How To Defer Unnecessary Purchases
Updated 2024.11.04
Unnecessary purchases are those that you can live without. They don’t involve medicine, water, food, housing, utilities or transportation.
If you don’t purchase the item, you won’t be in a life or death situation. You won’t be in legal trouble. You might be temporarily disappointed, but other than that, you’ll live.
Unnecessary purchases can be really tempting. They can hook you. They may even haunt you a little bit. But you don’t need to buy them right away.
You *could* buy them later. You *could* wait until the next sale. They’re not mission critical at the moment.
Identifying purchases needed in the future can be helpful, but sometimes these foreseen purchases can wait and while they wait, deferring the purchase can take mental willpower and discipline.
In this post, you’ll learn a few little tricks I’ve picked up along the way to defer unnecessary purchases to a later date or indefinitely. When you defer unnecessary purchases, you’ll have more cash on hand for the necessary purchases, which can be really helpful during a cash crunch.
Whether or not times are currently lean, life can be chaotic, situations can change in an instant and a cash crunch can occur at any moment. So over time, I’ve found it’s helpful to always operate as though a cash crunch could occur, and in the event one does, I’m more prepared.
Without further ado, below are 11 ways to stave off unnecessary purchases:
1 - Add the purchase to multiple carts online
Add the item(s) to online wish lists and shopping carts. Go as far as getting the total including coupon codes, tax and shipping. See how much the total is and then, imagine all the other things you could do with that money.
Then you can either delete the items to avoid receiving reminder emails, leave the unnecessary purchase in the cart and unsubscribe from reminder emails or move them to your saved/wishlist items. Close the shopping windows.
2 - Calculate the safety stock you need to create a replenishment level
A replenishment level is an exact number or percentage of the minimum available stock on hand needed before buying more. To identify your average replenishment level, you want to calculate the amount of inventory you need of an item before you run out.
Start with the time it takes you to get more of an item, by calculating the estimated pick up, delivery or shipping time. Then, figure out how much of the item you’ll use between the time you’ll run out of inventory and the time it takes for you to get more. This is your safety stock - the amount of inventory you absolutely need on hand.
At the time you hit your “safety stock amount,” this is your inventory replenishment level. Defer your purchase until you get down to your replenishment level.
3 - Write down as many alternatives to buying as you can
On a notepad, write down your other options to buying.
You could… borrow from a friend or relative, substitute other things in its place, make do for now with other tasks until you buy, see if you can get it for free with reward points or by trading your review for the item - through apps like PINCHme, Influenster and reaching out to the company.
Now take one of your alternatives and do that first. Try another alternative next. Keep going as long as you can to defer the purchase.
4 - Imagine someone offering you the purchase or the money
Close your eyes and imagine a stranger is at your front door. On one hand, they have the purchase and on another hand, they have the money it costs. Inhale, exhale. You have seconds to decide.
Which does your imaginary self grab… the purchase or the money? If the imaginary self grabs the money, defer the purchase.
5 - Identify any “wants” you already spent money on this month
Go back through your past month’s accounting. Place an “X” next to any purchase made which was a want and not a need. It could be eating out, a little treat or an expense made in advance of its need.
Have you already purchased a want or two this month? Have you used/fully played with the item from that purchase?
If you already purchased a want, defer the new want to next month’s expenses. If you haven’t fully utilized your last unnecessary purchase, wait until you use/play with that existing want before buying more.
6 - Consider your financial picture
Are you operating in a budget deficit? Do you have less in savings than makes you feel comfortable? Has the anticipated funding been delayed or reduced? How much debt do you have?
Ignoring financial resource constraints can have negative consequences for you, and others who rely on you, now and in the future. Think about all of this, then defer the unnecessary purchase.
7 - Avoid emotional buying triggers
Do not look at marketing for the item(s) on social media. Do not look at how happy other people are with the item, they are probably sales people and it’s their job to act happy with the item they are selling.
If you see someone with the item, and become jealous they have it and you don’t, “hide” their account and posts.
8 - Tell yourself you’ll do it tomorrow
When the urge to give in to an unnecessary purchase is high, stop thinking about it by moving on to another task. Perhaps do some chores or go to bed. Tell yourself you’ll consider it tomorrow.
Each day, repeat this process. Explore buying it, examine the pros and cons, then move on to another task. Do not buy it. Remind yourself you can do it tomorrow if you still want it. Continue this for as long as possible.
9 - Think about the environmental and social costs
Anytime a product is created, something else, somewhere else is deconstructed to create it.
A tree is killed, an area with rare minerals is mined, non-renewable energy sources are gone forever, a critter’s habitat is destroyed, a chemical plant producing the materials needed to create your item spills toxins into a waterway and poisons local residents. Someone who hates their job has to make it for you and they resent the fact.
It’s grim but it’s the reality. All to create this item. Negative externalities exist for every purchase. Think about these before pressing “buy now.”
10 - Take on a museum mentality
Rather than shopping at stores and seeing the items as something you can have, see the items as artifacts at the museum. Appreciate them, admire their beauty, but tell yourself they are curated collections of the museum. You can’t take core items on display from a museum without a high cost.
Even at real museums, there is a gift shop, yet the items are incredibly marked up to the point where you’ll be offended learning their base cost. The gift shop exists solely to make money for the museum, not to make money for you.
11 - Write a gratitude list
Every morning when you wake up, over your tea or coffee, write down everything you’re grateful for already having. This helps create a feeling of abundance. When you feel abundant, you don’t want more because you feel you have enough and your sense of lack is suppressed.
When you feel you have enough in this moment, the desire for unnecessary purchases floats farther and further away.
When you need to defer unnecessary purchases, choose to see it as an opportunity.
Deferring unnecessary purchases creates the opportunity to…
Be more creative with your current resources
Make the most of/stretch your supplies
Become a more efficient manager of very limited resources
Get optimal use of your existing inventory
Increase your level of self sufficiency
Save money
Improve available cash flow
Increase your ability to live well on a little
Build discipline and patience in resisting temptation
These are helpful skills that cross over into many areas of life.
Some of the purchases you defer will never be made and it’ll turn out, they were impulses and you didn’t need them; congrats, you’ve saved yourself some money. Some of the purchases you defer do eventually get made, but perhaps during another fiscal cycle, when cash flow is different.
All in all, these are a few techniques you can use to resist unnecessary purchases and defer expenses to a later date.
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