I’m not going to do it.

Yes, I could probably sell these at a profit, but not much of one. (The market for comics isn’t near what most people believe. These are in okay shape, but they’d really need to be in excellent shape to be collectible.)

The temptation rests heavy on my heart, though.

I can’t thank you enough for this blog, by the way. It’s the only thing that really inspired me to get my (previously terrible) financial situation together. Everything else I’ve ever read about finance seems to be written for People Who Have a Lot More Money Than Me and already know all the jargon. You don’t make my eyes glaze over! I’m actually excited about scrimping and saving. It’s truly miraculous.

1. Like others have said, make a list and stick to it.

2. Estimate how much it will cost to buy the things on your list (looking at old recent receipts helps)

3. Round up the estimate by 5-10% and then take that amount in CASH into the store. Leave credit card at home and your debit card locked up in the car. Bring a note pad and pencil with you to keep track of the costs of items.

4. Use a hand basket instead of a shopping cart (if you can). The hand baskets actually hold a surprising amount of stuff (although you may have to carefullly pack things in there), but their size limits the amount of surplus items you can get and lugging that weight around will not encourage lingering in the store.

5. Keep a tally of the cost of the items in the basket. I will allow myself to go back to the car and get the debit card for two reasons:
a. the total cost of the items on the list is higher than you estimated (AND everything on the list is essential) and
b. you realize there are things you NEED that you forgot to put on the list

There’s a lot of impulse stuff that’s easy to ignore. The more difficult stuff for me is finding out that useful items are on sale and having to go through mental exercises to justify getting it or not. (Examples, a new drill or socks.) I make myself answer this question, “does the item I have still work? Is this something I would throw in the trash if I got a replacement? Do I have a need for this item right now or is it just something that might be handy in the future?” Each person has to answer those questions in their own way.

We had a yard, er, kitchen sale (moved inside due to pouring rain) this morning, and by noon we had sold most of the high value items (books, CDs, DVDs, and yarn. Yes, yarn.)

For a brief time, I was very tempted to take a wad of the earnings and say, hey, let’s go out and get sushi! But then I realized the cash stuffed into the plastic container will pay:

1. 80% of the cost of the plane ticket ticket for my bro (he’s flying out from Philly to help us move)

OR

2. 37% of the fee for having Real Moving Professionals schlep our stuff from Town A to Town B.

OR

3. 15% of the plane ticket for my mother in law (who lives in Bolivia) to visit us.

So the cash will sit in the little plastic container until I can take it to the bank on Monday and we had a green salad for dinner. We did splurge on a bottle of San Pelligrino, though. $1.99.

However, we (the Mrs and I) did come up with a slight variation that we occasionally use. We allocate some small amount (10 bucks each) for impulse buys. Then, the most damage we can do is 20 bucks, and we can budget for that as part of the shopping trip.

That’s always a nice image to have in the back of your mind when faced with financial temptation. Good choice.

I’m just trying to get on the Mac bandwagon, so I keep a Mac Mini in the back of my mind…

The problem, as I see it, with stores like this is that they get you on impulse buying. They tempt you every time you turn around, and it’s almost impossible to enter without coming home with something that wasn’t on your list.

The ironic thing is that we go to Wal-Mart to “save money” by buying stuff cheaper than we could somewhere else. In the end, we come home with a larger bill than we would have spent at a different store, but more stuff than we planned to buy.

Any thoughts on this dilemma?