this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
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I've found that if I'm "saving" for a purchase, I need something like the adult equivalent of a piggy bank.
Mentally setting aside funds doesn't work.
Creating a "soft partition" doesn't work.
The best thing I can do to save (for a small to medium luxury purchase just for myself) is to literally take that money out of my account in cash and put it somewhere safe in my apartment.
If it's not showing up on my banking app and it's not in my wallet, it's like it doesn't exist. That's the best way for me to save it.
I do the same. It just work!
The heck? Really? Can't you just send it to your savings account?
I mean I could, but it's not as effective. Or rather, it just trades one issue for another.
Basically leaving it in my main spending account means there's no dividing line between what I'm saving for that purchase and the rest of my spending money. Moving it into my savings, with the rest of my savings, means there's no dividing line between what I'm saving for this luxury purchase and what I'm saving to, you know, actually save.
In my lizard brain, if I did it that way, from the first $50 I set aside, there would already be enough for the whole purchase in my savings, so there would immediately be the temptation to just dip into my savings and get the item now.
I don't want to start into the practice of dipping into my savings for luxury purchases anyway, so while yes I could do that, it would simultaneously not solve the issue with just leaving it in my main spending account while also opening up the new can of worms of setting me up for buying luxuries with my savings.