In this week's episode, we are discussing 5 questions to ask yourself before purchasing. Questioning your spending will help you be more intentional with your money.
Welcome to the Balanced FI Podcast, episode 21! Thank you so much for listening in!
This episode dives into 5 quick questions to ask yourself before buying, including examples:
RESOURCES:
Read: 5 Quick Questions to Ask Yourself Before Purchasing
Read: 4 Ways to Be Intentional With Your Money
Read: 10 Ways to Make Saving Money Fun
SOURCES:
Recommended: Fifteen Minute Pizza Dough
📍 📍 Hey there, this is episode 21 of the Balance Five podcast. Five quick questions to ask yourself before purchasing. Welcome to the Balance Five podcast, where we talk about balancing intentional debt payoff, saving money, and actually living your life. I'm yourHost, RaLea . Small business owner, wife, girl mom, non profit co founder, and money nerd.
This is an audio version of the Balanced Five blog, because I know how hard it is to find time to sit down and read literally anything. Instead, you can get quick bits of money knowledge on the go. I want to help you learn to control your money, instead of letting your money control you. Let's get started.
Purchasing what, you might ask? The answer? Is anything. Keep these questions in mind to ask yourself before purchasing pretty much anything, even if it is only two or three dollars. Money is a hard topic to tackle because there's so much baggage and emotion wrapped up in it. To change your financial future, you have to change your spending habits.
Changing your habits means being intentional about what you purchase. Having a list of questions to ask yourself before purchasing will help you to be intentional. I know it is so easy to fall into bad habits or buy things without really thinking about the consequences. It's also hard when you're all or nothing about saving money, paying off debt, or other goals.
You need to find a balance between living your life and changing those goals. It's not going to be easy or perfect, but small steps are still an improvement. Keep these questions front of your mind to ask yourself before purchasing. So you can download any of the images in the blog post to use as a phone wallpaper when you're really serious about changing your habits.
There is a link to the blog post in the show notes. Look at your phone when you're shopping or in a store to remind yourself of these questions. Just click and hold on the image you like, then save it to your photo folder on your phone. Set it as the home or lock screen background so it's always in your face and keeping you from spending too much.
The questions to ask yourself before purchasing start with number one, is this a want or a need? Are you going to die, lose your job, or harm others without this thing? Clothing is a need. 200 jeans are not. Shelter is a need. A 3, 000 square foot house is not. Be honest with yourself when answering this question.
If you can truly afford those expensive jeans or that big house, that's fine. But if you're breaking your budget or not being able to buy groceries because of these things, you need be honest with yourself and re evaluate. This doesn't mean you should cheap out all the time, though, either. If you can afford it, quality items usually do last longer.
My husband has to wear steel toed shoes for work, so we plan to buy him these stupid 200 boots every couple of years. There are definitely much cheaper alternatives, but these ones last through the many miles he walks. Some days he walks like 15 miles at work. All of that said, he only has one pair of work boots, which are a need, even though having two might be more convenient at times, because that's a want.
Number two, does this align with my bigger financial goals? Ask yourself before purchasing, does this impact my goals? How much will this purchase set me back or delay me? Would I rather be debt free or have this thing, whatever it is? I can't tell you what your answer should be. We all have different priorities and I truly believe it is important to balance life and money goals.
Where that violence lies is up to you, but you need to recognize the boundary. My family is deep in debt payoff mode, but we still decided to take on new debt to pay for our dog's unexpected surgery. Unfortunately, she didn't live long after the surgery, but my husband and I both still agree that we had to take that chance.
Trying to prolong our beloved pet's life was more important than our goal of debt freedom.
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Question number three. Do I have something similar already? Do you already have something that is basically the same thing? Or do you really need the twelfth pair of identical black leggings? So since I have two daughters, I almost never buy the younger one new clothes. Granted, they're both still young enough to go along with hand me downs and they just wear what they have available, but they both have perfectly fine wardrobes.
That means that there's a good chance that my younger daughter already has a clothing item similar to the cute one that I'm buying on the Target app, and that makes it easier for me to say no.
Question four. Is it worth this number of work hours? While considering whether or not you should make a purchase, do some quick mental math. Divide the cost of the item by the hourly rate that you make at your job. If the purchase isn't worth that number of hours of your time, walk away. For example, my husband recently purchased a hunting backpack that I honestly would never pay that much for.
