Back in my uni days a friend of mine told me about the 3 month rule. While it sounds like some sort of bad relationship advice it was actually about his frivolous purchases. Essentially it works like this, if he feels like wants to buy an item that he can go without he simply waits 3 months and if he still wants it then he buys it.
What the? Isn’t that simply just delaying spending money on crap that you don’t need? This made no sense at all, I required further explanation.
So as my friend explained it doesn’t just delay purchases it stops a lot of the useless ones. In the short run we develop a desire to buy things that we might think we want but in a couple of months once it’s new shine is lost we never use them again. So if you wait 3 months for something and you still really want it, then you probably really want it and you might actually make use of it for a long time.
On a side note waiting and anticipation is part of what makes things like holidays great. Booking in that annual leave months in advance, all the planning and research you conduct for your destination, perhaps even learning how to say a few words in the foreign language all add to the greatness of the experience. I believe such things lose that special feel if you can do them whenever you want.
Back on the 3 month rule, I did decided to give it a go. I wrote out a list of all the things I wanted to buy at the time, put the list away and simply waited 3 months. At the end of the time I had a look at the list again and didn’t feel the slightest urge to buy the majority of those things I thought I wanted. Awesome.
The best part about this was that I felt that even for the items that I still wanted I didn’t feel the need to buy them right there and then, I had the self-control to wait again for a time when I could find those items on sale. Further to this improving my own self-discipline and ultimately teaching myself that my life was indeed no better with those items gave me a since of fulfillment that no amount of consumption could provide. So fast forward a decade or so and I still practice this rule, although it’s not really a rule any more, it’s more like a habit that takes zero effort.
There you have it, the 3 month rule, give it a go and let me know your results!
Engineer your freedom