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Laurie at Crazy Aunt Purl has resolved not to buy anything non-essential for the first three months of the year. In a recent post, she talked of ways she was changing her shopping habits to accomplish this and dozens of readers chimed in with Amens and tips on how they had learned to turn off the buying machine.

Laurie’s post and other recent articles on consumerism got me thinking about my own shopping and spending habits and how they’ve changed since we moved to Belgium. In the U.S., I considered myself the master of the good deal. I was the coupon-clipping, circular-reading, sales-tracking goddess. I was an expert on the local retail landscape—from what was available to pricing structures to promotions. I prided myself on always getting the best stuff at the best price.

But the truth is that in the process of nailing the best deals, I made a lot of impulse buys too. We all know what it’s like to step into a store to buy toilet paper, shampoo, and toothpaste and step out with a cart full of other stuff.

Moving to the Brussels area changed all that. I very rarely go shopping. I didn’t visit the local mall until I’d been here more than a year, and I don’t frequent the smaller shops much either. To start with, everything is much more expensive here and there’s a 20 percent sales tax. Major sales are only held twice a year, in January and July. Things are not marked down in between. I never realized how much of my motivation to buy things was linked to sales, promotions, and price until I moved here.

I’m not familiar with many of the store chains and brand names so I don’t know where to find my “look” or price range, and the different sizing system adds to my confusion. For most of the time I’ve been here, I haven’t had a car at my disposal. Not only does that make getting to the stores more of an ordeal, but it also means getting things home from the stores is awkward.

With all those circumstances working against me (or for me), I’ve moved to online shopping, focusing on a few major retailers that will ship to U.S. military addresses overseas charging regular shipping, not international shipping charges. Without a lot of players in my retail field, I spend far less time trying to score a deal and just find what I need and check out. Less time shopping means less stuff makes it into the house.

It’s true that without access to Target, Wal-Mart, and the sales-happy American retail landscape, I usually pay more for clothes and shoes now, but I buy a lot less than I used to. I’m not as easily seduced by peripherals. True, when I do shop in Belgium, I have a weakness for handbags, pottery, and local art, but I have my limits. While Laurie at Crazy Aunt Purl has to rein in her yarn purchases, I have to resist stockpiling rubber stamping and paper craft supplies, but truthfully, I enjoy my stamps so much that I don't entertain much guilt over my purchases.

The big thing for Laurie and a lot of people is realizing the cumulative savings of reducing the purchase of the “little things” that easily get rung up without a second thought. Magazines, a daily cup of coffee, snack foods, meals on the run, DVDs, gadgets, cosmetics, lotions, and whimsical items that catch our eye at the checkout. Some people insist on getting rid of something every time something new comes into the house. Others use budgeting tools like spreadsheets and shopping lists to monitor spending. Laurie’s hope is that by changing her shopping strategy, eliminating non-essential purchases, avoiding stores, and sticking to shopping lists, she’ll be able to save enough money to eliminate the debt that’s been following her since her divorce.

Do any of you have tips and success stories to share? What’s your shopping weakness and your strength? Do you monitor your spending in an organized way? Where do you economize and where do you splurge?

January 10, 2007