Source
r/Frugal•
hellweaver666

A tip from my nan (may she rest in peace)

Recently my nan passed away. During her funeral I remembered a little tip she gave me when I was young. One that I still use to this day...

When deciding whether or not to make a purchase ask yourself this, "Do I WANT this, or do I NEED it?". If it's a WANT, walk away. If you need it then it's ok.

I still ask myself this with every purchase I make. Sadly, because I'm quite comfortable financially at the moment, my childish brain will often take over and say "I want it, I can afford it, so fuck it, I'm buying it".

Posted Jan 20, 2013, 11:51 PM UTC

3610
kqr•

Just remember that the reason you're asking yourself this could be so that you sometimes have enough money to occasionally allow yourself things you want but don't need.

14
wyldeyez•

I save when I can, so I may spend when I want :)

5
TalesoftheMoth•

My favorite piece of advice from my Grandma and my old boss was "Use it up, wear it out. Make it do, or do without."

6
Ggeekboy•

The questions I asks myself are "Can I do without this?" then "Is there a better way of doing this?". The first question really is just "Do I NEED this?" but the second question is figuring out if this is the smartest choice. I might NEED a smartphone but is buying an iPhone 5 the best way of going about that? A lot of times too it helps me realized I don't really need something.

5
wyldeyez•

Sorry about your nan.

I am not a great frugality, but I strive to do this too, or I'll will walk around with it and finally decide 'I'd rather have $20' (or whatever the price may be).

2
greenimimi•

When I got my first job, my mom told me to think of things not as how much they cost is dollars but how much they cost in hours of work. Nothing stops you from wasting money on Starbucks faster then realizing that every drink costs at least an hour of work time.

2
charat•

A variation of this advice is, how does this want or purchase aid you with your goal?

It's important to have a goal and to stick by it. Good motivator but...

it's always the child inside of us that gets us :(

1
buhnuhnuh•

Yes! If my answer to the question is "want," I allow myself a month to see if I still want the item again before I try purchasing it. Surprisingly, you start to forget things you might have wanted during this period.

1
gaunten•

Reminds me of what my grandmother told me when I was a kid.

She once wanted to borrow some money from her uncle or something like that. it was only something like $100, but at the time, it was a lot of money.

His answer was: I won't loan you this money, I will give it to you, but I don't want you to buy something you want, neither do I want you to buy something you need, I want you to buy something that you absolutely cannot survive without.

Seemed a bit over the top for me though, but it's good to keep in mind sometimes, especially if one has a tight budget, which I'm guessing she had at the time.

1
reeksofhavoc•

Yeah I have to remind people of this all the time in my household.

No wants until February.

1