Photo by striatic
We live in belief that we need bunch of stuff (a great post about this), but we really don’t. In fact more stuff will just make us unhappier.
How to know what we actually need? It’s kind of tricky to analyze your own feelings when a “need” hits you. So how to combat the temptations of new iPhone or new Stieg Larsson bestseller?
We try to follow 30 day rule in getting new stuff. Basically if you “need” something you write it on paper and wait for 30 days. After that you can go ahead and purchase it. That is if you still “need” it.
30 days is long enough time to let you distance yourself from the object and really analyze if you could live without it.
I try to follow similar rule with books. I almost never buy a book right away. I add it to my wish list and when I feel I want something new to read, I go to the bottom of the list and choose. Usually there are books that I’m not that interested at that time anymore and I just delete those from the list.
I also buy books when they are on discount. I use BookDepository for most of my book buying and they have a nice feature that sends you email when price of a book in your wish list drops over 10%.
BookDepository looks great! I’ll use it next time when I’m buying a physical book. I’ve mostly been spending my money on Kindle and Audible purchases.
I once read about similar rule, but it had more to do with frugality. Ie. divide purchase price by some nice sume like 30 euros and result is number of days you should wait until you make decision to buy.
Wow, thanks for the tip on bookdepository. They are way cheaper at least on few books i checked. And one of which was rather expensive. 15% less is real money when book costs 150€ :)
Panu, thanks for the tip! Although my initial reaction is to fight back at that since it makes this more complex. BUT after giving it some thought IF your goal is more money based (I don’t want to spend money) than let’s say minimalist (I don’t want stuff) that works.
Also I think I would have benefited many times if I would have used that rule (like I probably would not have bought an Alfa Romeo :D)
Have to say, this rule works pretty well! Sometimes the time’s been a bit extended – we waited until one year before purchasing the Eco-Pot :-D
But also must admit that this one’s tricky to adapt to clothes shopping… I do that so rarely that IF I manage to get in store and find something worthy, I better get it right away. It’s not one or two times that I’ve given up while waiting to pay for the thing, I just hate shopping.
Tho today I reserved a pair of boots… Sadly they’ll only keep them until tomorrow, not for 30 days :-D