A Guide To Start Saving Money And Stop Wasting It On Things That You Don’t Need.

Hello, I am here to share with you an experiment and in part a resolution for myself, that I am going to try to keep to in the next upcoming year(Starting in June 2020).

I will be taking part in a year-long shopping ban that will cut down and out the unnecessary purchases that I make on a weekly and monthly basis. The purpose of this ban is to save money, have more of it in my savings and as well be able to go and do the things that I want to do more often.

So, you may be asking “What the heck is a shopping ban?”. Well, it is a ban on buying necessary things for my home, life and health. This includes things like-new phones, clothes that you don’t absolutely need, and more. It is allowing yourself to only spend money on the things that you need rather than the cool things that you may want. So for example, you have a watch that you wear every day and a new model comes out and usually if you want something and have the money (or not) for it you go and buy it. The shopping ban that you set for yourself says you can’t buy it unless you either sell your old watch or the old one is actually broken. Meaning that if you don’t need it you don’t buy it.

Below I will be listing the things that I have in my personal life that I need to spend on as well as the things I will no longer spend my money on.

Needs:

• Housing
• Music Services(iTunes)
• Food/Groceries

These are the basic necessities that I need and use on a daily basis. Yes, my list is short but that is what you get for being a minimalist.

Wants:

• Second PC Monitor
• New Phone
• New MacBook
• New Apple Watch
• Everything on my Amazon Wishlist(mostly tech stuff)
• Tesla Model 3
• Eating Out
• etc.

So obviously I am a techie and love new technology. This doesn’t mean I have to spend money on it or that I should for that matter. So what I am going to do below is make a list of things that I am allowed to spend my money on and those things are the only things I will be spending my money on. The purpose of this experiment and I encourage you to do this along with me and I would love to hear from you guys what you are going to be cutting out or purchasing as well.

Things I will Spend on:

• Housing
• Groceries
• Transportation
• iTunes/Audible

Things on the list above are the things that I can’t avoid paying and they don’t come out to much more than $560 a month, and I live in Los Angeles, California which is an amazing feet on its own but I am in a position that isn’t the norm so your own numbers may be much higher/lower depending on the situation, area in which you live or more.

Things I am allowed to spend money on if needed:

• Clothes

This is only if I have a article of clothing that needs to be replaced. (ie shoes with holes in them, ripped shirt, etc)

• Phone

The reason I put this in here and in the other section is because I am speaking about hardware rather than the phone service itself.

• Food

Going no more than $10 over my budget if Absolutely dire

From there we have our list of things that I will not spend money on and you can make a full list of each thing that is on your own personal ban list but for now, I will give you my own personal list.

Things I will Ban Myself from Buying:

Everything Else

This is simple for me but it may not be simple for you so below is a list of common items we waste our money on and you can take inspiration from this list and add to your own!

Common Items we waste our money on:

This list was found here

Eating out :

Alcohol or drinking:

Over a quarter of respondents — 25.42% — indicated their spending on alcohol or drinking was wasteful. Men, more than women, reported wasting cash on alcoholic beverages.

Credit card interest:

Clothes:

Electricity:

• 11.92% of respondents admitted to wasting money on electricity

Cigarettes:

Heating or air conditioning:

Unreturned items:

Convenience packaging:

Lottery or gambling:

• 6.82% wasted cash on gambling expenditures.

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