Stary Browar is an award-winning shopping, art and business centre in Poznan. It is located exactly on my 10 minutes way I everyday cover on foot, from my car to the office and back.

I love Stary Browar and I love shopping there. Most often I do quite unnecessary shopping. It is good for my pleasure, but not so good for my savings, and if you read my last post about saving money, you know that this idea is very important for me.

Almost everyday I pass near Stary Browar and it is very tempting to come in. And when I decide to come in, it is very likely that I will spend some money on not so necessary stuff. As I don’t want to buy unnecessary stuff five times per week (each time I cover my way to/from office), I had to coupe with this temptation.

Below is my short guide on how to restrain from unnecessary shopping. Try following steps:

Don’t take debit/credit cards and cash when you don’t need it.

This way you will not be able to buy anything. When I go to work, I need only some money for lunch and fruit. I don’t take more cash, so I know I will not spend it or lose it.

Visit shopping mall when you don’t carry any debit/credit cards or cash.

Sounds a little stupid. Connected with the previous one. The idea is to teach yourself that you can walk through the shopping centre/mall or market, watch exhibitions, products and in the end you don’t buy anything.

Visit shopping mall only to buy one necessary item.

You have some money with you and you go to the shopping mall. But you also know what you want to buy and this is something you really need. Buy only what you planned and then keep in mind the feeling connected with not buying anything at all, like I described in previous paragraph.

Allow yourself to buy something unnecessary.

When I started learning to control my shopping urge, I allowed myself to buy not so necessary item once per seven days. I scheduled one day of week for this. With time and practice, I’ve got better and better at controlling my buying temptations and I found myself not buying anything even when I had my inner permission to do so.

Avoid visiting and passing nearby shopping malls.

Simple and effective. But this one doesn’t work for me as Stary Browar is on my optimal route to work.

photo credit: ralphbijker

I was always a big fan of computer fighting games. When I was four, I played on ZX Spectrum games like Saboteur, Conan and especially I loved Yie Ar Kung Fu. Spent many hours on it. On my best friend’s Atari, we played together International Karate and Bruce Lee all the time. My love to martial arts, kung-fu and fighting games remained for a present day, but it is not the subject of today’s post.

Let’s go to the middle of 90’s. I don’t remember the exact date or even year (probably ‘95 or ’96 and I was thirteen), when, on some kind of geek show, I saw a review of Virtua Fighter 2 on Sega Saturn. That was a thing. I was positively stunned and I had to have a Saturn and VF2 on my own.

At this time in Poland, Sega Saturn cost 999zl. What I had in my pockets was something about 50zl, but no more. Of course I didn’t have any sources of income. From time to time, my parents were giving me small change for my outgoings.

I decided to keep saving as much as possible to eventually buy my beloved Sega Saturn. I remember I stuck a piece of paper on the wall near my desk and I wrote how much zlotych I am short to Saturn. Each time I saved few zlotych, I updated my counter. That was really motivating.

The idea of saving was great, but my sega-saturn-fund was growing very slowly. Definitely too slow. Time passed and when I was somewhere in the middle, my urge to Saturn somehow passed away. A brilliant example that it is good idea to wait some time before purchase, especially if it concerns more expensive stuff.

Ok, I didn’t want Sega Saturn, but the idea of saving money was really fun and I kept a goal to gather 1000zl.

Again, it was going very slowly. Without such a reward as Saturn, the second half of my first thousand was going even slower than the first one. But it was OK for me. No need to hurry.

The day has finally come. I had a 1000zl in my locker. So, what now?

Very soon I turned 18 and I was able to open my own bank account. I put my money there and I was very happy. That time the inflation ratio in Poland was really high. Unfortunately I don’t remember the exact number. However, at that moment I didn’t care about that at all. What was important is that on my personal account I had slightly over 10% rate of return. Each month, my 1000zl was giving me a free ticket to the cinema. Great. What was my next thought in my head? I want to save another 1000zl and put it on my account.

…and that is how my saving habit started.

photo credit: trungson

Welcome to Sunday Roundup. This is fifth edition, so there are five links to great posts I have recently read on blogosphere. Enjoy.

Steve Pavlina wrote great post about feeling blessed. He explains how to stop thinking about what you don’t want, how to start thinking about what you really want and finally how to use it to take inspired actions.

Alex Shalman was a guest blogger on JohnChow and presented how you can use 15-minutes rule to make more money online.

David of MoneyNing presents how he started buying his first stocks.

Five Cent Nikel answers a very good question – “why is it so hard to save?”

Last but not least, Alan explains that successful online entrepreneur definitely doesn’t have to be a notorious workaholic. Good for me I’m not a workaholic. What about you?

Have a nice day.

One of my most effective methods to start a new project, habit or any activity is to begin with one, very small and simple step.

I learned this idea from one of my favorite blogger Leo Babauta of Zen Habits. If you have never ever read Zen Habits, I highly encourage you, to do so. This blog covers topics like achieving goals, productivity, being organized, GTD, motivation, simplifying any many others. You can start with Leo’s latest post about simplifying life, where he lists his best articles concerning this subject.

Why one simple step?

• Easy to set and execute
• Engages you and puts you on track toward your goal
• Gives you a momentum for next steps

For me, it is usually enough. This first step is both easy to set and to execute. You can reward yourself right after it. Having finished first step, you are already involved in something new and you have already successfully performed your first task. It is quite motivating, it pushes you further.

Sometimes, we can’t see a clear path to our goal. Very often we hesitate to start, because of that. Our small step is also helpful in such case. Even after very small step, our goal is getting closer to us. Therefore, we would be able to see new directions and possibilities. We can take another small step and another one. Three steps later, we would see and know much more than before the first step. From that point it should be also easier to see the path leading to the goal.

I used it many times. This blog is a perfect example. I was thinking about starting it since January 2008. For over a month I took no action at all. There were always so many things on my head, I was afraid of failure; I didn’t actually know how to start.

Then, one cold day in February, I decided to buy at least a domain with my name. Small, simple step. It triggered me very well. With domain I took also a hosting and then all things got the right momentum.

It is good I took this step and bought the domain and hosting. Otherwise I would probably hesitate quite a long time with starting my blog.

photo credit: Alé

Where can you use this idea?

Be creative, use your mind.

Open a saving account. Then start saving money.
Borrow a book about investing. Start investing on a stock market.
Buy a domain. Launch your own online business.
Register to a new social media. Use it to promote your online business.
Start exercising 5 minutes per day. Subscribe to a fitness club.
Buy a bottle of mineral water. Drink it during a day.
Start writing your post/article with preparing a good headline.
…

As you can see, there are endless possibilities. I’m sure you will be able to fit this idea into achieving any of your goals.