WalletRehab - Ways to save money

My hero, The Simple Dollar wrote about how he used to be a Spending Addict, just like me. America is a nation of Spending Addicts. Are you one of them? Would you like to join SA, Spenders Anonyomus? Come on. You know you want to kick the habit.
The Simple Dollar wrote:

Every single day, millions of people spend at least $5 on their morning coffee run.

When I worked for the Air Force, every day I would buy donuts. Not just a single dozen, but two dozen. One dozen was earmarked for my office mates, and the other dozen was reserved for the guards who protected the base. At first, I thought it was a nice thing to do. But now I realize, it was a waste of money. If you do something from time to time, that can be seen as a gesture of kindness or respect. However, if you flagrantly waste your wealth like this, some people might see it as showing off, or being flashy. I don’t know if the guards ever did. Probably not, since no one ever really paid attention to them. But boy, did my office mates take notice. I was among the better paid in the office, and by demonstrating time and again that I was willing to waste that money, they paid attention.

The problem is, once you start treating everyone like this, instead of being a nice once in a while thing, it becomes a responsibility, or a duty. It becomes expected, and by stopping, people will ask you what happened. Did you get a pay cut? Do poorly at the casino? Do you not like us anymore?

Every single weekday, millions of people dine out for lunch at a cost of at least $10 a meal.

Honestly, $10 a lunch every day seems a bit much. I make do with a Subway sub. It’s healthy. There’s a variety of different things I can eat AND I can eat it quickly. To have a sit down, Olive Garden style lunch every day seems too much a waste of time and money. Let’s face it. $10 for lunch is steep enough. Add insult to injury when most of us only get one hour for lunch. Between driving to the restaurant and waiting for the waiter to take our order, you are left with little time to enjoy your meal. People forget to respect the value of their time.

Every single week, millions of people buy $100 worth of consumer goods that they don’t need - or even necessarily want. They see ads, or they see their neighbors having something, and they must have it now.

Thankfully, I am not one of these people, but I used to be. I wouldn’t spend $100 each week, but buying a $1000 gadget once every couple of months is pretty much the same thing. I bought a digital camera before I wanted to take pictures because my friends all had them. I spent $100 on running shoes because a friend of mine and me got drunk and promised we’d run a 5k together. Worst of all, I signed up for a terrible Sprint cell phone plan because I happened to like the phone they were giving away. I actually thought to myself, “Sure, I’m paying $80 a month for minutes I probably won’t need, BUT I’ve got this neat $400 phone for free.”

Impulse buying is terrible. For me it was electronics. For a lot of other people, it’s clothes. Or DVDs. Or CDs. Or books.