Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to take a spending pause. Choosing not
Speaker 1: to spend money on anything that isn't absolutely necessary for
Speaker 1: a little while can offer a good reset and remind
Speaker 1: us of what we really care about. So I experienced
Speaker 1: an inadvertent spending pause a few weeks ago due to
Speaker 1: some credit card issues. I've long had just one card
Speaker 1: because I like to keep life simple, but when the
Speaker 1: number was compromised, it then took a while to be
Speaker 1: issued a new card, which the credit card company then
Speaker 1: put another hold on a couple days later. This took
Speaker 1: multiple calls to customer service to sort out, and meanwhile
Speaker 1: I was shut out from the modern digital economy. This
Speaker 1: was going on during all the Friday and Cyber Monday sales,
Speaker 1: which meant that shopping was a challenge, so I pretty
Speaker 1: much sat the sales out. If an email from a
Speaker 1: merchant interested me, I made a note of it, and
Speaker 1: in one case I had my husband purchased something because
Speaker 1: our daughter had requested it as a Christmas present, and
Speaker 1: I knew that retailer almost never had sales but it
Speaker 1: turns out that most stores that have Black Friday sales
Speaker 1: have other sales, and if you buy something you wouldn't
Speaker 1: have bought, you're negating almost all the discounts you're getting
Speaker 1: on things that you would have bought anyway. Now, I
Speaker 1: was not happy about my forced pause, but I also
Speaker 1: realized that a chosen spending pause might not necessarily be
Speaker 1: a bad thing. It is very easy to spend money online,
Speaker 1: and even if the dollar figures themselves aren't that much
Speaker 1: in the grand scheme of things, it's easy to wind
Speaker 1: up with stuff that you don't desperately need or even
Speaker 1: desperately want. Making spending a little harder can increase the
Speaker 1: chances that you wind up with stuff that is well
Speaker 1: thought through. So if you are looking for a way
Speaker 1: to change things up in the new year, consider if
Speaker 1: you might make spending a little harder. One obvious way
Speaker 1: to do that is to not save your credit card
Speaker 1: or shipping information anywhere, except for say, online groceries. You
Speaker 1: do need to eat, so no need to make that
Speaker 1: take longer than necessary. But by forcing yourself to re
Speaker 1: enter the card number and your address, you build in
Speaker 1: some time between wanting something and actually getting it. You
Speaker 1: might also put your cards somewhere mildly and convenient, particularly
Speaker 1: if you're working from home, if you don't have your
Speaker 1: numbers memorized and you have to tromp up to your
Speaker 1: bedroom from your desk to grab a card. This can
Speaker 1: minimize impulse purchases too. Or you can commit to an
Speaker 1: actual pause for a few days, buy your groceries, put
Speaker 1: gas in your car, and then challenge yourself not to
Speaker 1: buy anything until you're specified date. Now, this doesn't always work. I,
Speaker 1: for one, am not going to refuse to sign my
Speaker 1: kids up for something they want to do. Or if
Speaker 1: we run out of diapers, there's no real good way
Speaker 1: of making do so. Sometimes you do have to take
Speaker 1: a pause from the spending pause. But again, it's not
Speaker 1: about not spending any money. Money is great, it's a
Speaker 1: tool to build the life you want. Instead, this is
Speaker 1: about making sure that money is spent mindfully and on
Speaker 1: things that we do want or need. I took Black
Speaker 1: Friday and Cyber Monday to think through what I wanted
Speaker 1: to get my family members for Christmas, and once I
Speaker 1: finally had a functioning credit card again, I was able
Speaker 1: to efficiently make my purchases without a lot of second guessing.
Speaker 1: That felt like a win. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast pod. That's b E the number four, then
Speaker 1: breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me an
Speaker 1: email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot
Speaker 1: com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio. For
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