Finance Roll

The concept of what you want versus what you really need can be critically important in your efforts to conserve and save money, and consequently help the status of your family and household budget. This is just one of a number of financial strategies that I'll be rolling out for you that should help you learn how to budget just a little better and help improve your personal finance picture. Good goals for us all!

I'm not sure who helped me learn this difference, between wants versus needs, but it has been important in my efforts to make budgeting work more effectively. For most of my life I've considered things to purchase, whether for my personal use or for the family and household, based on what we've wanted. We want a new barbeque, we want a new car, we want a new television, and so on. This has most often been the criteria we've used to determine where we're putting our financial resources.

Purchases like these end up being "impulse" purchases and really suck up and absorb a lot of the cash we've had available after basic necessities have been handled. When we finally grasped the concept of considering whether we really NEED these items, we've found that we often don't spend that money.

By holding off making purchases of items like these for a few days, or even a few weeks, we would often realize that we didn't really need that barbeque or new car. Very often what we'd been using up until then would continue serving our needs just fine.

You might find if you look around your house and garage you'll see items that you bought when you felt that you needed them, when in reality you really just wanted those things. I know we have a lot of things that we spent precious funds on that we've never used because we didn't really need them. We just liked the idea of owning those items and we fooled ourselves into confusing wants and needs.

We use this idea a lot when we go grocery shopping. We try to shop only using a list that we've prepared at home before we go out. When we're at the supermarket and see or think of something we want (that's the critical word, "want") if it's not on the list we'll jot it down at the bottom and NOT buy it on that trip. Later, at home, we'll have a chance to think about whether we really need that item, and if we do then it goes on the list for next time. If we really don't need it, we just saved a few bucks.

Make sure the item or experience you want to spend your money on is a "need" and not a "want." Sometimes this can seem like a thin and indistinct line, with no substantial definition, but if you stick to the need list, you will spend less. You really DO know whether you need something, or if you just want it. Don't let yourself be fooled, by your fast-talking mind, into buying stuff that you really just want.

I hope these ideas have put you on the right track to considering small things that you can do, which can add up to big amounts, to improve your personal finances and help to protect your precious family financial resources!