Mother buys house, car thanks to shopping addiction

Saving money as soon as she has a small amount of money, focusing on large investments... is the way to help Ms. Linh Bui buy a house, buy a car, and quit her habit of excessive shopping.

The following is shared by Linh Bui, a 38-year-old mother of one, a sales manager at an IT company in Hai Ba Trung, Hanoi, about ways to help her "cure" her indiscriminate shopping and learn to spend more wisely.

I am a compulsive shopper, buying whatever I can afford without thinking. Anyone who has met me through online sewing forums knows that I have a half-ton house of fabric, 10 sewing machines (all sold when I bought a house)...

My baking and cooking supplies almost always go bad because they are too much, the food that fills up my fridge sometimes gets thrown away because it is past its expiration date. I often mistake one dress for two (order one that hasn't arrived, order another and forget). Over the past two years, I have found that my shopping addiction has improved significantly by applying the following tips:

When you get paid, cut down on essential expenses immediately.

Before, whenever I got my salary, I would spend it. At the end of the month, I would feel sorry and not remember what I spent. But the next month, it was the same.

Since I decided to get my spending in order, after receiving my salary, I immediately cut down on the amount of money I needed for my monthly expenses. Of the remaining money, I would balance how much percentage I could save and the rest I would spend.

In general, I know my problem is that when I see money in my account, I still spend and buy things, so I force myself to reduce the amount of money in my wallet and account. I have tried this method for about a year now, and I see that I save quite a lot each month.

Ms. Linh Bui believes that the most important thing to master money is to have financial goals, from which you will have motivation and find effective ways to save. Photo: NVCC.

Buy luxury goods

It sounds paradoxical, but for me, saving money to buy good things instead of choosing cheap things is a way to save money.With cheap items, we can easily buy them right away. With expensive items, we often have to consider longer and after 1-2 days, the "buying frenzy" can cool down.

Before, I used to buy bags for around 200,000-300,000 VND/bag, sometimes buying 5-7 bags at once. Now I switch to using branded bags, only buying 1-2. These items are durable and when you don't like them, you can easily resell them and still get a good price. Selling off everything you don't need is also a way to save money.

Save as soon as you have some money saved.

Before, I thought that I had to save a large sum to make it worth saving. But I usually spent every penny I had, so I thought of the option of keeping the money. Whenever I had 10-20 million, I would immediately save it, choosing the bank with the highest interest rate and choosing a 13-month term. This was an effective way to avoid withdrawing it early for fear of losing the interest. After saving each book, I would ask my mother to keep it for me and she would only give it back to me when the book matured.Thanks to this method, in two years, I have collected 250 million with a total of 5-6 odd books.

Review your savings results to stay motivated.

When I go to my mother's house, I sometimes sit and look at the savings book. I know some women, every time their salary comes, they spend money to buy 1-2 taels of gold, then every now and then take the gold out to count and look at it, the spirit of saving rises up and burns. I also know some women who sometimes take out their red book to look at to get motivation to save and invest.

Track monthly spending

Just one month of diligently recording your expenses will bring surprising results. For example, you will realize why you spent 4 million on shopping this month. I allow myself to spend only 2 million on shopping each month, but when I reach this threshold, I will be warned and stop immediately.

Focus on the big stuff​

I will be getting my house in the middle of this year. Once I have signed the contract to buy a house, things like shoes and clothes become trivial. If you want to reduce your spending, use the money for bigger things like buying a house, a car, and necessary household appliances.

Limit the use of credit cards

I have cut up my visa card to reduce spending on cards, swiping indiscriminately. Credit card interest is extremely high, around 20-35%/year, several times higher than savings interest.

However, if you know how to use it wisely, in some emergency situations, a credit card can be a "lifesaver". For example, there was a time when I was short of money because I spent all my money on paying my rent in installments, so I used my credit card to pay for basic expenses such as going to the supermarket, paying for my children's school fees... Usually, this card has a 45-day interest-free period, so I calculated the payment schedule on each card to pay off the debt early.

After about 6 months of applying the above saving methods, I no longer have empty pockets or spend recklessly like before. I also do not need to sit down and record every small daily expense like before, but only need to save valuable expenses such as children's tuition fees for the whole year, house rent, car change fees...

I still keep the habit of saving 5-10 million to put in savings. My daughter is also much more conscious of saving when she sees her mother saving small amounts of money to make a large amount to pay for the house.

According to VNE