These easy strategies actually save you money—and offer insight into your financial unconscious.
Merge Your Accounts
Most of us have at least four accounts (savings, checking, a joint account, and PayPal, for instance). Researchers at the University of Utah found that when funds flowed in and out of just one place, the study’s spenders found it easier keep track of their bottom-line net worth. The result: They spent 10 percent less of their money.
Drink Up
Your money-saving strategy for the mall is to chug down at least five cups of water, wait for 45 minutes (while browsing) and then hold it in. When subjects in experiments at the Netherlands’ University of Twente did exactly that, they made significantly better monetary decisions. The explanation: The effort involved in holding in it has an “inhibitory spillover effect”—a boost in overall self-control, concluded the study’s researchers. (Who knew Kegels have so many benefits?)
Choose Your Highest Heels
You’re shopping for a printer, and there are three options: the no-name cheapo, the midpriced workhorse and the bells-and-whistles Bentley. Normally, you’d splurge, but not when you shop in high-heeled shoes. A study at Brigham Young University found that when shoppers have to make an effort to maintain their balance, they usually go the midpriced item. It’s a “crossover effect”: The physical act (the effort to stay steady) influences mindset (attraction to the middle). Ergo, when shopping in Louboutins, one might not buy Louboutins.
Shop With Your Mind Full
Research has shown that the more relaxed (physically and mentally) shoppers feel, the more willing they are to spend on products (for instance, a digital camera). When we feel chilled out, our brains don’t perceive threats. This lets us think more abstractly, which is inspiring (“I’ll use it to record memories!”), but it also leads us to overestimate a product’s value and overspend. When shoppers were in a pleasant-but-not-so-serene state (the somewhat preoccupied mode we’re in after work or when ticking items off a to-do list), they had a realistic sense of what things were worth. The difference: They’d spend 15 percent less on a given item.
Convert the Cost Into Ramens
We love this tactic described by finance blogger Emily Guy Birken at MoneyNing.com. Keep your spending in line with your budget by converting the cost of an item into units you know well. In Birken’s example, this was Ramen noodles, which cost $.25 per packet. While a shirt that’s on sale for $50 might seem like a bargain in its context, it costs 200 Ramens—a price that might make a dedicated noodle-eater think twice. Make up your own (personally meaningful) unit of currency—Hot Dogs, Rieslings, Interest Payments, anything—and divide the cost of an item by it. One jacket or one month’s interest payment? Still a good deal?
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