Ten Common Excuses That I Use And Hear Others Use

“I’ve been frugal this week… I deserve X”

“I won’t buy Y, so I’ll buy X”

“X was on sale!”

“Well, you bought Y, so I bought X” – usually directed at a spouse

“X will last several years, so its a good investment”

“We need X” – we should all clarify the definition of need

“We made more money this month, so I can afford X”

“Things are getting better, so I’ll buy X”

“We deserve X, we don’t buy much for ourselves these days”

“We need to take advantage of Y program and buy X now” – replace Y with Cash for Clunkers or your favorite government program

What is X?

X can be anything from a new technology gadget, a new shirt for your kid, a new appliance, a home renovation project, new tools, a new car, a new house, a fancy dinner out, whatever.

Manage Your Excuses

I challenge you to examine the motivation behind such excuses.  Are you attempting to justify your spending behavior?  If you have any debt, you had better be able to justify why you should be allocating precious money towards X rather than paying down your debt.  If you’re out of debt, why are you allocating money toward X instead of retirement, a future down payment, your kid’s college education, etc.?

Be aware of your emotional state or tendency to open up the wallet whenever you go somewhere that you can buy something.  It’s much easier to make excuses when you’re staring at a shiny new gadget.  Decide what you’re going to do prior to leaving the house.