The 30-Day Rule: How To Control Impulse Spending

The 30-Day Rule is one of the most affective ways to control impulse spending, check out why here.

The 30-Day Rule: How To Control Impulse Spending
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Authors
Sarah White
Have you ever gone shopping for a few essentials and walked out with half the shop? Do you find yourself unable to say no to those 20% off sales emails, ending up with things you really don’t need? Well if so the 30-Day Rule could really help.
notion image
 
The process is simple and definitely not something new, but it helped me a lot when I started my minimalism journey and is something I still practice to this day. The basic premise is every time you find yourself wanting to buy something-not including essentials, pause, make a note of it, and wait 30 days. I’ve included a step by step below but essentially that’s it:
  • Whenever you find yourself wanting to buy something- stop, take a moment, and remove it from your basket (physical or online).
  • Next, create a list. This can be your classic pen and paper job or what works for me is a Notion page (which side note is a fantastic APP I recommend everyone look in to) where I add a link to the product and the date I added it.
  • Wait 30 days, during which you can do 1 of 2 things. Either think about whether it’s something you really want or don’t think about it at all. I do the latter simply because I don’t want to spend a month pondering a potential purchase, I’d rather just see how I feel about it in 30 days. But either option works.
  • Once the 30 days is up if it’s still something you want to buy then go for it. Remember to also take in to account if it’s something you can afford.
 
For me 9 times out of 10 this leads to me not purchasing the product.
Another thing to note is that whilst you shouldn’t end your 30 days early in order to purchase something, if you decide it’s not something you want before the 30 days is up then remove it from the list.
It may seem like extra effort to start with, but I promise if you struggle with impulse spending, or even if you don’t I think this is a habit everyone can benefit from.