Debt-Free Forever by Gail Vaz-Oxlade (the beginning after the end read novel .TXT) 📕

• You want to be debt-free in nine months. Is buying this going to help?

If you need more of a reminder than words provide, create a credit card condom with a picture of whatever it is you’re trying to achieve: a picture of a beautiful house if you’re saving for a down payment, a picture of a gorgeous beach if you’re setting aside money for a vacation, a picture of your son or daughter if you’re trying to build a school fund.

BECOME A CONSCIOUS SHOPPER

Becoming aware of your Impulse Gremlin lessens the likelihood you’ll give in to the temptations to spend you’ll face every day. Becoming conscious in your spending requires that you use some strategies to keep you focused on what you really want. Here are my top 10 strategies for becoming a conscious shopper.

Strategy 1: Planned Spending

Planned spending is an intentional approach to spending money. It is what most people never do. It puts intention in spending because it takes reaction out. It requires foresight and a system. It is the antithesis of the Impulse Gremlin and the first Strategy in shopping consciously.

If I’ve just bought a new house and I know I’m going to have to replace the roof in three years, I plan my spending on the roof. I open up a Roof Account and every month I have $140 debited from my regular transaction account and credited to my Roof Account. When the time comes to replace the roof, I’ll be ready. That’s planned spending. I’m going to spend the money and I have a plan.

Planned spending is what you do so that you don’t have to use credit. Tons of stuff falls into this category. From home maintenance to the seasonal clothing you have to buy for the kids, from vacations to that new TV you’ve been eyeing, if you have to accumulate money so you can make a purchase, it’s planned spending.

The single best way to move from reactive spending to planned spending is to use a shopping list.

Shop with a List

Grocery shopping is one area where people often overspend unconsciously. In the name of “feeding our family” (said in a serious and very deep voice), we toss stuff in our shopping carts without giving it a second thought. We buy cherries offseason for $10 a kilo. We buy mangos, star fruit, and avocados in the depths of winter. We buy organic. And we pay a pretty penny for all these choices.

How much of what you buy is purchased on impulse? Boy, those hothouse tomatoes smell great, don’t they? If you don’t shop with a list, you’re leaving yourself susceptible to all the contrivances retailers have come up with to separate you from your money. Become conscious of what you’re buying and you can cut your grocery bill by 30%. If you’re currently averaging $1,200 a month, that’ll save you more than $4,300 a year.

Get yourself a small notebook to keep your lists. You might use the front of the notebook for grocery lists and the back for your stuff list. Before you buy anything—clothes, a new TV, or paint to redo the basement—you must first make concrete your intention to buy by writing the item on your list. If something is not on your lists, you don’t buy it. No matter how good the deal is. NOTHING.

If you have kids, shopping with a list will go a long way to demonstrating that you can’t always get what you want. Parents complain all the time that they can’t take their kids into a store without them wanting to buy something … anything. It drives parents crazy. And yet, when kids see their parents go into stores and buy stuff, seemingly with no plan, they learn from them that buying is the name of the game. Shopping with a list lets you demonstrate to your kids that your purchases are planned, that you aren’t simply reacting to the Great Deal or the Fancy Packaging. Shopping with a list demonstrates how to shop consciously.

Keep a long-term list for things you want but don’t need right away. Maybe you’re planning on buying a treadmill so you can work out at home and save the $1,000-a-year gym membership. First you put it on your list. Then you save the money. Then you buy the item.

GAIL’S TIPS

You can use Lists for all your needs. Let’s look at a Clothing List to see how this would work. First, list what you must have in your wardrobe: number of shoes, shirts, suits, jeans, jackets, scarves, belts, purses, coats. Then go through your wardrobe and take inventory of what you already have, marking it off your master Clothing List. What’s left is what you need to complete your wardrobe. That’s your Clothing List and you can’t buy anything that isn’t on that list.

Each season, you can add to your wardrobe by looking at your master Clothing List and figuring out what pieces you need to keep your wardrobe current. if blue is the new hot colour, you may only need to add a couple of pieces in with your existing stuff to have a fresh look. By knowing what you have, and figuring out what you need before you go shopping, you won’t waste money on impulse buys.

Manage Your Planned Spending

You can manage the money you are planning to spend in a couple of ways:

1. You can set up a separate account for each planned spending goal you’ve set and then have the specific amount you’ve designated automatically moved from your regular account to each of your savings goals. This is clean and simple, and since there’s no cost for a savings account, you can have as many as you want as long as you can keep track of all your pots of money. Just make sure you’re aware of when the money’s being moved over so that you don’t end up in