Thrifty Thursday #5 ~ Temptations at Home

    Last Thursday, I talked about avoiding the stores and staying busy at home as a way to keep from spending.  However, even in the private sanctuaries of our homes, there are still various ways that those stores can come to us!  Some of those ways are through magazines, promotional emails, sales flyers, advertisements on tv or online, shopping channels and apps, and even social media.  To avoid spending, it is important to:

Recognize the various temptations that come into our homes and take measures to avoid and resist them.

    One of the things that can make this tricky is the fact that most of these things bombard us during our leisure time.  We don't sit down with the intention of shopping, but before you know it, an ad has popped up somewhere that has caught our attention.  

    If you are accustomed to watching tv, you may have to change the channel during the commercials if this is a weak spot for you.  Skip the ads in online videos.

    When you get your mail and sit down to sort through it, toss catalogs and ads (unless for groceries- those are a necessity!) right away.  Don't peruse them for entertainment- the companies that send these out are just hoping you will find something you didn't know you needed.

    When it comes to promotional emails, don't open them- just delete!  Over the years, I have signed up for so many newsletters because of the promise of "15% off your first purchase when you sign up for our mailing list."  Now, I get my 15% off and unsubscribe.  Another option, if it is a company you like and plan on buying from regularly in the future, is to set up a separate email account- a junk mail account- for these promotions that you only check when you are intentionally shopping for something.

    For shopping apps that you use but temporarily need to stay away from, put them all into a designated "shopping" folder on your phone and don't leave them on your home screen.  This way they are still accessible, but it takes a bit more work to get to them.  For those just taking up space, delete them.  An additional approach to avoiding spending money on these apps is to not save your payment information on them.  You may be less likely to make a purchase if you have to dig out a credit/debit card and take the time to manually fill in all of your billing and shipping info.  One-click ordering and buy-it-now buttons are just too convenient and these companies know it!

    Magazines and their modern counterpart, social media, can be a bit more difficult to tackle.  This is because these don't often involve blatant advertising, and how tempting they are is going to depend on our individual tendencies.  For some, they may not be a problem at all!  But for others, it can be so easy to fall into a comparison trap and think, "If I just had this or that, my home/life would be fabulous too."  (After all, there is a reason the popular posters are called "influencers"!)  What can start out as a source of inspiration can quickly lead to discontentment if we aren't careful.  I have a lot of thoughts on social media, but for the sake of this post, I will just encourage you to take a break if it is an area of struggle for you.  Remove certain apps from your home screen if need be- you'll be less likely to mindlessly browse during your spare moments if you have to go hunt for them.

    In all of these scenarios, out of sight, out of mind seems to be the best approach.  What say you?  What are some of the shopping traps you encounter at home and how do you avoid them?