Try a Month’s Moratorium on Big Buys

Last week I shared some ideas on how to limit the day-to-day impulse items--the ones that nickel-and-dime you to pieces. Now let’s look at those bigger-ticket items that sound good on the surface but never quite live up to their promise.

Some months into our simplification program, my husband, Gibbs, and I found ourselves contemplating the purchase of a piece of exercise equipment.

We salivated over this thing for a day or so, and then, just as we were about to plunk down several thousand dollars for it, it dawned on us that only a few years before, we’d gotten rid of a similar piece of gear. We’d used it only half a dozen times.

We decided to set up a system so that we wouldn’t find ourselves in this type of near-miss situation again. We instituted what we called our 30-Day List, which we keep posted on the fridge. Now, if we came across an item we think we want, instead of rushing out and buying it immediately, we put it on the list and wait a month.

If at the end of 30 days we still see the value of acquiring it, we might consider it. Time and again we’ve found, when we review the items on our list, we can’t remember why we thought we wanted them in the first place. This system has been a fail-safe method of keeping the expensive, time-consuming, space-eating clutter out of our lives.

Elaine St. James is the author of “Simplify Your Life” and “Simplify Your Life With Kids.” For questions or comments, write to her in care of Universal Press Syndicate, 4520 Main St., Kansas City, MO 64111, or e-mail her at estjames@silcom.com.