Want vs Need – Money Saving Tip #21

Weekly $ Tip #21

One of the reader requests for money savings tips was to help decipher a want vs a need when it comes to spending money/saving money, for her husband.    I thought it was a good one, one that we all need to keep in mind.

Earning money can be hard, spending money is all too easy.  The fact that everything seems attainable nowadays sure doesn’t help the budget either.  And when I say everything seems attainable I mean that I see more Mercedes’ and Coach bags than ever.  We can have whatever we want, and it is readily available.  Sure, most people cannot afford them, but they buy them.

Luxury items are not really luxury items anymore.  ANYONE can buy them.

That is where want vs need comes in.  Especially with raising kids, it is so hard to separate a want from a need.  I’m kind of glad I’m not a single mom with teenage girls, I surely would not be able to manage it all financially.

The problem with nothing being out of reach is that we “deserve” everything we want.  And because it’s over at the mall down the street, we can head over there on payday and buy it.  WRONG-O!

Since I have become hyper-sensitive to paying cash and not using credit cards I see so many cases of people buying things they cannot afford.  If you cannot pay all of your bills and debts and have cash left over to pay cash for the item that you want then YOU CANNOT AFFORD IT.

“But, but, but I can borrow a couple hundred from my savings…”.  Wrong again.  If you do not have the cash left after paying your bills to buy something, even if it is just a pair of jeans, you cannot afford them.

It is tough to change the mindset of “I want and I CAN get because I have a credit card” to “I want, but I cannot afford”.

Speaking from experience this is one of the harder things in life to do.  But it only takes about two months to get in this habit.  It is a hard two months, but after that two months is up those cravings and those “must have up-to-date gadgets” and those emotional purchases will be a thing of the past.  If you are going to become financially “free” they HAVE TO BE a thing of the past.

You may even experience a fresh emotion called buyers remorse.  I wrote a post about buyers remorse over here.  Check it out.  It’s important to know what it is, AND how to deal with it.

The other piece of this is emotional.  We want nice, expensive things because they make us FEEL important and respected.  We don’t say no when friends ask us to go to dinner even if we don’t have the money because we don’t want to feel inferior, or like a loser.  “What do you mean you can’t afford a $25 meal?”  But this isn’t the case!

First, the emotional piece is inside you and cannot be fixed with anything tangible.  Start saying NO.  Say no to yourself.  Say no to your friends.  You cannot be something you truly cannot be.  What I’m saying is, you can’t be a millionaire by acting like one unless you actually have millions.  And buying things that millionaires have doesn’t do it either.

You have to stick with your budget.  And the #1 rule of budgeting is BILLS GET PAID FIRST!

I have overcome the WANT vs NEED issue by being budget-minded.  In this, I have found that I don’t really have to compromise what I want.  What I have to compromise how I get it.  I have to use coupons, I shop at TJ Maxx… but I get what I want and am still able to feel like a million bucks.

Do you struggle with want vs need?  Do you have any tips on how to overcome it?