Savings and the If You Can Wait 7 Seconds Rule

My son who's naturally optimistic and satisfied helped me this weekend when I started to say "I want" with the thought change to "what am I *grateful* for?"

Advertising tempts me to be in the "I want, I want, I want" mode in my brain. Advertising does not succeed by convincing the potential consumer to be satisfied with what he/she already has. It's intended to show us a problem, imaginary or real, that the buying of a product will fix.

And that's one reason I don't use apps like Ibotta to save money. Click here for more great ways to save money on groceries. Some people have great luck with saving a bit using Checkout51 or the like, but for me it put hundreds of images of items in front of my eyes that I wouldn't have thought of nor would have wanted, but now I've thought of and wanted.

I love the quote "If you are not content today, there is nothing you can buy this weekend to change that." Be content. Strive to be content. When you're about to say, I wish or I want, think also of something you *have*, something you *treasure* already.

A friend once said to me, when you want to say a snarky thing, wait 7 seconds. If you can wait the 7 seconds, generally the impulse lessens or entirely disappears. So also with shopping, go ahead, fill your online cart with the things you think will ease the burdens of life.

But insist you sleep on it one if not two nights and see what you can cull from your cart then. So often I cull that cart into oblivion. Here are other ways to save on your monthly bills, including Amazon!