Reduce Your Expenses By Avoiding Temptation
By glblguy
I was reflecting last night on how our lives have changed since we decided to get our finances under control. We strictly follow a budget, put as much money as we an towards paying off our debt and slashed our expenses. One thing in particular that I have done is to avoid temptation.
I intentionally avoid going to stores where I tend to spend money. Places like Best Buy, Circuit City, HHGregg, car dealerships, Auto Zone, etc. are all places where I am surrounded by temptation. It is extremely difficult for me to visit a place like this and not walk out with something.
We love RV camping. We’ve been camping for about 12 years, and recently sold both our camper and the heavy duty truck that pulled it. We really miss RV camping, but decided to sacrifice in the short term while we paid off our debt. When we had our RV, I loved going to the local RV store to see the new RVs, gadgets and gizmos. I wouldn’t go in just to pick up something I needed, but I would go in to browse (read: look for something I could blow my money on). But no more. I occasionally have to drive by the lot on my way home and can’t help peeking over, but I keep on driving. The logic being: if I don’t go in I can’t buy anything.
The same applies for unnecessary food and drinks, places like Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Panera Bread. I try to avoid going by them so I am not tempted to splurge. It’s getting a bit hard to do with Starbucks though, as it seems like there is one on every corner anymore and with it being so hot here, their Strawberry’s and Cream Frappuccino sure is refreshing…but at $4 bucks or so they are just entirely too expensive.
When you think of temptation as it pertains to the bible, what comes to mind? Temptation can come in many forms and includes spending money. In today’s society we are constantly barraged with marketing. Marketing is all around us on signs, we see it on TV, hear it on the radio, on websites, see it out our clothing in the form of tags and labels, it’s everywhere. Marketers are constantly coming up with new ways to expose us to their products and of course tempt us.
Walking through the grocery store the other day, an ad actually started talking to me! It had a motion detector and started playing a recording for a product when I walked by. If you’ve seen Minority Report you know where this is all heading. The technology to do this is here, it’s just a matter of time until the cost comes down.
How do we avoid temptation when we are surrounded by it and when marketers are constantly using it to convince us to buy things we probably don’t need? Let’s see what the Bible has to say:
- Satan wants to devour us with temptation – 1 Peter 5:8 – “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.“
- Satan even tempted Jesus – Matthew 4
- God will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear – 1 Corinthians 10:13 – “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”
- God wants us to overcome temptation! – 1 Peter 1:3 -8 – “…though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
- God will help you – Psalm 34: 17 – “The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.“
Temptation involves a choice. Rage war on your temptation and avoid those places that cause you to spend your hard earned money. You will be amazed at how much money you save by doing this. I challenge you to take a look at your expenses over the past 30-60 days, and find expenses that could have been avoided and make the conscience decision to avoid those places in the future.
When you struggle, remember there is hope:
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” – 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
August 28th, 2007 at 10:30 am
Tarrrrrrrgeeeeeeet
Target is still calling to me lol.
Nice post :)
August 28th, 2007 at 11:05 am
SuperTarget is one of those places.
But now I’m very good at being able to go in and get the groceries we need without adding all kinds of other cute (but unneeded) stuff to my cart. But I still catch myself stopping, looking at *misc. cute thing* but then after having a brain debate with myself I put it back on the shelf. I have to constantly remind myself of our goal.
(that hand picture is wayyy creepy…caught my attention though!)
August 28th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Very sound logic. I always try to stay away from malls and stores too. They are the worst places for your wallet. Don’t forget online shopping, they can have similar effect.
August 28th, 2007 at 11:41 am
@paidtwice – I think you should start a Target Addicts Anonymous :-)
@Erin – I do the same thing. I’ve even put stuff in the cart, taken it out, put it back again…Much better now, but it took a while. Glad the picture worked, getting your attention was the whole intent :-)
@Pinyo – yep, guilty of the online thing too. It’s way to easy as well. I used to have all of these bargain/deal RSS feeds in my RSS Reader. I removed all of them…just way to tempting. Decided if I really needed something I could go look for a deal.
I received a few emails on this subject, basically saying its lack of willpower. While I agree with that, the bottom line is you have thousands of highly trained marketing people working against you, and they’re good at what they do.
August 28th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
My wife and mother do nothing but shop when they get together. It’s like there is nothing else that exists on earth but shopping.
Otherwise my wife does pretty well at not spending a lot. Her big addiction now is Ebay.
August 28th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Oh, forgot to mention, that picture is awesome.
August 28th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
Well, I am blessed. My wife is not a big shopper and neither I am, I just have those few places that have the new shiny high tech gadgets that get me.
re: the picture, thanks!
August 29th, 2007 at 4:27 am
I agree. I try to take my kids out to parks rather than shopping malls, because it would just result in an unnecessary tantrum when I have to say no.I actually like shopping myself . Bought 3 pairs of shoes once to replace one pair. So don’t want to depend on my willpower. I prefer the pay yourself first method ie when the money comes in, I select a stock that’s decently priced at that time and just buy it first. Then I can’t spend the money cos it’s already gone ! Then live on what’s left. Beats budgeting. You’ll find you can actually live on less than you thought without too much pain ! ( Though with a recent correction, I got carried away and we had a few nervous days waiting for the next paycheck to come in !)
August 29th, 2007 at 7:18 am
Hi Karen. I’m with you, don’t like to rely on my willpower either. Good suggestions on paying yourself first. We do this with our credit card debt. We’ve done the same thing with your getting carried away comment…paid a little too much :-)
August 30th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
Great advice. I always say if you don’t want to slip (financially) avoid slippery places.
August 30th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Great way to think about it Kyle. Thanks for the comment!
June 23rd, 2008 at 6:33 am
I think that the art of learning self control is crictical and as a christian I totally share your views about temptation and how to deal with it. This can sometimes be so hard to do because of the consumer society that we live in which drives towards spending, rather than thinking before we spend.
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