Mindless Spending: The Thief Inside Us

There’s a thief robbing us of our money. This sneaky thief has been taking our money for years without us even knowing it. They’re taking one dollar at a time and we’re more than happy to give it to them. This thief knows our every move and takes advantage of our busy lives and tendency to fall into comfortable habits. What I’m talking about is the thief inside all of us, and it’s called mindless spending.

We all have this thief inside of us, and some have it more than others. Some of us are well aware of this thief and have done a great job of avoiding him for the most part. Others are completely unaware and fall victim to him every day.

We All Get Busy

It’s incredibly easy to engage in mindless spending. We all get busy with life—early morning meeting, drop off the kids, the big contract at work, pet gets sick, kids homework, the daily list goes on and on. It’s really easy to get caught up in life’s daily challenges and completely forget about our spending habits. And that’s where the thief named mindless spending takes over.

We develop routines and habits to help us cope with everyday life. Most of those routines and habits really help us because we don’t have to think about them. They help us become more efficient and give our minds a rest between things we actually need to think about. But some of those routines and habits are not so helpful, and that’s where mindless spending rears its ugly head again.

One of the most clichéd subjects in personal finance is the morning coffee. We all know that making our own coffee at home costs pennies while stopping at the coffee shop on the way to work costs us between four and five dollars. So why do we do it?

Related:

Brewing Your Own Coffee: Will It Really Make You a Millionaire? 

Can Packing Your Lunch Make You a Millionaire? 

Mindless Habits

We do it because we did it the day before, the day before that, and the week before that. We also did it the month before that and the year before that. It’s become habit and routine; and even though we inherently know the cost, we kind of stop thinking about it. It’s mindless spending.

Mindless spending of course isn’t limited to the morning coffee. It’s everywhere. Run down to the convenience store at your break to grab a snack, pay for the extra subscription service you never use anymore, grab some takeout on the way home for dinner. Mindless spending is everywhere.

Are we really enjoying the morning snack we got at the convenience store or are we enjoying the break from the daily grind? Or are we knowingly paying a premium for the convenience of not having to bring a snack from home? Could this exact same snack (or any other kind of snack) be purchased in bulk from a less expensive store and brought from home? One of the dangers of mindless spending is that it often comes disguised as something else.

It might be that the morning snack from the convenience store truly is only available at the minimart near your work, and you’re going there specifically for that item. More than likely though, that snack is available in bulk somewhere else for a much less expensive price. The real purpose of the trip is to get a break from work or maybe it’s just out of sheer convenience of not having to pack something at home.

Intentionality

The antidote to mindless spending is intentionality. Intentionality is doing things with a purpose. Being intentional about your health might mean exercising at least five days a week. Being intentional about spending time with your family might mean you put away your computer every afternoon at 5:00. And being intentional with your money means that everything you’re spending your money on is giving you an appropriate return for the amount you’re spending.

As an example, let’s revisit the takeout food addressed earlier in this post. Suppose takeout averages $42 for a family of four. The takeout is giving you convenience and of course, actual food. Compare that to making a meal at home that costs eight dollars and 30 minutes of time on average. To help our comparison, let’s do a side by side comparison using the key metrics of convenience, health, taste, and cost.

In this side by side comparison, takeout usually wins the convenience category and sometimes the taste category. The home cooked meal usually wins the health category and the cost category. The cost category was won by a huge margin as it costs $34 more on average to purchase takeout versus the ingredients for a home cooked meal.

The Metrics

I look at this side by side comparison using the metrics most important to me, and come to the conclusion that the home cooked meal is superior to takeout. The home cooked meal usually wins the categories that are most important to me—health, taste, and cost. Takeout wins the convenience category but that’s probably the fourth most important thing to me versus the other items.

Others may value convenience the highest, which could propel takeout to the meal of choice more often than the home cooked meal. Personal preferences are individualized, and no two people are exactly the same. The important thing is that we all think about the decision and don’t just mindlessly spend on something we don’t value.

Thinking about the decision can also lead to other answers. For example, it doesn’t have to be takeout versus the home cooked meal. A few nights a week could be a frozen dinner that takes less than five minutes to heat up, which offers arguably more convenience than takeout. Or someone can mix and match home cooked meals with takeout and frozen dinners. It never has to be all or nothing.

Progress, Not Perfection

We all have slip-ups. Even the most disciplined person in the world is not perfect 100 percent of the time. And if anyone tells you they’re 100 percent perfect, they’re probably not very self-aware. There’s an expression: “progress, not perfection.”

“Progress, not perfection” is directly in line with a growth mindset. With a growth mindset, there is no expectation of perfection. But there is an expectation of getting better every day, and with every experience. You’re expected to be better this year than last year, and the year before that.

We’re all going to engage in mindless spending now and then. The person who cancels all the subscriptions they don’t use, and makes their own coffee four days out of the five-day workweek on average is making progress. They’ve eliminated the needless subscriptions and have improved in the number of days they make their own coffee. They’re still buying their coffee out one day a week, but that’s because they enjoy the experience as a special treat for the week. Now and then this person runs late and forgets to make their coffee at work, but that doesn’t happen often.

Contrast that to someone who hasn’t gotten around to cancelling the unused subscriptions and who wants to make their own coffee, but runs late most days and forgets. Every Sunday night for the past couple months they have said they’re going to improve this week, but they haven’t taken the steps during the week. The first person is making progress while the second person is making the same mistakes every week.

Conclusion

Mindless spending is a thief of our wealth—how much of a thief depends on the actions we take. If we’re intentional, and put systems in place to avoid mindless spending, it will have minimal impact on us. But if we don’t pay attention to it and put the appropriate systems in place, mindless spending will slowly rob us of our wealth.

Remember, nobody is perfect, and we’re all going to engage in mindless spending now and then. Life happens, and nobody is immune to that. The key is to be aware of this unrelenting thief and minimize its impact on us.

How do you avoid mindless spending?