Frivolous Purchases

Trent at The Simple Dollar has a great post today about how he talks himself out of frivolous purchases. I am always inspired by the different things he is able to do since I haven't been able to put tactics in place to improve my self control. I admit that I often set myself up for frivolous purchases. This past December has been a huge spending month for my husband and I. Some of the purchases were sorely needed (e.g. some sweaters for me to replace the ones that I wore out over the summer). Others were more frivolous purchases that I will use, but that I don't need (e.g. the new suit I bought).

I am planning on doing a tally on how much my husband and I spend on clothes for me in the month of December. Since I don't track our finances that closely, I won't know how that compares with other months, but I'm thinking the amount spent in the month of December is probably similar to the amount spent the rest of the year.

I need to work better at resisting the $2 chocolate chip cookies at Mrs. Fields while I'm out shopping. I need to think, "Do I want a house, or do I want this cookie?" And when I do resist these items, I need to save them elsewhere so the savings don't get frittered away on other items.