...but what if I don't??

Hi Folks,

I hope y'all doing well and everything is fine!

I'd like to share some thoughts about why and how some of us get rid of their money and end up not having any.

We're all bombarded with advertisements of all sorts that tell us that if we buy that new phone or TV or car or what ever than sure enough we'll be happy.
See the people in that commercial with that phone? They're happy. The guy who drives that new car - he looks like a winner in that car, he looks successful and happy in it. So if I buy that I will too look good and successful and happy in that car right?!

I'd like to share with you the idea of how to resist the temptation to buy stuff (stuff you probably don't need and may never even use).

For those of us who live an average life with a TV, smartphone and radio, commute to and from work and so forth, we're all bombarded by about 3500 Advertisements per day!  

Now thats some serious number isn't it?

You may  now say "well yes, but it doesn't affect me, I hardly even notice the advertisements whatsoever!"

True! You don't consciously notice it! But your subconsciousness definitely notices it, and then at some odd event when for example some friend got that particular car or phone and talks about it, then your subconscious brings that ad back to your memory and you go "oh yeah I've seen that before...."

At that point in time the advertisement made it's way in to your conscious thoughts.

See, there are marketing people that earn six figures and marketing firms that make millions of dollars creating ads for stuff no one really needs and yet it gets sold. 

Because they are good in what they do. 

I myself bought so much stuff in the past two years alone that I can't believe it really. 

When we moved to Australia less than two years ago, we literally came with one backpack each.

Funny thing is that these two backpacks actually contained everything we needed, yet less than two years later we find ourselves in a two bedroom house that is literally packed with stuff!

How'd that happen??

For about 8 weeks we ridding ourselves of so much stuff, even food that had been bought some time ago and has never been touched since. We didn't even know we had bought it....

Crazy!

Same with a lot of other crap too. Clothes - same thing!

Books - same thing!

Decorations - same thing!

So now that we've realized how much stuff we have accumulated we started thinking about how it happened and what to do with it all and how to prevent it from happening again???

First things first!

• Getting rid of a lot of stuff

We organized garage sale kind of events at home and put so much stuff on gumtree for sale which worked and still works really good. we've got some good money for a lot of stuff...

We sorted our stuff out and donated a lot of it at a local charity shop

I created my own challenge and invited people to join me ( no one did - yet )

 #letgoofstufftohelpothers #declutterdonation

Challenge is to every day until the end of the year donate one item. 1 item per day!
It's going for about three weeks now and it accumulated a remarkable stack of stuff already.
Every now and again I'll then go to the local charity shop and donate it...

So we are actively decluttering our house and create space. Space to breathe!

• Write down all money spent each week and calculate the sum by the end of each week. 

It's crazy to realize how much money you spend when it becomes clear and visual to you because you wrote it all down!  You start to ask yourself how much more money you have spent when you weren't writing it down.

We have set ourselves a goal of spending no more than $5 each for food every day on avarage.
Of course there are days when you buy essentials that are ore expensive, but I'm talking in general here. We made some serious progress towards that goal lately. With an average of about $10 at the moment I'd say we spent a fair bit of money less than what we used to spent! And we're getting better and better!

• ...but what if I don't????

This one I like the most!
When we go for shopping an see some stuff we would usually buy, we go and ask ourselves "but what if I don't?"

What if I don't buy that piece of whatever it might be?

So we don't buy it at first, even though we might find we need right there and then.
Astoundingly, soon enough we would forget all about the "thing".
We didn't even remember that we wanted it. And if we do then we realize that we more often than not don't need it whatsoever.

But as I mentioned above, the advertising industry works really well and tries to snatch the money out of your pocket and yes, it sometimes works, of course it does! I'd be a lier if I said I'd never buy "stuff"

that question though is a really good way to save yourself some buck. Just ask yourself what happens if you do not buy that "thing" right now. Sure enough most times you won't even remember you wanted it.

Save yourself a little fortune by resisting to buy stuff you don't need and asking yourself "... but what if I don't?"

I hope you enjoyed the read and I'd be pleased to read some comments/ ideas of yours as well.

Mayo and Alex