He did use his spending money, so it's not up to me. But he determined that this specific backpack was worth 18 and a half hours of work. and he's happy with his purchase. He'll use it for days long hunting trips for many years, to haul supplies and the meat that feeds our family. So it's worth it to spend more to find exactly what works for him.
After his first outing with that pack, he was convinced of his worth, of its worth. It didn't hurt his back and his shoulders nearly as much as his old pack did. In contrast, this spring I was researching indoor cycling bikes for months. I had been eyeing one that is pretty expensive new, you've probably heard of it, and it has a lot of features, and I finally decided that it just isn't worth the 26 hours of work it would take for me to purchase it.
Instead, I found a cheaper used model that is the equivalent of just 10 hours of work. For a stay at home mom who doesn't have a paid job, feel free to use a hundred dollars per hour because your job is hard. Just kidding. But remember that what you do does have value too. So when you're evaluating a purchase, take that into consideration.
And the last question is, could I make this myself? So I ask myself this question often when it comes to food, because I'm not crafty in any way, but I can cook. If you have some skills, you could probably also ask this question in relation to home decor, clothing, or sewn goods. I am often tempted to go through a drive thru when I'm driving my kids to and from appointments.
I stave off that temptation by thinking about the snacks available at home and drinking water. I have a 40 ounce water bottle that it's awesome to have that much water on hand, even though it does tend to crush my wrist when I try to carry it one handed. Now, I can't make delicious greasy french fries at home, but I can grab a handful of salted cashews instead and learn to accept the differences.
I also make pizza at home pretty frequently, rather than ordering takeout or delivery pizzas. The quality is more reliable, and it saves a lot of money. I haven't perfected breadsticks, but I do make some pretty good pizza with a pizza crust recipe that's linked in the show notes. It's super easy. I do add a teaspoon of garlic powder for extra flavor.
Remember to ask yourself before purchasing. We all make so many decisions every single day that it can quickly get overwhelming. It's easier to just follow our habits, even if that means clicking buy now or grabbing a quick dinner from the grocery store. Habits are a huge part of our lives. To overcome your less than great money habits, you have to retrain your brain.
Here are a few tips to help with that. Make it harder to shop online by deleting your saved credit cards from your favorite websites and apps. I what are the chances that you're going to get up and walk across the room to where your wallet is if you're just buying, some cheap 5 t shirt that's going to fall apart in a week anyway.
Enforce a 24 hour rule, add whatever the heck you want to buy to the shopping cart online, and then wait at least 24 hours before checking out. If you still want the item at that point, go ahead and buy it. You can make this a little more intense, if it's over, say a hundred dollars, you have to wait a week or you have to discuss it with your spouse or partner.
Just make sure that you're really putting thought into what you're buying. Next up, don't shop when you're feeling feelings, especially if you're an emotional shopper. When you're sad, frustrated, upset, or bored, buying things can make you feel better. Temporarily. Pay attention to your emotions when you are deciding whether or not to make a purchase.
And back off if you're feeling things right then. If your usual commute takes you past a coffee shop or a fast food restaurant that you frequently stop at, change your route. Make it inconvenient for you to make that stop by also putting your wallet in the backseat of your car. Making little changes like that to make it harder to spend money will probably keep you from spending money.
I know how hard it can be to change your money mindset and habits, but it is possible. You can do this. Just remember to slow down, think about your intended purchase, and ask yourself those five quick questions. To recap, the five questions to ask yourself before making a purchase are, Is this a want or a need?
Does this align with my bigger financial goals? Do I have something similar already? Is it worth this number of work hours? Could I make this myself? What should you do next? You can choose from three image downloads in the blog post. Just download the image and save it to your phone to serve as a reminder when you're shopping.
Each of the images has the five questions listed out for you. Keep these questions in mind when you are ready to spend money, or even if you're just tempted. It's not always going to be easy, but you can retrain your brain to question your purchases automatically. Thank you for listening to this episode.
If you enjoy the Balance Fi podcast, I'd be so grateful if you left us a review on iTunes or told a friend. As always, you can head to balancedfi. com to connect with me and stay in touch. I'm on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter at balancedfi. Until next time, stay intentional and look for balance.