海角大神

Save money with an 'alternative list'

An alternative list is just a list of different options that can fulfill whatever it is we鈥檙e hoping to fulfill in our lives with the purchase we were considering, Hamm writes.

Whenever Sarah and I are considering a major purchase, we agree to wait thirty days before making any kind of move.

I鈥檓 sure that鈥檚 a familiar idea to many of you. I鈥檝e talked about it many times and called it the 鈥渢hirty day rule.鈥� It鈥檚 a brilliant way to keep yourself from spending money on something that鈥檚 a fleeting desire.

What鈥檚 happened over the years is that聽we鈥檝e settled into a very interesting routine聽during that thirty days 鈥� or I have, at least. I build something that I call the 鈥渁lternative list鈥� during those thirty days.

The 鈥渁lternative list鈥� is a pretty simple idea.聽An alternative list is just a list of different options that can fulfill whatever it is we鈥檙e hoping to fulfill in our lives with the purchase we were considering.聽

So, let鈥檚 say Sarah is considering buying a dulcimer. She recently inherited one and is actually teaching herself how to play it at the moment, so it鈥檚 a timely example.聽

The first thing is to聽figure out what鈥檚 actually desired from this purchase.聽鈥淚 want a dulcimer鈥� doesn鈥檛 really suffice for an answer.聽Why聽does she want a dulcimer?

That alone usually provides some significant thought, and if there鈥檚 not a straightforward answer to that question, there鈥檚 no need to purchase the item.

However, let鈥檚 say she wants it so she can play backing music for a musical group she鈥檚 involved with. What are her options?

Well, she could just head to a music store and buy a dulcimer. That鈥檚 straightforward. It will get her a good dulcimer, but it鈥檚 the most expensive option.

She could start hunting on used instrument sites, eBay, and Craigslist for a used dulcimer. That would reduce the price, but it might also alter the quality. However, she intends to use this instrument to learn, so a high-end dulcimer probably isn鈥檛 the most reasonable option here.

She could simply adapt the music she wants to learn to another instrument we already own. You can find several harmonicas, a flute, a keyboard, and an acoustic guitar in our home already. Will any of those work for the musical needs she has? This would eliminate the cost of buying a dulcimer entirely, but it would alter the produced sounds.

One can come up with lots of alternatives along those lines. I usually write these down as they come to me.

In the end,聽an alternative list boils down to a list of questions that compare personal values directly to financial costs.

Is the prestige, aesthetic value, and theoretical quality of a new dulcimer really worth the cost premium when it鈥檚 going to primarily be used for learning?

Is the unique sound of a dulcimer worth the cost of buying any version of a dulcimer?

Questions like those are really hard at first, because they often feel like attacks on the things you want. Over time, though, you begin to see them for what they really are.聽They are tools that dig through your short-term impulses and desires to expose your long-term values.

The 鈥渁lternative list鈥� is just a powerful tool for digging through all of the questionable impulses and ideas you build up in your head. It forces you to step back and look at a potential purchase through the lens of what鈥檚 really important to you and, quite often, it shows you how needless the purchase is.

I go through this process for any purchase costing more than about $40. The聽vast聽majority of the time, I end up never buying anything at all. I consider that a huge victory.