How do you shop on a budget?
You don’t.
Be wary of setting aside a budget for yourself to go shopping. If you find it difficult to stop yourself from making impromptu purchases (HACKHACKCOUGHCOUGHTHATSME), then clearly, this mindset of “I’ll be fine as long as I restrict myself” is going to fall flat on its face.
The solution? Instead of a shopping budget, think of the money as a budget buffer. Ideally, it gets used as overflow from food, utilities, unexpected costs, and other things that you actually need. Then it can also account for a couple of slips that may have occurred during your commute home, like when you saw that Loft was having a 60% off Sale and your feet just led you through the front doors.
Another tip? Don’t save your credit card information automatically to sites. The pain of having your money leave your pocket is almost nonexistent when all you have to do is click a button, but the damage on your wallet is very very real.
This post is 90% just my way of trying to hold myself accountable. The struggle is real, people. What inspired this short post today, you may ask? This weekend, I went to the Winter Village at Bryant Park, and dropped a nice fat $100 on things that were predominately for myself. I’m currently wearing a ring that I just realized cost me as much as a full week of lunch prep. Now I’m thinking, is this ring worth a week’s worth of food? The jury is out on that one.
I haven’t quite mastered this yet.
Shop safely everyone!