Subscribe

Share This