Stop Buying Stuff You Won’t Remember in a Week: If it’s an item or an experience you won’t remember in a few days, you shouldn’t be spending any money on it. If it’s completely forgettable, then any money you spent on it is basically just lost. The only completely forgettable things you should be spending money on are your most basic life needs – basic food, basic clothing, and shelter.
Use Credit Card Statements, Bank Statements, and Receipts to Track These Down: The trick with forgettable purchases like these is that, well, you forget about them. That’s the whole problem – they just fade away. The solution to that problem is to simply dig through your credit card statements and bank statements and receipts every once in a while and look for these kinds of purchases. Look for the places where you spent that money and recognize that those are pretty wasteful places for you to go. You don’t get anything lasting out of your money spent there.
Avoid Convenience Foods: There’s nothing wrong with going out to a restaurant as long as it’s a memorable experience. The problem comes when you go to a restaurant as a pure “time saver” and the food and experience are completely forgotten in a few days. Fast food almost always falls into this category, as do many chain restaurants. The meals are completely forgettable, relatively expensive, unhealthy, and actually don’t save much time, either.
