Apr 3, 2009

[Finances] The Little Things to Save Money

A picture of a wallet.Image via Wikipedia

The current financial climate (or you can be more blunt and call it a recession) has all of us thinking about money, whether how to get more of it or how to make the most of the little that we have. It's a natural reaction to leaner times, financially speaking, and it certainly promotes the exploration of new ideas and possibilities.

Since it's a lot harder to get more money, the natural alternative focus is how to save more money or perhaps spend less of it. It's all a matter of perspective, I suppose. Saving money has always been a great topic to write about and something that certain books, websites and blogs tackle on a regular basis. As of late, there have been some rather unusual yet interesting ideas put out there for consideration.


I think my interest certainly got piqued last week when this article came out stating that carrying bigger bills makes you spend less, which certainly was a novel concept. At first it seemed a bit wrong, but then when I really thought about it, I guess it does make sense.

The study behind the article seems to focus on frequency of spending versus total value spent, really. When you have smaller bills, you have a greater tendency of making that purchase decision more often, but admittedly in smaller amounts. With bigger bills, you are able to resist those impulse purchases more, however when you do spend, you end up spending a higher amount compared to the previous scenario. It's certainly something to think about and it helps you really be careful about what you stick into your wallet.

Another article that I just read today provides a more unusual tip - don't touch things to avoid buying them. This theory is a little stranger, but there's still basis. Apparently touching an item generates stronger feelings of ownership and thus it makes it easier for us to buy it.

Somehow it all taps into our imagining ourselves using the product, and that makes a lot of sense to me. As a sales training professional, we always teach potential sales agents about how one of the key buying signs is when the customer is able to visualize or imagine themselves using the product. Once they express sentiments of that nature, the agent should realize he already has the sale and just needs to close things quickly. It's the same principle here - holding an option makes you start thinking about how your life would be if you had this item and started using it.

How about you? What interesting or useful money-saving tips have you come up with (or come across)?


Enhanced by Zemanta

2 comments:

  1. i've always believed touching things made me buy... like those wine glasses...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Remind me to slap your hands away from particularly expensive items, hehe

    ReplyDelete