Should I Buy This? How To Spend for Your Ideal Lifestyle

We are all guilty of making impulse purchases. The candy bar at the grocery store checkout, a cute shirt you found while scrolling trough social media, an extended warranty. It’s easy to tell yourself it doesn’t matter and to just go for it, but does it actually matter? Simply put, yes it does matter. If you want to live your ideal lifestyle, every purchase can put you one step closer, or one step farther, from that lifestyle.

What is My Ideal Lifestyle?

This is a great question to ask yourself, and it ultimately boils down to what you want in life. For this, I suggest you start with your values. I won’t go into much detail here. I recommend you read this post that explains values in more detail, as well as helps you make a list of your top three values.

Your values act as your compass to help create the vision of your ideal lifestyle. For example, if you value your family, then your ideal lifestyle would be one that doesn’t keep you from catching the kids’ soccer games and going out for date night with your spouse. If you value travel, then your ideal lifestyle is one that allows you to travel wherever and whenever you want.

How do I Spend for My Ideal Lifestyle?

I like to boil it down to one simple question: “Does this purchase align with my values?” I feel like this question is harsh enough that it doesn’t allow us to trick ourselves. If I asked myself “Do I really need a cookie with lunch?” I could argue that the cookie would be a nice contrast to the sandwich and chips and that a little dessert never hurt anyone. If I ask whether buying the cookie aligns with my values, then I would have an easier time saying no if the cookie doesn’t align with them.

Another way to spin the question is “Does this purchase get me closer to my ideal lifestyle?” Again with the cookie example, I can’t think of a reasonable way that buying a cookie would get you closer to your ideal lifestyle. Well, maybe you buy the cookie to give to a homeless person or have some other humanitarian use for it (in which I applaud your selflessness).

Either way, ask these types of questions whenever you make a purchase, and yes, ‘whenever you make a purchase’ means every time.

Why Should I Spend for My Ideal Lifestyle?

So you think questioning every purchase is a stretch? Believe it or not, impulse purchases, along with other purchases that don’t align with what we value most, occur more often than we think.

A dollar here, two dollars there, and before you know it, you’ve spent more on impulse purchases than you did groceries for the month. It may sound crazy, but the fact is we hardly ever question whether we should or shouldn’t make the purchase. These impulse purchases can really curt our ability to live our ideal lifestyle.

Let’s do a quick example.

Say you go to treat yourself to Starbucks every Friday because hey, you worked hard and you deserve it. Well after you add the extra espresso shot, pump of hazelnut syrup, and substitute for oat milk, your venti iced caramel macchiato costs you a whopping $6!

Now $6 may not seem a like a lot, but carry that out over a year. Assuming you work 50 weeks out of the year, you’re paying $300 for iced caramel macchiatos. (Probably not something you want to mention to the kids when you don’t get them the new Xbox for Christmas because it was “too expensive”!)

Make a Change Starting Now

If anywhere in this post you were like “oh boy, that’s me”, don’t worry. I used to buy stuff that didn’t align with my ideal lifestyle too. But I wrote out my values and then asked “Does this purchase align with my values?” for every purchase I made.

Over the course of a year, I was able to save enough money to spend it on a month-long vacation to Germany. Questioning my purchases got easier and easier as I continued to ask, so here is what I challenge you to do: The next time you go to make a purchase, question it. If the purchase gets you closer to your ideal lifestyle, buy it. If it doesn’t, then don’t.

Happy Spending!

-The Spendgineer