Want to save money? Don’t shop.
Bankrate, of all places, has this article on a group of granola-types in California who found a great way to save: They stopped buying stuff! Not everything of course, but anything beyond the basics. From the article:
The thrifty bunch called themselves “The Compact,” a group of friends in the San Francisco area who agreed not to buy anything new for one year except for food, medical necessities and toiletry items. Buying secondhand was OK since battling consumerism was the point, not saving money.
But they did save money. “I actually had a lot of credit card debt and paid off quite a bit of that,” Rosenmoss says.
A few helpful tips from the article include:
- Don’t deprive yourself, just figure out ways to get what you want without buying something new.
- Do a trial run, a few weeks or so. It’ll teach you how much you can potentially save, then you can come up with a longer term plan that you can live with. In other words, think of it like kick-starting a diet with a one-day fast.
- Listen to the Stones: Wants and needs are different things. Figure that out.
Some of the couples saved a few hundred dollars per month. One couple with a combined income of 65,000 a year eliminated 30,000 of credit card debt in 15 months.
Via consumerist.
