Personal Finance

3802 readers

1 users here now

Learn about budgeting, saving, getting out of debt, credit, investing, and retirement planning. Join our community, read the PF Wiki, and get on top of your finances!

Note: This community is not region centric, so if you are posting anything specific to a certain region, kindly specify that in the title (something like [USA], [EU], [AUS] etc.)

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

How to curb unnecessary consumer impulses? (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

12 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I am very lucky to have a chunk of disposable income every month. However, I want to invest and save most of it, because I recognize that disposable income can quickly disappear given the right circumstances.

My problem is a time old one, that I struggle with material desires, and how easy it is to treat it as play money.

Does anyone have any advice how to offset those impulses or otherwise make it easier in the moment to check myself?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I have 4 different bank accounts that I use primarily (technically 10 total). What I do is split up my direct deposits and/or schedule transfers so that everything is bucketed. One account for fixed monthly bills, one for variable things like groceries, one for savings, and one for whatever I want, etc.

I put a little more than necessary in each account each month, so every so often I may have a surplus for a given bucket, too. This will either go towards the accelerated payoff of something or I'll split the difference and move half to my fun bucket.

For the most part, this keeps necessary money (bills and savings) out of sight or mind and it's easier to control my impulse spending when the only account I can/should be spending from has a low limited amount.