The 30-day rule that can save you a ton of Money

There are so many ways to save money and by combining a variety of ways we can save a significant amount of cash. I love sharing tips and secrets of how to save money in the kitchen as I feel that is a place that anyone can really benefit from.

However, there’s one other way that is kind of top of my list when it comes to good ways to save cash.

Today I want to share with you a 30 day rule that has the ability to help give you some serious wiggle room in your budget.

THE 30 DAY RULE THAT WILL SAVE YOU MONEY

The 30 day rule that I like to apply goes like this: if you are in the store and you see something you want, you wait 30 days before you buy it.

That’s right – instead of impulsively buying the item off the shelf at that moment, you wait. You leave the store without it for the time being. Don’t worry, you can go back and get it in 30 days if you want.

How will this save you money if you can just go back and buy the item in 30 days?

Well, you see, many times in the moment we often feel like we need something we see on the shelf in the store. So we pull out our wallet and shell out some cash for it. We excitedly bring it home and use it for a few weeks, or if we are lucky, maybe a few months.

And then we stop.

We let it collect dust. We forget about it. It’s not so shiny anymore. And the happiness it brought us those first few weeks seems to have disappeared.

Frankly, if we truly thought about it, at that point we’d rather the money back instead of the item we bought. And we’re already looking for the next thing that we can buy that will bring us momentary happiness that is usually very short-lived.

If you see something in the store, and then you wait 30 days before you go back and get it, you’ll know whether you really, really want or need it. Many times you’ll discover in that 30 days that you’ve forgotten about the item or don’t really want it as bad as you initially thought.

I used to go into this one store that had a red tea kettle in it. Whenever I was in the store I would think about how much I needed this kettle. It was beautiful. I would walk over to the shelf where it was, pick it up, try to justify buying it, but then put it back on the shelf thinking that I probably shouldn’t. Even though I still felt like my life would be happier if I just had this kettle.

But then I would walk out of the store and almost instantly forget about this beautiful red kettle.

Until I walked into the store again. And all of a sudden I just HAD TO HAVE THIS KETTLE.

I never bought it. I’m sure if I had the satisfaction would have lasted for a short time. Because honestly, I already had a kettle. A nice kettle at that. One I bought for just a few dollars at the thrift store. I didn’t need the red kettle no matter how much I tried to convince myself in the store that I did.

How many times have you done some decluttering, boxing things up to go the thrift store, only to discover some of the things you put in the box were hardly ever used?

It’s discouraging when you see how much money you could have saved if you had just not spent the money on those items you barely touched.

What I love about this rule is that if you decide you really need or want it after the 30 days, you can feel confident about your purchase.

You don’t need to feel guilty if you go back for the item you wanted and buy it after you gave it some time. Part of managing our finances is saying no to certain expenses so we can say yes to what we truly want. And sometimes that is that item you looked at in the store 30 days ago.

HOW THIS RULE HELPS KIDS

I’ve loved using this rule to help my kids navigate how to manage money as well. When kids get money many of them instantly want to spend it on anything and everything they see.

If we are in a store and one of kids sees something they suddenly want, I tell them to wait on it. To go home, think about it for awhile, and if they really want it in a month we can come back and buy it.

I can tell you, pretty much every time they’ve long forgotten about said item. I’ve even had them say on the way home from the store we were just in that “I don’t really need or want that item anyway.”

Yep, it has happened that fast.

I think this rule can help kids and adults alike manage their money better.

WHEN THIS RULE JUST DOESN’T WORK

There are times this rule doesn’t really work. One of those is at a thrift store. If you see something you want at a thrift store, chances are if you wait 30 days it will be gone by the time you get back to the store.

And let’s be honest, if you are the thrift store, you’re looking to buy some things anyways, aren’t you? But you can still make sure you don’t overspend at the thrift store by setting a budget for yourself and not allowing yourself to spend beyond that. You can also have a goal in mind of what you are looking for at the thrift store.

DOES IT NEED TO BE 30 DAYS?

I like 30 days because it gives a nice pocket of time to allow you to think about the item. But you don’t have to do 30 days if you don’t want. Even two weeks can help you really evaluate whether you really want the item you were looking at in the store or not.

PUTTING A CURB TO IMPULSE BUYING CAN SAVE A LOT

Impulse buying is one of the biggest ways many of us waste money. I think most of us, at some point in our life have all been guilty of this. If you can put a stop to impulse buying I think you’ll discover that you can save quite a bit of money.

And the bonus is, when spring cleaning time comes around, you’ll have less to declutter and clean up!