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Episode 404 – A surprising number of people tend to waste money on things they don’t need. Are you one of them? A few small changes can go a long way in controlling where your money goes. Here are a few tips that could help improve your spending habits.
Hello, this is Bill Rainaldi, with another edition of Security Mutual Life’s SML Planning Minute. In today’s episode: some simple tricks that can help you spend less.
Have you ever bought something online that you really didn’t need? It may take a few days, but at some point, you might just ask yourself, “why did I do that?” It may not be entirely your fault. Internet marketing is designed to foster impulse buys.
That said, saving money is hard, and it’s not just about making more of it. The only way to save money is to spend less than you make. Sounds pretty simple, right? Not quite. Sometimes the hardest habits to break are the ones you don’t even know you have. In the words of Moneytrax Founder Don Blanton, you need to control the money that goes out of your pocket “unknowingly and unnecessarily.”[1]
One big problem is that many people don’t even bother to look at where their money is going. If you’re one of them, you can start by simply keeping a journal of your spending, even if it’s just for a few days. You might be surprised how much goes into small, recurring items like coffee and food delivery. And like monitoring your food intake, the simple act of tracking where your money goes might make you spend less.
In a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, author Julia Carpenter took a hard look at the psychology behind spending and came up with a few other ideas—some might even call them tricks—to help you control your spending.[2]
Carpenter points out that living in a digital world makes spending much more difficult to control. Digital subscriptions like Netflix and Spotify may not seem like much on their own. But when you add a dozen different things, the cost can become significant. It might be worthwhile to audit all of your ongoing subscriptions and cancel the ones you don’t really use or need.
Carpenter’s main point seems to be that one of the keys to controlling your spending is a concept called “friction.” Friction is an obstacle that stands between you and an item you want to buy. The more friction, the less likely you are to make the purchase.
Minimizing friction is how modern technology makes it so easy to spend carelessly. If you want some new, expensive item, it’s just a few clicks away. Previous generations had to drive to the store, go find the item they want, bring it to the cashier, pull out their credit card, and take their new toy home. And sometimes people just never got around to it.
If technology makes it so easy to spend, maybe we can do a few things to make it a little bit harder. A little bit of extra friction can go a long way in helping toward curbing your current spending. Here’s one simple trick Carpenter uses: she never saves her credit card data online. The hope is that little extra bit of required effort might help curb some unnecessary spending.
Another simple suggestion Carpenter makes: when you go online shopping, it’s ok to add whatever you really want to your cart. But force yourself to wait 24 hours before your final checkout. You might just find that you don’t really need all the stuff that you thought was so important yesterday.
And she goes even further than that. How about if, every time you realize that you’re not going to buy something you don’t need, you take that amount of money and move it into your investment account? The long-term results could be significant.
For example, if $100 per month of frivolous spending was instead invested into a brokerage account at a 7% annual return after tax, that investment account would be worth $17,308 in ten (10) years.
Here’s another suggestion: when you go out, leave your credit card out of your wallet, including any digital wallets that you may have. The idea is that if you have to use your debit card, you’ll have to think more carefully about how much you’re spending.
But just be cautious when using a debit card. Credit card purchases often provide more consumer protection than debit card purchases. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, if you’re the victim of credit card fraud, your maximum personal liability is $50, as long as you report the billing error or unauthorized charge in writing within 60 days of the statement date. But with a debit card, your potential liability for fraudulent transactions is almost unlimited.[3] So while it may be a good psychological trick to use a debit card rather than a credit card, it’s something you need to be thoughtful about.
Another idea is to have a daily spending limit. Once you’ve reached your limit, you would need to wait until the next day to buy something else. That might also make you think about whether you really need the item or not. You can even set up spending alerts through your bank or credit card company.
One other suggestion: don’t buy anything online after 10 p.m. It’s a simple idea. As the article suggests, “Nothing good financially happens after 10 p.m.”[4]
And we’ll throw in one last suggestion; one you may have heard before. Don’t go to the supermarket when you’re hungry. It tends to result in a bigger grocery bill.
The moral of this story: Avoiding things you don’t need may have a positive effect on your financial future!
[1] MoneyTrax, Inc. “About MoneyTrax, Inc.” Moneytrax.com. https://www.moneytrax.com/about-moneytrax/ (accessed September 21, 2026).
[2] Carpenter, Julia. “The Simple Mental Tricks That Make Us Better With Money.” The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/savings/brain-hacking-better-with-money-e61514ce?mod=Searchresults&pos=1&page=1 (accessed September 21, 2026).
[3] Cash, Kevin. “Credit Card vs. Debit Card: Which Is Safer Online?” Nerdwallet.com. https://www.nerdwallet.com/credit-cards/learn/credit-card-vs-debit-card-safer-online-purchases
[4] Carpenter, Julia. “The Simple Mental Tricks That Make Us Better With Money.” The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/savings/brain-hacking-better-with-money-e61514ce?mod=Searchresults&pos=1&page=1 (accessed September 21, 2026).
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