Just got paid...Friday night…

So payday is categorically awesome, but feeling flush on payday can be a huge trap for making impulse buys (a.k.a. collecting future clutter).

An easy way to stick to your budget and avoid buyer’s remorse is to impose a rule: No Purchases on Pay Day.

If you’ve waited two weeks for that check to hit your account, you can wait one more day to use it. You can admire beautiful and useful things and add them to your Shopping List, and then let that paycheck age like a fine wine in your bank account.

Adding a little bit of time and inconvenience to our impulses allows us to suss out our true needs and wants from our kneejerk, ooh-look-a-shiny-object reactions. We'll have a chance to look at our list objectively post-payday, and likely remove some items.

This rule also gives us the chance to remember the water bill due next week, the baby shower gift we still need to purchase, and the groceries we should probably pick up after the initial dopamine hit of payday wears off, keeping our budget on track. Maybe an item remains on our list, but we delay purchasing it until our obligations are met.

So avoid the stores, age your money, and think about what you can do instead of what you can buy. Experiences, especially when shared, can bring us long-lasting contentment and don't take up any space in our home.