Curb Spending Impulses

As any spendaholic can tell you,impulse buying can wreck the most carefullydesigned budget, while controllingthe urge to buy can help keep your financialboat afloat. One trick is a self-imposedcooling-off period. Resolve towait for a certain period of time beforebuying an impulse item. The moreexpensive the toy, the longer the wait—an item that costs $100 or more may callfor a 24-hour delay or longer. On big-ticketitems like a new car, calculatinghow much you'll pay in finance chargesover the life of the auto loan may dampenyour enthusiasm. For example, theinterest on a $40,000 car will add almost$6000 to the cost over a 4-year, 7% loan,and that figure doesn't include insuranceand maintenance costs.