How I Can Control Small Expenses

Personally, it is really easy for me to control my small expenses. At the moment I’m trying my best to save every penny to buy a good quality camera. So, technically you could say at the moment I have enough money to go on a shopping spree. But then I would just be throwing all my money out the window. If I kept doing that I would never have the amount of money to buy a camera. The cameras I’m looking into aren’t just 100 dollars. So every time I earn money I think of it as one step closer to my goal. I always imagine myself buying the camera I want and thinking of how proud I’ll be when I purchase it with my own money. In the past I know that feeling because there has been experiences where I’ve bought something myself and it felt so good.

There of course are times when I’m in a store and I look at something and I consider dropping it in the cart. But then my Mom reminds me, “You’re buying it with your own money”. At that point I pause and think of things like, “Do I really need this?” and “Do I absolutely want this?” Most times I put it back and walk out of the store without anything. I am a big crafter too and craft stores are my weakness at times. Yes, there is things that I have on my list to get and sometimes I go straight to the thing I need and not look at anything else because that will just have me consider buying some other items. Experiences like that are easy for me, especially knowing that you are buying everything with your own money. I remember when I was little I used to want lots of things without knowing the value of a dollar. Of course at that age you never understood the cost of things. All that changes when you earn your own money and actually have to start saving for things.

In general I don’t really put much of my spending into small stuff. Of course there’s some days every once and a while when you see something in the store and you have your heart set on it and you buy it but for me I check the price of things and know if it’s worth it or not. I have small experiences like one time I was in the grocery store and I wanted a muffin. So my Mom said get one muffin. At that point I stopped and looked at the package of four muffins and checked the price. It was actually cheaper to get the package of four muffins instead of getting just one.

Another time I was in a clothing store and I had a gift card. Every time I walk into a clothing store it reminds me of how expensive clothing is! That’s why my Mom is smart and looks for coupons and sales. I don’t really look for coupons that much but I do look for sales in the stores. Anyway, we went to the clearance rack (which isn’t really that bad they sometimes have really nice stuff in that area). I found a really cute top so we went to the cash register. My Mom and I both thought it was going to go over the gift card and I’d have to pay the leftover with my money but it ended up having the top be free! That’s the plus side to purchasing from the clearance rack. In experiences like that I remind myself about the big item I’m saving up for and it helps me not spend as much.