3 Ways to Treat Yourself Without Overspending

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You work hard for your money. Keep reading for ways to ensure that a fun purchase is still a wise one. 

Money is a useful tool, and it can improve your life in a variety of ways. Some of these are practical — you can invest for your retirement, buy yourself a home, or save money for a rainy day. But if all you do is work, save, and pay your bills, you’re not really having any fun with your money.

Treating yourself is important! To quote Thando and Lindie from Skilled Finances, “Treating yourself should still be a priority even when on a tight budget. Treats, whether big or small, can help with feeling like you don’t work to only pay bills, improve your relationship with money, and help with your overall well-being.”

The good news is that there are steps you can take to ensure your next “frivolous” purchase doesn’t break the bank, even if it’s a costly one. Here’s how.

1. Sleep on the purchase

I’ve shelled out money on larger buys a few times recently. I replaced my very-old-but-still-sort-of-functional washing machine with a new energy-efficient and water-saving model. And I upgraded an older Apple iPad that I use for both fun and work purposes. Deciding to buy each of these items (at a cost of about $1,700 total) was not a snap decision.

Instead, I thought about how I was going to pay for them, whether it made sense to purchase them, and how doing so would improve my life. It’s one thing to spend $50 or $100 on a whim (if you can afford to, that is) — but I’m not willing to spend more than that without thinking about it more deeply and evaluating the impact on my personal finances.

2. Shop around

Once you’ve really thought about a big purchase, now it’s time to figure out the particulars, including where you’ll buy the item and how much you’re going to pay for it. That’s right, it’s time to shop around! Looking at prices from different retailers is an excellent way to save money on a purchase of any kind.

I decided to buy my washing machine from big-box hardware store Lowe’s, because it had a good price on the model I wanted and would deliver my new washer and haul away the old. Plus, there’s a store location in my city, so I could look at washers in person before buying. And I looked at iPad prices online at Apple, Amazon, and Best Buy before settling on Best Buy, both for price and because of payment method (more on that below).

In addition to looking for sales and deals, if you like to use cash back apps, it’s also worth checking to see if you can earn money back by purchasing your item from a specific retailer. You might need to activate an offer or scan your receipt after the purchase.

3. Use the right payment method

Finally, once you’ve decided what to buy and where to buy it, you can make it an even better purchase by carefully weighing your payment options. Sure, you could use your debit card, but you’d be missing out on purchase protections and the chance to earn rewards or other perks. And if you’re shopping online, I definitely don’t recommend using debit anyway.

In the case of both the washing machine and the iPad, I opted to use retailer-specific credit cards that gave me a period of 0% APR to pay off my purchases, rather than those that offered points or cash back. Why? Well, I have many opportunities to earn rewards and cash back on my regular spending, but fewer ones to get 0% APR. And since I used retailer-specific credit cards, I also got to keep those credit card accounts active.

If you go a long time without using a credit card, you may find that the issuer closes your account, which can cause a credit score hit. A credit card account closure can impact your average length of credit history, as well as increase your credit utilization ratio, as you’ll have less available credit. So I like to use my store cards for the occasional big purchase, as these ones usually offer 0% APR and I can keep my credit score up. Store credit cards aren’t always the best ones out there, incidentally, but I get enough use out of these two (and neither of them has an annual fee) to make them a valuable part of my credit card collection.

Your mileage may vary. If you’re planning a vacation, for example, and making a big purchase with your favorite travel rewards credit card will earn you points toward a free flight, use that card. The point is to evaluate all your payment options and go with the one that makes the most sense for your budget and finances.

It’s absolutely fine to spend your money in ways that improve your life and let you have more fun. But make the above moves to ensure you don’t spend more than necessary in the process.

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The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon.com, Apple, and Best Buy. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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