To curb impulse buying and help us make more conscious financial decisions, Penelope Tzougros advises us in her book, Wealthy Choices, to ask “What are the benefits of making this purchase?” before we buy something.

These can be anything, such as:

• it will cheer us up
• it will make us look thinner, more attractive, etc to our significant other
• it will teach us something
• it will appreciate over time
• it will help us get a better job
• and so on…

I’m a bibliophile (I tend to read 1-2 books or so each week), so my to-read list is insanely long. A few months ago, I got to the point where I just had to curb it because I was acquiring books at a rate where I just couldn’t keep up.

Now, whenever I see a book I’ve been meaning to pick up, I’m able to rationally consider most purchases by asking myself “what are the benefits of making this purchase?” or in other words “how badly do I want this book? Am I more likely to read this book now than the several dozen books I haven’t read on my shelf? What value will the information in this book give me that others won’t? Will that be worth my time?”

Then I think, “Do I really need to buy this? Can I read it at the book store or borrow it from the library? Can I download a sample chapter online to see if it’s really good enough to buy? If I read it and decide it’s not worth keeping, how much can I sell it for on Amazon.com?” And so forth.

Thinking about my purchases consciously and asking myself value oriented questions has really changed how I purchase things. Before, I wouldn’t think twice about paying $8 or less for a copy of a book I was considering (yard sales, flea markets and 2 for 1 sales were ecstasy for me). Now, I stop and ask myself if this is really going to be a useful purchase. Doing so, I’ve managed to significantly reduce the number of books I purchase.

If you collect anything - cookbooks, gadgets, dvds, music, etc - you probably go through a similar process when evaluating whether to buy something. Try asking yourself “what are the benefits of making this purchase” whenever you get the urge to buy something. It really helps put things in perspective.