Hellobee Boards

unsubscribe to all stores so you are not tempted when they have sales.

I made rules in my account so deal emails (Zulily, Carter's, etc) skip my inbox. I only visit the deal folder when I need to buy something specific.

Good luck!

We've gone on a spending moratorium. We spend no money that hasn't been allocated in the budget. Seriously-$0. Once you get I to that habit for awhile, you will question yourself every time you go to swipe a card. It only took a month for us to become completely spending averse.

We spend only $60/wk on groceries. I don't know if most people could do that, but it's working for us so far. Main expenses are fruit, bread, milk, eggs, bacon, veggies , occasional meat and whipping cream or half and half. We're eating well and saving a ton of money.

I'm working on an extreme budgeting blog post, but I find myself referring back to my Cutting the Budget blog post often to make sure I. Still doing everything I need to do.

I agree with just unsubscribing from the sales emails! That helps a ton if I don't know that Gap is running a 40% off sale! I actually have most of the emails just go into a folder and automatically marked as "read" so if I do need something I still get a coupon code but I'm not tempted if its not a need.

I have a rule where if I go shopping and want something I have to wait 24 hours before buying it. If I still want it the next day, then I can go back and have it. Easily 75% of the time I either don’t feel compelled to go back and get the item, or I get distracted by work/life and never make it back to the store before I forget about the item.

I also have alerts on my amex where they send me a text message for any purchase made online, or over a certain $ amount. Very handy, especially if you can have the text message go to your spouse or someone else who can support your spending breaking who you will have to "answer to".

@rachiecakes: Yes! I do the same thing, writing down exactly what I have spent. It makes me think about it and be aware, which is part of the accountability!

Oh and I agree with blackbird, on not depriving yourself. We went out to dinner the other night and instead of ordering a la carte, we ordered the prix fixe menu. Saved us at least $20.

@Greentea: We use cash envelopes too. Single most important thing we do to control our spending. Our budget simply doesn't have room in it for online shopping, unless it is something specific that we need. The only money we keep in our checking account is for gas, so there is no temptation to buy things with our debit card that we haven't planned for.

@Greentea: I should have mentioned our bill money stays in the accounts too I wasn't counting that since it isn't for "spending" I'm glad it works for you guys too! It does feel old school, but it works!

For me, I found having a membership to Costco/Sam's club (close to us) helps me save. I go a couple times a year and stock up on necessities: Body wash, razors, toilet paper, paper towels, ect. and that keeps me from "running to Target" when we run out of something, when I run to Target I never walk out without spending an additional 100 dollars on random items.

I also shop meat sales and stock up the freezer during that time, cutting my normal weekly bills down. I try to keep our weekly bill under $100 a week for food. I don't eat out for lunch more than 1-2 a month (DH is worse about this and does that in a week) and we only eat out once a weekend for dinner or lunch.

I unsubscribed from emails from tempting shopping, this is easier when pregnant for clothes for me, harder for kid clothes (Carter's/Gap/ect. et me)

Try unroll.me, they go through your email and show you all of the newsletter types of emails you get and then you can choose to have them unsubscribe you or "roll up" those emails into one digest you get daily so you can see all of them in one place. I started putting all of the sale emails that I might want to access but don't want to see daily in that roll up email. So Gap, for example, goes there and then if my husband needs jeans I can search my email and see if gap has sent out any coupons or sale notifications without it tempting me to "just browse."

There are lots of online challenges to do capsule wardrobes for X number of days. Would you have fun with that? The idea is to choose 30 pieces from your wardrobe and remix them into outfits for a month. If you can't wear new stuff maybe you will be less tempted to buy it.

I am finding that I save money by inviting people over more often. I spend a bit more on snacks or drinks each month but I am not going shopping and to lunch as often with a friend or out to dinner on the weekends.

I also pulled out and reorganized stuff for my hobbies which made me more interested in spending my time on them and less likely to buy stuff I already have.

Saving is pretty much automated for us. A set amount automatically goes into our savings account, and the rest is for paying bills. It's worked out great. I started by tracking all my spending for 2 months and I was horrified by how much I was wasting!

@rachiecakes: ha! I did the exact same thing...an extra 40% off a sale item would be my downfall!

What we really need is a shop your closet thread!

@cait: +1 on that tip.

I have/had a mindless impulse spend and often return problem that I needed to break. One of the things that has worked is to keep a small notebook handy and write anything down I want to buy. At the end of the month if I still want or need it I buy it.

Also, I have personal spending budgeted for the month and within that I have an idea of the maximum that should be spent on certain things. For example daily coffee & lunch is $7; knowing my max helps to keep me in line.

I've been better when I set a budget for something and stick to it rather than complete non-spending. Then I know I have $50 for clothes for the month and I can choose to spend it however but once it's gone, I'm done. Then I'm not totally deprived but it makes me more mindful of what I'm spending on.

@rachiecakes: I know you aren't supposed to be shopping but you still can create a list of requirements for the "ideal" dress/skirt and don't buy anything unless its really a crazy good deal for an item that meets all criteria.

For skirts, can you add multiple tops? Can you add a scarf/blazer to those tops or the dress? Can you add leggings/tights for year round wear? Can you change out shoes to diversify the outfit. I've found that with a few really nice shift dresses in solid colors, I can change up the style really easily and wear the dress about once every two weeks or so without people noticing.

Also, you can have a basic black dress, a basic black skirt and maybe one other solid skirt/dress that you wear weekly. That covers 3 days of outfits plus about 6 accessories to change it up and covers most of the week!

@rachiecakes: ok, so this is either the opposite of helpful or extremely helpful... but Target just announced their next designer collab and it is with Lilly Pulitzer!!!! Coming April 2015 so plenty of time to curb your spending now and save up for any fun goodies you want to pick up across the street