Spend Better

13/01/2023

05/07/2022

To celebrate pressing go on the bulk print of my book, I thought I would post another excerpt from my book.

Chapter title: The Ongoing Battle Inside Your Head

Success emerges from the quality of the decisions we make and the quantity of luck we receive. We can't control luck. But we can control the way we make choices—Chip Heath.

We live in a world with seemingly unlimited choices. Spending involves decisions and often lots of them. There are very few circumstances where we have only one choice. The average supermarket today stocks approximately 35,000 items. There can be as many as 400 different choices for one item such as jam. To minimise your choices, you can decide things like what flavour of jam (plum, strawberry, apricot, etc.), what brand is your favourite and whether you want added sugar or organic. These are just some of the numerous considerations when buying jam. Some people even make their own no-sugar jam. I make blueberry jam using chia seeds to thicken it. No wonder we stick to the same product in any given category.

Decisions take up mental bandwidth and physical energy. This is why we feel drained after a long session of comparison shopping, whether virtual or at the shops. The more thought we have to put into a decision the more draining it will be. Our likes and dislikes can be one of the brain’s ways of creating shortcuts to making a decision. There is also a common belief that decisions need to at least be seen to be logical, and that emotional decisions will automatically be bad. This is a myth. It may be hard to believe, but people who have lost their ability to feel emotion through brain injury find it almost impossible to make decisions. In fact, both logic and emotions have a place in decision-making. Their relative importance depends on the type of decision you need to make.
I thought another way to celebrate would be to give you a final chance to buy my book at the reduced price $19.95 plus $5 postage. Just order by the 19th of July to receive the discount
Just click on the link below to order your signed copy of the book.
www.spendbetter.com.au
choices

15/11/2019

Check out this podcast show. They will be talking about all the issues we all struggle with when it comes to our everyday finances. David Wright who developed the Spending Planning Program that I use will be hosting this podcast. He has 20 years of experience to share with the listeners.

04/07/2019

Automating Payments

How do you pay your bills?

I am talking about physically paying the bill.

With internet banking and banking apps it’s so much easier now to pay our bills than in the old days where you had to go in with cash. Between Direct Deposit, Direct Debit, credit cards, paypal and Bpay there are so many options now to choose from.

I believe that automating paying bills is a great idea. Anything that helps us not to have to remember to do something is great in my books. We live in a world where our lives have become so much more complicated. Our brains just can’t cope with all the information overload and our memory struggles to keep up.

This is where automation comes in. By setting up regular payments to happen automatically we stop needing to rely on our memory. I have set up a number of direct deposits to pay bills. Direct debits are more of an issue as you can get hit with bounce or honour fees if your account doesn’t have enough to cover this. You can actually setup these payment by direct deposit instead so if you need to pause for a couple of days you won’t get charged fees. Ideally this wouldn’t happen if you were using your spending plan properly because you will be prepared in advance to cover all your bills.

If you have irregular bills it can be a good idea to setup reminders on your electronic calendar a couple of days before the bill is due and on the day. You will then be less likely to forget and get charged late fee’s.

15/06/2019

Think outside the box

When it comes to meeting a need it can help to expand our thinking on what the possible solutions might be.

How many times have we said to ourselves that we want something like a drill or rarely used item to do a small job around the house or for a cooking or craft project. The first place we look is in the garage or house and if we don’t currently own one we think about buying one. But there are other alternative ways to be able to do that job without purchasing an item that would be rarely used? What are other ways to meet that need,

• Could you borrow the item from a friend or family member?
• Could you go to someone’s place and use their tool there?
• Could you hire a larger item that you only need for a short time?
• Could you look on the giveaway Facebook sites or gumtree?
• Could you buy second hand off gumtree/ebay, Facebook sale groups or a garage sale/fete and maybe resell when you’re finished with it?

There is also a new option for those rarely used items. The Illawarra is about to get it’s very own Library of Things. You pay a small membership fee and can borrow these rarely used items for a fixed period. They are called Make-do library of things and are situated in Bulli behind the old bowling club. Today was there first day receiving goods. I donated a sewing machine, overlocker and some kids shotputs and discuss. My husband kept wanted me to get rid of these items as I haven’t really used them in a long time and they take up space. Now other people will get use out of them and I can still borrow them if needed.

This fits with my belief that we need to consider the planet with all our purchases especially with items that don’t get used. The other benefit is you aren’t spending hard-earned money on items that will just take up space without being used. It also means you get access to things that you couldn’t justify purchasing but that might make a job easier. The other benefit is to try before you buy to see if the item actually meets your needs.

This fits with my belief that we need to consider the planet with all our purchases especially with items that don’t get used. The other benefit is you aren’t spending hard-earned money on items that will just take up space without being used. It also means you get access to things that you couldn’t justify purchasing but that might make a job easier. The other benefit is to try before you buy to see if the item actually meets your needs. My husband wanted me to get rid of these items as I haven’t really used them in a long time and they take up space. Now other people will get use out of them and I can still borrow them if needed.

30/05/2019

Beware the Free Trial!

How many of us have been caught out by those one month free trials? Usually for some sort of subscription-based service like an app, streaming service or software.

The conversation in our head goes something like this,

"I only want it (video streaming service) for one show. I'm sure I could watch it in a month and then I'll just cancel the service."

Yeah why not. I'll do that."

Does this sound familiar to you?

In reality what happens is, you have a busy month and only watch a couple of episodes. Next months statement shows the first payment coming out of your account.

You then tell yourself "I've paid for it now might as well watch the rest of the season this month. Note to self must
remember to cancel this at the end of the month."

Most of us can relate to the scenariio of the free trial that we have still forgotten to cancel 6 months down the track. This can add up over time. It might only be $10 a month but if your not using it and it's been 6 months that's $60 you could have spent on something else.

Have you ever noticed that you only remember that you need to do these things at a time when it's either impossible, or inconvenient, to do it then. Think middle of the night or in the middle of cooking dinner.

Our financial worlds are so complicated now days. There are so many things to think about that our brain can't remember them all. The trick is to externalise the things we need to remember to do and add them to something that is already a habit.

For example. Do you have a habit of checking on and paying bills on the evening of payday. This can be a great financial habit. You check the online banking and quickly go back over the period since last pay. You notice that the monthly payment has come out and you meant to cancel it.

This would be an ideal time to stop the payment as you are already sitting at the computer thinking about money and payments. If you have a regular time set aside then you can keep a financial to do list on your phone where you make a quick note when you think of something. Knowing that you don't have to try to remember because you always look at this list when you sit down on payday.

Like most things prevention is better than cure. So sometimes it's better not to signup for that free month in the first place. If you 'really' need to, set a reminder on your phone to jog your memory to cancel it.

24/05/2019

Do you struggle with Impulse Spending. If you do you're not alone. So many people have told me that this is an area they struggle with.

We all do it. Some of us are better than others at resisting the impulse to buy something we haven't planned for and that really doesn't fit our spending plan. The trick is to understand how our brain is wired in a way that encourages impulse spending as well as all the marketing tricks that take advantage of this.

I will be holding a workshop on the 8th of June called " Save money by taming your impulse spending."

This will be a very practical workshop which will include a workbook and morning tea.

Click on the link below for details and to purchase tickets. I look forward to seeing lots of you there.

This workshop is designed to give you a greater understanding of why we impulse spend, why it causes problems in our lives and how to tame that impulse spending. You and I know that Will Power just doesn’t cut it! Do you feel that there must be something wrong with you because you struggle with th...